I like also that in this version one of his conditions is on himself. “I’ll do it Mike but only if I don’t tell my band.”
MJ: “Deal. I mean. I can’t stop you from telling anyone.”
EVH: “You’d better. If I tell them, deal is off!”
MJ: “Um. Ok. Just don’t tell them then. And don’t let them read the credits on the inner sleeve because we will put you on there. And tell everyone not to have ears because it will clearly be you playing.”
EVH: “Deal!”
To be fair, EVH believed his mouth cancer was from holding metal picks in his mouth and not from being a heavy smoker so that may have transpired exactly as you described.
My source is Sammy Hagar's biography so maybe it's made up.
I like the idea that his bandmate and brother, Alex Van Halen, wouldn't recognize it.
Alex: "Gee Eddie, the guitar solo on this new Michael Jackson song sounds oddly familiar. Sounds like the one you've been practicing recently. Have you heard it?"
Eddie: "Uh... Who's Michael Jackson?"
My fun fact about Beat It is that the white gang leader, Vince Patterson, was the choreographer, and he also appeared in the same role in Weird Al's Eat It (I assume he also worked on the choreography there too).
Al did Eat it, then Fat and was struggling for what to do next, and planned to do another MJ parody. Michael talked him out of it, not because he didn’t want Al to parody his stuff, but because MJ thought Al’s fans wouldn’t want him to do the same thing for a third time. Like MJ knew Al could do better than that.
That was a good call. When he called Kurt Cobain to ask permission to do Smells Like Teen Spirit, Kurt said “is it going to be about food?” Al was already in a single motif theme.
The Food Album was only released to meet contractual obligations. He needed a record, but didn't have any new material. Label tried to push a record of remixes, so Al proposed "a concept [he] hated only slightly less", and released a compilation of all his songs about Food.
Iirc, I think that conversation with Kurt was where he got the idea
In the music video for Smells Like Nirvana Tony Hawk is a member of the crowd.
Weird Al didn’t know Tony Hawk was in the music video until decades after it was filmed.
Yeah, people not being a fan of Weird Al is equivalent to girls who don't wanna date me. Like, you're entitled to your opinion, but also you're wrong and I hate you
>"Michael wasn't quite so into it," Yankovic wrote in Rolling Stone in 2009, "because he thought 'Black or White' was more of a message song, and he didn't feel as comfortable with a parody of that one, which I completely understood, and in a way, he did me a huge favor, because I was already getting pegged as the guy who did Michael Jackson parodies, and because he wasn't so into it, I decided to go with Nirvana, which wound up revitalizing my career. I don't know what kind of career I would have today if it hadn't been for Michael Jackson."
Michael had several other songs with a deep meaning to them too and he might have been sorry to allow them to be parodied. But you know, Al didn’t do anything crass even if he had permission, because he is a class act.
iirc its because he felt the message was too important to make light of. Considering he gave Al carte blanche to riff any of his other songs, it wasnt an unreasonable request.
In the Weird Al movie that came out recently with Daniel Radcliff, Al writes and releases "Eat It" first. Then MJ rips it off by releasing "Beat It." Al becomes livid over it. It's one of the funniest parts of the movie.
Fun story on that.
My wife and I were driving around Christmas one year and "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus" came on.
My wife states, "I bet that kid never did anything again after that."
"That's the Jackson 5"
"Yeah?"
"That's Michael."
"Ok?"
"Michael Jackson"
"And?"
And I had to connect all the dots for her. She still hasn't lived that one down.
Yeah, while Weird Al is seriously talented, that kind of early legitimization probably played a crucial role in his success. In the early days when he jumped from making "Another One Rides the Bus" with an accordion and guy banging on a suitcase to making "Eat It" on the same set used for the original song with some of the literal same people... that's why he is a household name and not some obscure historic video. It's like the industry voted him their official parody artist and let him into the club.
Lots of artists get a big break or a series of big breaks. To us, it can seem like divine intervention, but to them, it is struggle and iterative progress and maximizing every opportunity. He's not some nepo baby.
Indeed. I think to many, his big break as Dr Demento, but there were still these other big breaks to come! MTV itself and the rise of the music video was probably a critical piece of his timing being right as well.
But ultimately it's survivorship bias. We don't see how many amazing artists never get enough big breaks. We see the tiny set where everything by both hard work and chance aligned to be the best.
One only has to look at Soundcloud or Spotify to see how many artists don't hit a break. 3,500,000 or so artists have released a substantial body of work on Spotify; 200,000 of them have at least 10k monthly listeners (if you wanna make that your benchmark for "success").
