You probably can't tell, but Michael Jackson's infectious "Beat It" was his first-ever attempt at a rock song. But, the King of Pop's ode to street life might have never charted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 if it wasn't for the memorable work of hard rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
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00:00You probably can't tell, but Michael Jackson's infectious Beat It was his first ever attempt
00:05at a rock song. But the King of Pop's ode to street life might have never charted at
00:10number one on the Billboard Hot 100 if it wasn't for the memorable work of hard rock
00:14guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
00:16In 1982, the anti-disco movement was strong, so Jackson and his producer Quincy Jones were
00:22looking for something that would give him a harder edge and set his next record apart.
00:26This tasked him with penning a rock song in the mold of the Knack's mega-hit My Sharona
00:31for his upcoming album Thriller. Who might you enlist if you're a legendary pop superstar
00:36dipping your toe into the rock genre? For Michael Jackson, it was none other than legendary
00:40guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
00:42Wow, Van Halen, who else?
00:45Eddie Van Halen's iconic guitar riff is now known as the centerpiece of Beat It, but when
00:50Quincy Jones approached Van Halen to record the track, he thought it was a joke. According
00:54to Stereogum, Eddie Van Halen reportedly hung up on and cursed at Quincy Jones four
00:59times before realizing it wasn't a prank call. While Eddie Van Halen usually avoided taking
01:04any side gigs while working with his band Van Halen, he agreed to the collaboration.
01:09But he had two rules. Van Halen wouldn't be credited, and Jackson wouldn't tell the rest
01:14of his bandmates.
01:15As Thriller and its hit Beat It climbed the charts, Eddie Van Halen was shocked to see
01:19it outpaced his band's own album 1984. Van Halen later told CNN in 2012,
01:25"'I said to myself, who is going to know that I played on this kid's record, right? Nobody's
01:29going to find out.' Wrong. Big time wrong. It ended up being record of the year."
01:35Then Eddie Van Halen found himself perusing a Tower Records store in Sherman Oaks, Los
01:39Angeles when Beat It came on over the stereo. Some nearby customers mused that the song's
01:44guitar solo sounded almost exactly like the playing of Van Halen himself. He reportedly
01:49tapped the record store kids on the shoulder and fessed up that it was him.
01:53Naturally, his bandmates caught wind of Eddie's contribution, even if he went uncredited on
01:58the album. He offered his Van Halen bandmates a few excuses for his pop interlude.
02:02"'I just said, you know, busted. Dave, you were out of the country. Al, you weren't around.
02:07I couldn't call anyone and ask for permission.'
02:10Van Halen's street cred was safe. His bandmates let it pass, but not without first razzing
02:15him about one huge mistake. Turns out, Eddie Van Halen had never asked to be paid for what
02:20was now the number one song in the United States. He had agreed, in the end, to play
02:25on the track, perform a guitar solo, and rework the arrangement for the entire track.
02:30While Eddie Van Halen's 20-second guitar solo on Beat It seems to transcend all space and
02:34time, in fact, it only took the legend half an hour to record. Of course, not without
02:39rearranging the entire song first. According to CNN, Quincy Jones told Van Halen to do,
02:45quote, "'whatever you want to do.'"
02:47"'That is why we need Eddie Van Halen.'"
02:49After an initial listen to the rough track, Van Halen chopped different sections of the
02:53chorus and reworked the middle of the song, and then promptly recorded two masterful blazing
02:58guitar solos on top. Instead of thinking that Van Halen had butchered his new track, Michael
03:03Jackson was grateful for the contribution. Van Halen recalled to CNN that Jackson told
03:08him he made the song that much better.
03:09"'Michael came in and I said, I hope you don't mind I changed your song. And he listens and
03:14he goes, no, I really like that high-fast stuff you do.'"
03:19Eddie Van Halen's hand in the crossover hit soon took on a mythic quality. In the final
03:24cut of the track, you can hear a knocking sound right before Van Halen's guitar solo
03:28shreds through. As Stereogum points out, many fans attributed the knock to Eddie Van Halen,
03:34possibly drunk and impatient to be let into the recording studio. But that part of the
03:37legend is supposedly just legend.