Beat It

Beat It is a single of Michael Jackson from his successful 1983 album Thriller . It was the third single from the album and in the Netherlands the firstnumber 1 hit from the album.

With Michael Jackson Beat It won two Grammy Awards ; one for Record of the Year and one for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. The song was also nominated for Song of the Year, but the award went to Willie Nelson with the song Always On My Mind . The magazine Rolling Stone gave Beat It at number 337 on their list of the 500 best songs of all time .

Content
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 * 1 History
 * 2 Impact
 * 3 Video clip
 * 4 Trivia
 * 5 Hitnotering
 * 6 Radio 2 Top 2000

History [ edit ]
On the album prior to Thriller, Off the Wall, though two tracks were made ​​by Michael Jackson himself ( Do not Stop 'Til You Get Enough andWorking Day And Night). On Thriller wanted Jackson and producer Quincy Jones put a rock song. They took inspiration from another successful rock song, My Sharona by The Knack .

The song begins with a recognizable gong, which turns into a fast drum beat, followed by the guitar. The text of Beat It is a fearful warning to violence and fights at all costs to avoid, especially when the stakes honor ("It does not matter who's wrong or right").

During the instrumental interlude (by Steve Lukather of the band Toto ) of the song plays Eddie Van Halen (of the group Van Halen ) an electric guitar solo. Quincy Jones told me that when they approached the guitarist for the first time, Van Halen could not believe he had Jones on the line. Van Halen asked no reward for his performance. He took his part, while Michael Jackson in another studio the song Billie Jean was about to take on.

The song has been covered by many artists, including Fall Out Boy with John Mayer .

Impact [ edit ]
With Beat It Michael Jackson had a hit in the R & B - and pop genre, but also rock fans could be happy with it, because of the contribution of Van Halen. Jackson and Jones had been given for each other to have a R & B-radio station to leave a number with hard rock elements play and vice versa.

The following albums of Michael Jackson would all contain a song with rock influences. Many of these songs also include a guest appearance by a star like Van Halen, such as:
 * Dirty Diana (with Steve Stevens , Bath 1987)
 * Give In To Me (with Slash , Guns N 'Roses ; Dangerous 1991)
 * Black or White (with Slash , Guns N 'Roses ; Dangerous 1991)
 * DS (with Slash, Guns n 'Roses; HIStory 1995)
 * Whatever Happens (with Carlos Santana ; Invincible 2001)

[Video clip edit ]
The music video was directed by Bob Giraldi, choreographed by Michael Peters who worked later in the clip for Thriller . Many dancers in the video for "Beat It" were real street gang members.Jackson's red jacket became iconic. The clip is about two rival gangs that have agreed to a fight. When their game is begun, Jackson takes them apart and dancing all together with them. The plot of Beat It often copied. Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar, is the female version of the clip of Beat It. Also, Lionel Richie , Janet Jackson , The Backstreet Boys , 'N Sync , Britney Spears ,Christina Aguilera and Usher borrowed the pattern of Beat It. Also Weird Al Yankovic parodied the song as Eat It.

[Trivia Edit ]

 * During the shooting broke out brawls. This was because the cast consisted of real gang members. After the police had to intervene was decided to record the clip with actors.
 * During the MTV Awards in 2003 brought Metallica its own version of the song.
 * In the film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) tries Drew Barrymore (in a very bad way) the picture out ' moonwalk 'to the rhythm of Beat It, after she has resolved some bad guys out of the way while strapped to a chair.
 * Beat It in the game Guitar Hero World Tour
 * The album version is heard clearly at about 2:44 throb. The story goes that one Eddie Van Halen wanted to make clear that he had to start playing. However, this is not very likely that the solo was separately recorded and later mixed in.