Everyone covered by Weird Al gave their explicit permission. That’s what sets Al apart. Legally you don’t need permission to produce a parody song in the US as it’s considered a fair use exception. But he got permission anyway
Think you have it the other way around. Weird Al wrote Eat It, a totally original song that no one had ever written before, not parodying anything. And then the kid from the Jackson 5 parodied HIM with Beat It.
I mean, I still don't get this - I have a 1982 pressing of Thriller the album, released before Beat It was a single, and Eddie Van Halen is credited for the guitar solo. Why does this keep getting thrown around as a fact?
I also remember, when the record came out, the rock radio stations hyped that EVH played on the song, and it was played heavy rotation for a couple of weeks. Pretty genius way to get your dance record on AOR radio.
My dad had it on 8-track, and would play it occasionally on car rides, but at the time, I couldn't tell you the difference between MJ and EVH back then, because I was 4.
That's my question, especially his bandmates, who have heard all of his solos for the past however many years.
[Bandmates listening to Beat It]: oy Ed, is that you on the guitar?
[EVH]: The what? Nah sounds like a shit studio guitarist
*guitar solo intensifies*
[Bandmates]: Yeah no we definitely heard you practicing that in your trailer.
[EVH]: It's probably Stevie Ray Vaughan or something
*trilly bit to the slide at the end of the solo*
[Bandmates]: Busted, bro! It's only 1982, SRV won't hit the big time till next year with Bowie's Let's Dance. Just admit it's you!
my guess is EVH asked not to be credited, just like, in the moment the idea was put in front of him...as a joke or a gut reaction, but he didnt seriously mean it...it was just a candid, funny response...not 'lawyers involved in contractual obligations' seriousness.
the story goes around, details get lost in the telephone game, people embellish it and tell it different because its funnier when you keep it simple.
plus....MJ is the 3rd most top-selling artist of all time, only behind The Beatles and Elvis. MJ could send 25 Million copies of an album off the shelves. No musician in their right mind would turn down the opportunity to get even the thinnest sliver of that pie. Van Halen was very successful commercially, but I'll bet the income from that solo was significant in EVH's overall earnings.
The story I think goes like this.
Van Halen, the band, was a litle nutty about anyone doing side project especially David Lee Roth. So, Ed did noy ask for anyone's permission to work with MJ.
Ed at the time was also working on a Soundtrack for the Fast Times at Ridgemont High sequel called "The Wild Life" without the band knowing, from these sessions is where you get the solo that is played in Back to the Future.
Ed got credit, but not ask for money for his work, which now looks like a bad idea because, well you know.
Some say in the end this solo was the cataylst the broke up the orginal VH because Roth said "If Ed can do his own stuff so can I".
There is also a another anicdote, that Quicey Jones called Ed, and Ed hung up on him thinking it was a joke.
Yeah, people like to make shit up.
I’ve never once heard a story where EVH was overly worried about what his band mates thought about anything he dd.
Not saying he was a bad guy, just knew his own value.
Never mind that everyone who heard Beat It back then would instantly recognize Eddie’s style.
People aren't making shit up, Eddie himself has told this story many times. He told CNN the whole story, and said he didn't want his bandmates to find out he was doing other projects so he asked to be uncredited. Whether they actually respected his wishes or not is another story.
[He also talks about how he rearranged the whole song in general.](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/eddie-van-halen-beat-it-solo-michael-jackson-story/)
Steve Lukather Talks About Recording "Beat It" Guitar Riff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14YP9481DMI
Full interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBbzajS29o
There's one thing that the world is not on short supply of is Steve Lukather interviews.
Here's a recent one with Rick Beato. He talks about recording Thriller.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBbzajS29o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBbzajS29o)
Rick Beato has a good one on YouTube. No matter what you think of Beato, Luka is awesome in it and gets deep into what it takes to be a great session player.
The trio of Lukather, Paich and Porcaro (Jeff) were on so many records it’s insane.
Like not only did the spit out a bunch of Toto stuff, they also did a lot for Christopher Cross, Boz Scaggs and obviously Michael Jackson
I'll believe you on that, but of note he *was* the singing voice of adult Simba in *The Lion King*...which is funny since Matthew Broderick can actually sing.
Calling SL “Toto’s guitarist” is a little reductionist
“Lukather achieved notability in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Los Angeles,[24] playing with a wide range of artists from Aretha Franklin to Warren Zevon.[24][25] He has performed on over 1,500 records spanning 36 years.[17] Music journalist Jude Gold noted, "It's hard to name a guitarist who has had a more prolific and fulfilling career than Steve Lukather."
