Spanish Fly (song)

Spanish Fly is an instrumental solo played on a nylon string acoustic guitar by Eddie Van Halen. It was featured on his band Van Halen's 1979 album Van Halen II. The song was viewed by many as a follow up to the famous electric guitar based instrumental Eruption from the band's first album Van Halen released in 1978.

There are two explanations for the writing and inclusion on the album of Spanish Fly. One is the band's producer Ted Templeman heard Eddie playing a similar sound piece on an acoustic guitar at a party and suggested it be included on the new record. This story is similar to the inclusion of Eruption on the first album. The second, more likely explanation is that the song was included as a response to people suggesting Eddie was a good rock guitarist, but that he probably couldn't go beyond this.

The track is played in one take with a pick, rather than fingerstyle. It expands on many of the techniques used in Eruption such as tremolo picking and finger tapping. It is believed by many guitar players to be a more difficult piece than Eruption. Guitarist Steve Vai has been known to say Spanish Fly is his favourite Van Halen song.