Michael Jackson – Beat It

“Beat It” – Single by Michael Jackson from the album Thriller
B-side “Get on the Floor” (US) / “Burn This Disco Out” (UK)
Released February 21, 1983
Recorded October 1982
Label Epic
Songwriter Michael Jackson
Producers Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson
Charted No.1 in US; No.3 in UK; No.1 in New Zeeland; No.2 in Australia; No.1 in Canada; No.1 in Belgium; No.2 in France; No.2 in West Germany.

Eddie Van Halen played the guitar solo on “Beat It.” He did it as a favor for Quincy Jones and was not paid, unless you count the two six-packs of beer brought into the studio.

Eddie connected to Quincy through Ted Templeman, who was Van Halen’s producer and friends with Jones. It was good timing because Eddie’s bandmates were out of town, so they couldn’t give him any static for taking on another project. He figured nobody would ever know it was him on the record.

According to Eddie, he had the engineer restructure the song to accommodate his solo, then blasted out two takes. Jackson showed up after the second take and was thrilled that Eddie cared enough about the song to rework it.

Members of the group Toto played on this: Steve Lukather on lead guitar, Steve Porcaro on synthesizer, and Jeff Porcaro on drums.

The “Beat It” music video, which features Jackson bringing two gangs together through the power of music and dance, helped establish Jackson as an international pop icon. The single, along with its music video, helped make Thriller the best-selling album of all time. “Beat It” has been cited as one of the most successful, recognized, awarded and celebrated songs in the history of popular music; both the song and video had a large impact on pop culture.

“Beat It” won the 1984 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, as well as two American Music Awards. It was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked “Beat It” number 337 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, and at number 185 in its 2021 update of the list. The magazine also named it the 81st greatest guitar song of all time. It was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.