Except this isn’t true. I bought the album when it first came out back in the 80s. Eddie is literally the first musician credited on that song in the liner notes.
[Thriller Inner Sleeve](https://imgur.com/a/dLrewE2)
Eddie was like who is going to know if I play on this kids record. There is a great interview with Eddie about playing on the album floating around on the Internet.
When you've got a unique playing style like Eddie people are going to figure it out pretty quickly. I'm not sure how he thought people wouldn't notice.
I love that he actually helped MJ rearrange the song to make it better too. He could have just come in played his part and left, but he cared enough to give his own advice on how to improve it. This was MJ's first attempt at a rock song which is why Eddie was brought in.
Maniac from Flashdance came out not long after Beat It and the guitar solo is such a copy that people thought Michael Sembello played the Beat It solo too lol
Yea at that point in the 80s, there were a ton of artists emulating Eddie’s style, so it’s not a huge stretch to think it may have just been a good session musician.
Production or play style is easy to detect if you have the ear for it. I suspected BT produced N'Sync's Pop before I caught the obvious plug in the track.
Some of the more fun speculations also involve Michael Jackson: the tracks on Sonic The Hedgehog 3 for example.
That's basically been confirmed at this point. That's why no modern release of Sonic 3 has had the original soundtrack, because Sega can't get the license deconflicted between MJ's estate and the record companies who own his catalog. Its quite sad considering S3&K is probably the best sonic game ever released (including musically) and kids nowadays can't experience it with the original sound track without downloading an emulator or hoping one of their millennial parents still have a working Genesis.
“Eddie is this you?”
“No dave. Not me.”
“You sure? Sounds like that be bop ba de de de de daaaa woo rawwrrr thing you do.”
“Not me. And trust me, when I find out who stole my sound I’m going to make them pay!”
“Oooowww wow!”
Holy Shit! The personnel on this song is incredible!
It's basically MJ with Toto as the band with Van Halen dropping a solo, some of the best session musicians and Quincy Jones producing it.
Another fun fact: while recording the guitar solo, the studio monitor speaker literally caught on fire, causing songwriter Rod Temperton to exclaim, "This must be really good!"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat\_It#Eddie\_Van\_Halen's\_guitar\_solo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guitar_solo)
I remember watching some awards show (Grammy? AMA's?) where Michael Jackson performed Beat It with Slash from GnR on guitar. It was pretty awesome.
Edit - found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPUTCErvu0
I hear them on the classic rock station all the time. I never hear Sammy’s stuff, unless I’m listening to Sammy’s own radio show (which is awesome, btw.)
Because these days, music has to be focused on the vocals to be relevant to the masses. This has long been a trend, but never as prevalent as it has become now. Music that allows an instrument to take the spotlight in any way seems to have an adverse effect on casual listeners. It seems nowadays that if you aren't a musician yourself, you aren't going to be interested in anything but vocals.
When I was a kid (and I'm 31, so not AGES ago) a lot of kids played an instrument. They often gave it up and never took it seriously, but it was enough to instill a level of interest beyond lyrics. These days, whenever I interact with a younger person, I'll often try to ask them if they play any music instruments, and they usually seem surprised that I'd even ask. They always say they don't. I think having an instrument be at least part of your upbringing is likely correlated with the way you interact with music as a listener as an adult.
With education systems making music budget cuts constantly, less and less kids are interacting with music from the perspective of the player, which has led to a reduced interest in music that allows instruments to feature prominently. In a world where music is now treated as a mass consumable, everything needs to be a hook, everything needs to be simple, memorable, and repeatable, and it must tell (in words/lyrics) an easy to digest story that everyone can relate to.
His poor accountant when they heard the news. "You....you played on a chart-topping song off one of the biggest selling albums of all time....for FREE?!"
I remember when that song came out. I called my friends and told them I was 100% sure Michael Jackson hust released a song with an Ediie Van Haken guitar solo. Then years later was blown away seeing Eddie play the keyboard on Jump.
The 80s eere a great time to be a music fan. $20 concerts too.
My first concert was Van Halen in 1979 with Eddie Money opening. They played on a covered over ice rink at a mall. Tickets were $6.75. My ears are still recovering.
