Happy Birthday, Wolfgang Van Halen: How Eddie Van Halen Celebrated His Birth With a Song

Wolfgang Van Halen, recently seen on the Oscars telecast jamming on "I'm Just Ken" alongside Ryan Reynolds and Slash, turns 33 today (March 16).

The birth of Wolfgang, who also played on the Barbie movie soundtrack at the request of producer/composer Mark Ronson, was celebrated in song by his father, the late Eddie Van Halen in an instrumental track titled "316" that appeared on the 1991 Van Halen album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Wolf was born to Eddie and his then-wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli on March 16, 1991, three months before the release of Van Halen's ninth studio album, but the instrumental track was composed years earlier.

As clips on YouTube reveal, Eddie used the then-unnamed instrumental track as a preample to his iconic "Eruption" guitar solo in concert as early as August 1986 and it was reportedly originally composed for inclusion on 1986's "5150" but it didn't make the cut.

However, when Bertinelli was pregnant, Eddie began to dedicate the musical passage to his forthcoming child. In a Facebook post to commemorate Wolfgang's 25th birthday, Bertinelli shared a photo captioned, "Ed playing 316 on my growing tummy, before he knew he would call it 316." In the photo, Bertinelli is laying on her back while Eddie strums an acoustic guitar as both smile.

When "316" finally made it onto an album it was tucked away as the second-to-last song on For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge between the album rock hits "Right Now" and "Top of the World."

That latter title was fitting because the album featuring those songs topped the Billboard 200 chart, becoming Van Halen's third consecutive No. 1 album, following "5150" and "OU812."

As for the album's unusual title, Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar explained its origin in an interview for The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. "That's when censorship was a big issue. I wanted to name the album just F---. I thought, 'How are they going to stop us? We're one of the biggest bands in the world. We are worth all this money to all these people. If the big chains aren't going to carry it, the mom-and-pop stores will.' I wanted to be rebellious. I guess I was a couple years younger then, but I wanted to push the censorship issue, because I thought it was bullsh--. People were blaming rock bands for all the violence in the world."

Yet Hagar's original plan was a little too radical. As a compromise, he turned to his friend, boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, who told him "f---" was actually an acronym for "For unlawful carnal knowledge." Said Hagar, "I thought that was great, we will enlighten our fans. We thought it was pretty intellectual for Van Halen."