Van Halen certainly had bigger hits than Hot for Teacher, and recorded other songs that proved far more influential in the development of the electric guitar.
Hot for Teacher's music video, though, is perhaps the band's most iconic, and remains one of the most famous of its era.
Its influence and stature were put into stark relief earlier this year when the Kramer guitar that Eddie Van Halen used in the video was sold for an eye-watering $3,932,000, making it one of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.
It's not unreasonable to assume that that sale played a large role in why a number of other pieces of memorabilia from the Hot for Teacher video – including the small-scale Frankenstrat used by the video's young Eddie Van Halen look-alike – recently ended up on the popular reality TV show, Pawn Stars.
In a clip uploaded earlier this week (June 19) to the show's YouTube channel, the prospective seller – identified only as Brian – tells shop proprietor Corey Harrison that he bought the guitar and associated memorabilia from a “well-known auction house.“ With that in mind, it seems likely that Brian was the buyer when the guitar – which features Van Halen's autograph – was sold for $50,000 by Julien's Auctions in December 2020.
Along with the guitar, Brian offers up the full outfit Young Eddie (played by Bryan Hitchcock) wore in the video, including his "No Bozos" graphic T-shirt. For the full collection, he asks Harrison for $100,000.
Faced with such a lofty price tag, Harrison is compelled to phone up rock memorabilia expert Warwick Stone for a valuation. Somewhat surprisingly, Stone puts the price tag of the collection at $30,000. With the massive gulf between Brian and Harrison's respective price points, the two are subsequently unable to come to a deal.
Given the aforementioned $3.9 million Kramer from the video, it's certainly not the most unreasonable ask we've seen from a Pawn Stars seller. Indeed, we wouldn't be surprised to see this mini-guitar hit the auction block once again in the near future...
This is also far from the first time Pawn Stars has dealt with a notable guitar.
Back in 2012, Mary Ford's personal 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG appeared on the show, where it subsequently sold for $90,000.
If that sounds weirdly familiar to you, that same SG was – just this month – tracked down by Gibson on Facebook Marketplace.