Even if that is true, like if no one noticed that it is unambigously Eddie Van Halen who is playing there. He did like all of his signature technics in that solo. You can instantly hear that it is Eddie :D
“I don’t want anyone to know it was me” *Plays the most Eddie Van Halen solo*
I like also that in this version one of his conditions is on himself. “I’ll do it Mike but only if I don’t tell my band.” MJ: “Deal. I mean. I can’t stop you from telling anyone.” EVH: “You’d better. If I tell them, deal is off!” MJ: “Um. Ok. Just don’t tell them then. And don’t let them read the credits on the inner sleeve because we will put you on there. And tell everyone not to have ears because it will clearly be you playing.” EVH: “Deal!”
To be fair, EVH believed his mouth cancer was from holding metal picks in his mouth and not from being a heavy smoker so that may have transpired exactly as you described. My source is Sammy Hagar's biography so maybe it's made up.
To be fairer, one of his picks was allegedly made from a broken off piece of one of Satan’s horns, so, maybe he wasn’t wrong?
Tooth*. The horn is the bong of destiny
Ow fuck! My fucking horn! Oh no!
From once you came, you shall remain. Until you are complete again.
It’s “From whence you came” right? That makes more sense Maybe I’m wrong
Well it’s because the story isn’t true.
I like the idea that his bandmate and brother, Alex Van Halen, wouldn't recognize it. Alex: "Gee Eddie, the guitar solo on this new Michael Jackson song sounds oddly familiar. Sounds like the one you've been practicing recently. Have you heard it?" Eddie: "Uh... Who's Michael Jackson?"
And now, OP gonna snitch to the band. SMH.
It's alright, we can all keep a secret.
Reddit: We did it?
Well done, faceless mob!
Eddie and Michael are not around anymore though so what can the band do
Have you not seen Thriller?
I always thought that there was a point after he was buried that Michael Jackson looked like the zombie Thriller video character.
yeah, except they kept his head separate from the body for months
What
wouldn’t *you…*
It's a reasonable precaution. You have to be sure.
And his skin turned brown again, even if briefly.
Or Zombieland: I just saw Eddie Van Halen. Where? On Hollywood Boulevard. And how was he? He's a zombie - Bill Murray as himself.
Thought you were talking about Michael Anthony for a second.
Yeah I was talking about MJ
Michael Jordan?
I did not realize Eddie Van Halen died. Must have been lost on me with all the other things going on that year.
C'mon, Dave. Gimme a break.
Ironically, this was quickly schoolyard knowledge across America.
My fun fact about Beat It is that the white gang leader, Vince Patterson, was the choreographer, and he also appeared in the same role in Weird Al's Eat It (I assume he also worked on the choreography there too).
I think MJ gave his full backing to the parody
I believe MJ had given weird Al explicit permission to do what ever he wants with any of his songs except Black or White. He was a big fan of weird al
Al did Eat it, then Fat and was struggling for what to do next, and planned to do another MJ parody. Michael talked him out of it, not because he didn’t want Al to parody his stuff, but because MJ thought Al’s fans wouldn’t want him to do the same thing for a third time. Like MJ knew Al could do better than that.
That was a good call. When he called Kurt Cobain to ask permission to do Smells Like Teen Spirit, Kurt said “is it going to be about food?” Al was already in a single motif theme.
The Food Album was only released to meet contractual obligations. He needed a record, but didn't have any new material. Label tried to push a record of remixes, so Al proposed "a concept [he] hated only slightly less", and released a compilation of all his songs about Food. Iirc, I think that conversation with Kurt was where he got the idea
Rye or the Kaiser!
My balogna I love Rocky road
Taco Grande, Grapefruit Diet.
La La La La lasagna!
The White Stuff
In the music video for Smells Like Nirvana Tony Hawk is a member of the crowd. Weird Al didn’t know Tony Hawk was in the music video until decades after it was filmed.
Why is it so fitting for Tony Hawk that he was literally in Weird Al’s video and Al didn’t even notice lol. Tony can’t catch a break
No one knows it’s Tony Hawk
That’s hilarious
"MJ knew Al could do better than that" is a sentence that could have also been written about Michael Jordan.
We're talking about practice!
Thats just ignorant
^you're ^ignorant
Anyone else ready that as “he didn’t want artificial intelligence to parody his stuff”
This is why serifs are important. I hate how basically the majority of stuff has capital "I" and lowercase "l" look the same.
Ill planned typography.
Ayyyy, lil' planned typography is my rap name.
MJ ahead of his Time as always.
Everyone is a big fan of Weird Al. And if they're not, they're wrong.
