"Unchained" is a song from Van Halen's fourth album, Fair Warning. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen wrote the main riff at 4:00 in the morning with engineer Donn Landee while they were doing some overdubbing on the album. The song features prominent use of the MXR M-117 flanger, which became a popular sound. A preset for the flanger setting was included on the EVH Flanger MXR. It uses a drop-C♯ tuning with suspended fourth chords interspersed. The song is also notable for being producer Ted Templeman's only vocal contribution to the band when he says "Come on, Dave, gimme a break!" during the interlude of the song. One theory is that he thought David Lee Roth was getting too obnoxious and he jumped in. The band liked the way it sounded and kept it in the song. However, Van Halen News Desk suggests that, as with many other apparently improvised lines involving David Lee Roth, Templeman`s line was in fact rehearsed.
The song was a live concert staple with David Lee Roth following its release. During the first Sammy Hagar era, the song was only played on Van Halen's 1993 "Right Here, Right Now" tour. It later made a comeback as the usual opener for the 1998 Van Halen III tour and was also played nightly on the 2004 tour with Hagar. It was also part of the setlist for the 2007 tour with Roth and Wolfgang Van Halen. Wolfgang told David to "give him a break" during the break on this tour. The song was also used as an opener on the 2012 "A Different Kind of Truth" tour.
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