Montrose  by Montrose

In 1973, the young guitarist from San Francisco, California, Ronnie Montrose, would form a hard rock band with three others. He would name them after his last name Montrose and they would prepare their first album titled Montrose. The vocals were handled by another unknown young man who went by the name Sammy Hagar (later the lead singer of Van Halen), who also participated in the composition of some songs.

The eight songs on the album are characteristic American-style hard rock compositions, songs meant to be heard on the radio and loudly in the car, driving endless miles on U.S. roads. The production was by Ted Templeman, who would later collaborate with Van Halen, as well as with Sammy Hagar on his personal albums. The first three songs were released as singles from the album. Among them was Space Station #5, which was covered in 1992 by Iron Maiden and found as a B-side to their own single Be Quick Or Be Dead (!)

Montrose was released in late 1973, and the truth is it probably went unnoticed, considering it reached only No. 133 on the Billboard chart. The paradoxical aspect of this album is that over the years, it has become platinum in the U.S., meaning it has surpassed 1,000,000 in sales.