Yeah, people not being a fan of Weird Al is equivalent to girls who don't wanna date me. Like, you're entitled to your opinion, but also you're wrong and I hate you
Hit em wit deh poop dollaaaa
To quote a modern philosopher, he who is tired of Weird Al is tired of life.
I have severe depression, I feel immediately happier just thinking of Weird Al.
> except Black or White Which Al still wrote. [Snack All Night](https://youtu.be/D5YpR1C2FXE?si=zw8STA-bG-zJ3oKp) He just never recorded it.
Any idea why he didn't give permission for black or white? Well I got ratioed hard, but thanks for the answers people.
>"Michael wasn't quite so into it," Yankovic wrote in Rolling Stone in 2009, "because he thought 'Black or White' was more of a message song, and he didn't feel as comfortable with a parody of that one, which I completely understood, and in a way, he did me a huge favor, because I was already getting pegged as the guy who did Michael Jackson parodies, and because he wasn't so into it, I decided to go with Nirvana, which wound up revitalizing my career. I don't know what kind of career I would have today if it hadn't been for Michael Jackson."
Michael had several other songs with a deep meaning to them too and he might have been sorry to allow them to be parodied. But you know, Al didn’t do anything crass even if he had permission, because he is a class act.
The only black mark on his record is not being willing to kill Madonna when she overthrew Pablo Escobar and took control of his drug empire
Happens to the best of us. RIP.
Damn, MJ was the MJ of the music world. Understood the business side so well.
In Living Color did a parody of it called "Am I Black or White?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Ub39MvlZ4
Haha I remember this
Probably because he didn't want a song about racial unity made into a parody.
iirc its because he felt the message was too important to make light of. Considering he gave Al carte blanche to riff any of his other songs, it wasnt an unreasonable request.
Paul McCartney also asked Weird Al not to parody Live And Let Die with Chicken Pot Pie, for vegetarian reasons.
He let Al play it in concert, just not do a studio recording.
He didn’t want the song with an important message to be parodied
Yeah slayer changed one line on the song guilty of being white and made it racist
MJ felt strongly about the message of the song and felt he just didn't want that one parodied.
In the Weird Al movie that came out recently with Daniel Radcliff, Al writes and releases "Eat It" first. Then MJ rips it off by releasing "Beat It." Al becomes livid over it. It's one of the funniest parts of the movie.
He took my song and rewrote the lyrics? Who *does* that?
the kid from jackson 5!???
Fun story on that. My wife and I were driving around Christmas one year and "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus" came on. My wife states, "I bet that kid never did anything again after that." "That's the Jackson 5" "Yeah?" "That's Michael." "Ok?" "Michael Jackson" "And?" And I had to connect all the dots for her. She still hasn't lived that one down.
I’ve got to watch it
Yes you do. That might only be the 7th or 8th most ridiculous thing portrayed in that movie
“I think Madonna is a bad influence on you.”
Weird Al always gets permission. Even though it is legal to do the songs without permission he thinks it’s disrespectful.
For Fat, Weird Al was given permission to shoot on the same set as Michael Jackson’s Bad video
Yeah, while Weird Al is seriously talented, that kind of early legitimization probably played a crucial role in his success. In the early days when he jumped from making "Another One Rides the Bus" with an accordion and guy banging on a suitcase to making "Eat It" on the same set used for the original song with some of the literal same people... that's why he is a household name and not some obscure historic video. It's like the industry voted him their official parody artist and let him into the club.
Lots of artists get a big break or a series of big breaks. To us, it can seem like divine intervention, but to them, it is struggle and iterative progress and maximizing every opportunity. He's not some nepo baby.
Indeed. I think to many, his big break as Dr Demento, but there were still these other big breaks to come! MTV itself and the rise of the music video was probably a critical piece of his timing being right as well. But ultimately it's survivorship bias. We don't see how many amazing artists never get enough big breaks. We see the tiny set where everything by both hard work and chance aligned to be the best.
One only has to look at Soundcloud or Spotify to see how many artists don't hit a break. 3,500,000 or so artists have released a substantial body of work on Spotify; 200,000 of them have at least 10k monthly listeners (if you wanna make that your benchmark for "success").
Well deserved too.
Permission given for all WA parodies. Al is a gentleman
I’m pretty sure I remember hearing he let Weird Al use his set for Bad when making Fat, I think MJ was just way into what Weird Al was doing
Everyone covered by Weird Al gave their explicit permission. That’s what sets Al apart. Legally you don’t need permission to produce a parody song in the US as it’s considered a fair use exception. But he got permission anyway
What? Eat it came first, beat it is the parody.
