Back then, he was already an established guitarist and considered a hard rock phenomenon. Eddie Van Halen himself came to comment on CNN that Quincy Jones had called him at home; but this, thinking that it was a joke, tells him that he does not know any Quincy and hangs up the phone. After three more tries, Eddie realizes the call is for real and laughingly apologizes.
Quincy Jones tells him that he is producing a new Michael Jackson record and asks him: “If you would like to play on this new record.” And while Quincy Jones was explaining everything to him, Eddie was asking himself: What the hell am I painting on a Michael Jackson record? At that time, the memory that Eddie Van Halen had of Michael Jackson was that of a boy with a music more oriented towards commercial pop, with a fame achieved by the Jackson Five.
For which Eddie initially refuses, alleging that in his band Van Halen the members have a pact not to collaborate with other artists; but Quincy insists that this new album will revolutionize the recording industry. Immediately afterwards, Eddie goes to the Westlake Recording studios, in the city of Los Angeles.
Taking advantage of the fact that the members of Van Halen are on vacation, resting from the last tour. In the studio, there was Michael Jackson with Quincy Jones and Steven Spielberg. Michael goes to one of the studio rooms to finish some recordings for the ET soundtrack, so Quincy goes with Eddie in another room to start working. Eddie asks Quincy: What do you want me to do? And Quincy replies: “Do what you want.
” To which Eddie also warns him, “Man, be careful when you say that, if you really know me, be careful when you say that.” Quincy, even so, leaves him in the studio with complete freedom to do what he wants with the song, in addition to having left him two six-packs of beers.
Since Eddie decided not to charge for this collaboration. The conditions were that his name should not appear in the credits, nobody could know about this collaboration. So Eddie would settle for a few beers and a few dance lessons from Michael Jackson in the future. It’s time to work and Eddie hears the song “Beat It” only once; but he is not very convinced.
And he instructs the sound engineer to make some changes to the song. After 10 minutes, Eddie had already restructured the song and managed to record two guitar solos in less than half an hour. Already finishing the second guitar solo, Michael Jackson enters the recording room. Eddie was nervous at this point, as he didn’t know how Michael would react to the changes made to his song.
In fact, he came to think that they would throw him out with the bodyguards. So Eddie tells Michael that he had made changes to the middle section of his song. The song “Beat It” starts to play and Michael listens intently. Finally, Michael turns around and says to Eddie, “Wow, thanks for not just going in there doing a solo and having the passion to care about the song and make it better.
” At that moment Eddie is amazed and convinced that Jackson was not only a musical genius, but also had a humility and innocence never seen before. After having recorded an excellent rock song with the legendary Eddy Van Halen, the next step would be to record a good video for said song.
So Michael, once inspired by the musical “West Side Story”, based on street fights between rival gangs, decides together with the director Bob Giraldi, to hire 18 professional dancers and a group of people who are members of real street gangs, to give a touch of authenticity to the video. In this case it was the Bloods and Crips gangs, popular at that time for their great rivalry.
What would cause an atmosphere on the recording set so tense, that the director Bob Giraldi had to film all the scenes with these gang members in a single day, to avoid any unpleasant incident. Finally, on November 30, 1982, Michael Jackson releases his new album “Thriller”, which would have the perfect balance of various musical genres such as disco, funk, rhythm and blues, pop, rock and ballads.
So Michael, manages to satisfy a very broad audience with different musical tastes, managing to sell a million copies in its first week of release. From this album, hits such as “Billie Jean”, “Thriller” and “Beat It”, the theme supported by Eddie Van Halen, would stand out. “Beat It,” in particular, not only became an instant hit, but also manages to break down the barriers imposed on radio by racism.
Since “Beat It” manages to be broadcast on radio stations where they only broadcast music by white artists. In fact, “Beat It” manages to be broadcast on MTV, which at the time was criticized for favoring white musicians. For all this achievement, Michael Jackson ushers in a new era for black artists and manages to attract an audience of all origins worldwide.
“Beat It” also manages to win two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 337 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. For all this overwhelming success, Eddie Van Halen’s service could have cost millions of dollars, but Eddie didn’t charge anything for his big collaboration, beyond two packs of beer.
And his name did not appear in the credits, details that even his bandmates could not believe, to the point of asking him: How could he have been so stupid? And this was the story of how the lives of two legends intersected and how they managed to record one of the most emblematic songs of all time. If you liked it, give it a like and subscribe so you don’t miss a new consultation from Doctor Melómano, until next time.
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