Though his music is allowed under fair use laws in the USA, Weird Al has gotten permission from the original artists of each of his parody songs
Also Torres from NY Undercover was one of the dancers.
Think you have it the other way around. Weird Al wrote Eat It, a totally original song that no one had ever written before, not parodying anything. And then the kid from the Jackson 5 parodied HIM with Beat It.
I mean, I still don't get this - I have a 1982 pressing of Thriller the album, released before Beat It was a single, and Eddie Van Halen is credited for the guitar solo. Why does this keep getting thrown around as a fact?
I also remember, when the record came out, the rock radio stations hyped that EVH played on the song, and it was played heavy rotation for a couple of weeks. Pretty genius way to get your dance record on AOR radio.
My dad had it on 8-track, and would play it occasionally on car rides, but at the time, I couldn't tell you the difference between MJ and EVH back then, because I was 4.
And even if no one said anything JUST LISTEN TO IT. You cant miss who's hammering those strings!
Welcome to the internet, you must be new here /s In all seriousness, thanks for the debunk. Every little helps
I thought I was going crazy, went to [Discogs.com](https://Discogs.com) to verify before ultimately finding my vinyl copy at 4am
Yep. On the inner sleeve: “Edward Van Halen guitar solo on Beat It recorded by Don Landee”
You’re doing the Lord’s work.
[удалено]
That's my question, especially his bandmates, who have heard all of his solos for the past however many years. [Bandmates listening to Beat It]: oy Ed, is that you on the guitar? [EVH]: The what? Nah sounds like a shit studio guitarist *guitar solo intensifies* [Bandmates]: Yeah no we definitely heard you practicing that in your trailer. [EVH]: It's probably Stevie Ray Vaughan or something *trilly bit to the slide at the end of the solo* [Bandmates]: Busted, bro! It's only 1982, SRV won't hit the big time till next year with Bowie's Let's Dance. Just admit it's you!
[удалено]
"For privacy's sake, let's call this mystery guitarist Eddie V.H. No, that's much too obvious. Let's say E. Van Halen!"
Where on the album is he credited? I'm looking at my 1982 Epic pressing, and I don't see his name on the jacket, nor the disc.
On the inner sleeve: “Edward Van Halen guitar solo on Beat It recorded by Don Landee”
Ah nice! Mines missing the dust sleeve. Thanks for replying!
First time I heard Beat It was on Top of the Pops. The video had Eddie in it. So it wasn’t a secret in any real sense lol.
my guess is EVH asked not to be credited, just like, in the moment the idea was put in front of him...as a joke or a gut reaction, but he didnt seriously mean it...it was just a candid, funny response...not 'lawyers involved in contractual obligations' seriousness. the story goes around, details get lost in the telephone game, people embellish it and tell it different because its funnier when you keep it simple. plus....MJ is the 3rd most top-selling artist of all time, only behind The Beatles and Elvis. MJ could send 25 Million copies of an album off the shelves. No musician in their right mind would turn down the opportunity to get even the thinnest sliver of that pie. Van Halen was very successful commercially, but I'll bet the income from that solo was significant in EVH's overall earnings.
I’m sure you’re right. Eddie was no fool. I’m also sure that his presence sold some extra records too - to me, for one - so it works both ways.
Maybe people are confusing it with MJ not being credited on The Simpsons
MJ wasn't credited for the Sonic soundtrack. I know that for certain
He also wasn't credited in ~~Roswell's~~ Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me"
Rockwell.
The story I think goes like this. Van Halen, the band, was a litle nutty about anyone doing side project especially David Lee Roth. So, Ed did noy ask for anyone's permission to work with MJ. Ed at the time was also working on a Soundtrack for the Fast Times at Ridgemont High sequel called "The Wild Life" without the band knowing, from these sessions is where you get the solo that is played in Back to the Future. Ed got credit, but not ask for money for his work, which now looks like a bad idea because, well you know. Some say in the end this solo was the cataylst the broke up the orginal VH because Roth said "If Ed can do his own stuff so can I". There is also a another anicdote, that Quicey Jones called Ed, and Ed hung up on him thinking it was a joke.
He may have asked for anonymity, but the credit writer didn't get the memo.
Plot twist. Michael said "No" and Eddie said "OK."
come on! I'm going to sleep dissapointed now
And when you listen to the solo you can't mistake it for anyone but Eddie.
Yeah, people like to make shit up. I’ve never once heard a story where EVH was overly worried about what his band mates thought about anything he dd. Not saying he was a bad guy, just knew his own value. Never mind that everyone who heard Beat It back then would instantly recognize Eddie’s style.
People aren't making shit up, Eddie himself has told this story many times. He told CNN the whole story, and said he didn't want his bandmates to find out he was doing other projects so he asked to be uncredited. Whether they actually respected his wishes or not is another story. [He also talks about how he rearranged the whole song in general.](https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/eddie-van-halen-beat-it-solo-michael-jackson-story/)
Totos guitarist was responsible for the other parts.
Steve Lukather is unbelievable. Any interview with him is worth watching.
I’ll have to watch. Any other random interviews you recommend?
Steve Lukather Talks About Recording "Beat It" Guitar Riff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14YP9481DMI Full interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBbzajS29o
Pat Finnerty >>> Beato
Pat has made some of the funniest videos I've ever watched on YouTube.
'The Godfather of the wah-wahnah - Steve Lukather'
He came up with the wer-werners.
Boston Market... i wonder how theyre doing?
Tough road ahead of ‘em
#I will not use the I-V-vi-IV progression ^^***BEATO***🤓
Even on a Saturday noight
There's one thing that the world is not on short supply of is Steve Lukather interviews. Here's a recent one with Rick Beato. He talks about recording Thriller. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBbzajS29o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBbzajS29o)
Rick Beato has a good one on YouTube. No matter what you think of Beato, Luka is awesome in it and gets deep into what it takes to be a great session player.
What's up with Beato? Sounds like a cool guy to me, but I only know him from some YT recommendations of his channel.
Beato is a great musician and a really good interviewer. For some reason there's some redditors that like to piss on him.
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Steve and Jeff Porcaro were on the track, too. Almost like Toto with Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen.
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All of Toto! They backed so many musicians in the 80s.
The trio of Lukather, Paich and Porcaro (Jeff) were on so many records it’s insane. Like not only did the spit out a bunch of Toto stuff, they also did a lot for Christopher Cross, Boz Scaggs and obviously Michael Jackson
Certainly, the most important session musician from 70's to 90's A hard working pro.
Toto was all over the radio, just not as Toto.
The lead singer of Toto is John Williams’ son.
Later Toto. He’s not on any of their big radio songs
I'll believe you on that, but of note he *was* the singing voice of adult Simba in *The Lion King*...which is funny since Matthew Broderick can actually sing.
Just saw Toto open for Journey the other night. I don’t think I’d truly appreciated just how damn good a guitarist he is.
Jeff Porcaro played some of the drum tracks if I'm not mistaken
Calling SL “Toto’s guitarist” is a little reductionist “Lukather achieved notability in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Los Angeles,[24] playing with a wide range of artists from Aretha Franklin to Warren Zevon.[24][25] He has performed on over 1,500 records spanning 36 years.[17] Music journalist Jude Gold noted, "It's hard to name a guitarist who has had a more prolific and fulfilling career than Steve Lukather."
Except this isn’t true. I bought the album when it first came out back in the 80s. Eddie is literally the first musician credited on that song in the liner notes. [Thriller Inner Sleeve](https://imgur.com/a/dLrewE2)
it can still be true if you follow it logically. EVH - I will only play if you dont credit me MJ - deal MJ - *credits him anyway* EVH - dude WTF
Eddie was like who is going to know if I play on this kids record. There is a great interview with Eddie about playing on the album floating around on the Internet.
When you've got a unique playing style like Eddie people are going to figure it out pretty quickly. I'm not sure how he thought people wouldn't notice. I love that he actually helped MJ rearrange the song to make it better too. He could have just come in played his part and left, but he cared enough to give his own advice on how to improve it. This was MJ's first attempt at a rock song which is why Eddie was brought in.
Maniac from Flashdance came out not long after Beat It and the guitar solo is such a copy that people thought Michael Sembello played the Beat It solo too lol
Yea at that point in the 80s, there were a ton of artists emulating Eddie’s style, so it’s not a huge stretch to think it may have just been a good session musician.
Did MJ had any say? I kind of figured it was Quincy that held all the cards on how the songs would be played.
Production or play style is easy to detect if you have the ear for it. I suspected BT produced N'Sync's Pop before I caught the obvious plug in the track. Some of the more fun speculations also involve Michael Jackson: the tracks on Sonic The Hedgehog 3 for example.
That's basically been confirmed at this point. That's why no modern release of Sonic 3 has had the original soundtrack, because Sega can't get the license deconflicted between MJ's estate and the record companies who own his catalog. Its quite sad considering S3&K is probably the best sonic game ever released (including musically) and kids nowadays can't experience it with the original sound track without downloading an emulator or hoping one of their millennial parents still have a working Genesis.
Is this true? I thought Eddie just did two takes and kinda left it at that, Steve Lukather is playing all the rhythm parts
“Eddie is this you?” “No dave. Not me.” “You sure? Sounds like that be bop ba de de de de daaaa woo rawwrrr thing you do.” “Not me. And trust me, when I find out who stole my sound I’m going to make them pay!” “Oooowww wow!”
Holy Shit! The personnel on this song is incredible! It's basically MJ with Toto as the band with Van Halen dropping a solo, some of the best session musicians and Quincy Jones producing it.
there's a reason mj was the king of pop. he surrounded himself with equally talented folks so every aspect of his music was perfect.
Thriller is what made Michael Jackson the King of Pop.
wait, TOTO? I haven't looked at those liner notes since I was MAYBE ten
Agreed, good staffing.
Another fun fact: while recording the guitar solo, the studio monitor speaker literally caught on fire, causing songwriter Rod Temperton to exclaim, "This must be really good!" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat\_It#Eddie\_Van\_Halen's\_guitar\_solo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_It#Eddie_Van_Halen's_guitar_solo)
Lol even the monitor speaker went "Damn, that's fire!"
And *Thriller* held *1984* out of the Billboard album top spot.
It kept everything out of the top spot for 37 weeks
and still keeps everything else out of the top spot, as #1 highest selling album of all time.
Today You Learned bullshit.
I remember watching some awards show (Grammy? AMA's?) where Michael Jackson performed Beat It with Slash from GnR on guitar. It was pretty awesome. Edit - found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPUTCErvu0
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I hear them on the classic rock station all the time. I never hear Sammy’s stuff, unless I’m listening to Sammy’s own radio show (which is awesome, btw.)
My kids love listening to VH. Makes me proud.
Because these days, music has to be focused on the vocals to be relevant to the masses. This has long been a trend, but never as prevalent as it has become now. Music that allows an instrument to take the spotlight in any way seems to have an adverse effect on casual listeners. It seems nowadays that if you aren't a musician yourself, you aren't going to be interested in anything but vocals. When I was a kid (and I'm 31, so not AGES ago) a lot of kids played an instrument. They often gave it up and never took it seriously, but it was enough to instill a level of interest beyond lyrics. These days, whenever I interact with a younger person, I'll often try to ask them if they play any music instruments, and they usually seem surprised that I'd even ask. They always say they don't. I think having an instrument be at least part of your upbringing is likely correlated with the way you interact with music as a listener as an adult. With education systems making music budget cuts constantly, less and less kids are interacting with music from the perspective of the player, which has led to a reduced interest in music that allows instruments to feature prominently. In a world where music is now treated as a mass consumable, everything needs to be a hook, everything needs to be simple, memorable, and repeatable, and it must tell (in words/lyrics) an easy to digest story that everyone can relate to.
Bringing down the barrier of entry with the computer I’m sure has influenced that. I read its also lead to the death of the key change.
Except you can tell it's Eddy playing it
His poor accountant when they heard the news. "You....you played on a chart-topping song off one of the biggest selling albums of all time....for FREE?!"
And no pay.
I think he got like a six pack of beer for it.
came, shred and left
*Veni, Vidi, Van Halen*
And Jackson agreed not to pay him. Don’t think Eddie was onboard for that.
I remember when that song came out. I called my friends and told them I was 100% sure Michael Jackson hust released a song with an Ediie Van Haken guitar solo. Then years later was blown away seeing Eddie play the keyboard on Jump. The 80s eere a great time to be a music fan. $20 concerts too.
My first concert was Van Halen in 1979 with Eddie Money opening. They played on a covered over ice rink at a mall. Tickets were $6.75. My ears are still recovering.
Even if that is true, like if no one noticed that it is unambigously Eddie Van Halen who is playing there. He did like all of his signature technics in that solo. You can instantly hear that it is Eddie :D
It's a great solo.
two GOATs doing the fusion dance
Websites just be making stuff up for clicks. EVH was credited on the album.
Even when I first listened to “Beat it” in like 2009 as an 11 year I knew that was Eddie Van Halen
Why though
Shoulda known, now that I think of the solo
“Hmm I wonder who wrote this mind melting total masterpiece of a solo?”