"Eat It" is a 1984 song by American comedy music artist "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's 1983 single " Beat It", with the contents changed to be about an exasperated parent attempting to get their picky child to eat anything at all, much less to eat properly. The track was both a commercial and critical success, earning Yankovic a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

. It peaked at number twelve in the United States, making it his first top 40 hit in that country, and reached number one in Australia.

History

The famous guitar solo, originally performed by Eddie Van Halen, was reproduced by Yankovic's producer,

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. According to Yankovic, when he presented his lyrics to Jackson for review, he did not know how Jackson would react. Jackson allegedly thought it was amusing and agreed to allow the parody. On October 19, 1989, the RIAA certified "Eat It" as a

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

single.

Reception

The single reached number 1 in Australia, and it was his highest-charting US single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 12 until " White & Nerdy" peaked at number 9 in October 2006. "Eat It" earned Yankovic a 1984

in the Best Comedy Recording category. "Eat It" also outranked "Beat It" in overall highest position on the Australian singles chart, with its highest rank being number 1, while "Beat It"'s highest was third. '' Cash Box'' reviewed the single, saying "

’s

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has remained true to the energy and appeal of Michael Jackson’s original version, and the lyrics...are actually very funny."

Track listing

1984 release

# "Eat It" – 3:19 # "That Boy Could Dance" – 3:32

1985/1993 re-release

# "Eat It" – 3:19 # " I Lost on Jeopardy" – 3:26

Music video

The video for "Eat It" is styled as a shot-for-shot remake of Jackson's video for " Beat It", but with elements being parodied in various silly ways and Yankovic dressed as Jackson. The video also features a few of the same dancers from Jackson's video and Yankovic clumsily mimicking the dance moves from the original video. The video ends with Yankovic looking into the camera with yellow eyes, referencing the end of Jackson's video for " Thriller". Jackson received royalties from Yankovic for rights to cover the video so closely. In June 20, 2022, Yankovic uploaded an alternative version of the music video on his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel, which consists of a single "coverage take". The alternate take of Yankovic singing, dancing, and writhing on the bed in the bedroom was intended to be used as a backup if other shots were unusable or unable to be procured in time, although Yankovic said he believed none of the footage was used in the original 1984 cut. The original

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footage of the video was digitized into 4K resolution and re-edited by Yankovic (during the 2022 The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour) to recreate the original video frame-for-frame. This remaster was done for a scene in '' Weird: The Al Yankovic Story'', which included a brief glimpse of the "Eat It" video with star

Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. He rose to fame at age twelve, when he began portraying Harry Potter in the film series of the same name; and has held various other film and theatre roles. Over his career, Rad ...

's face digitally superimposed on Yankovic's.

Legacy

Yankovic had pulled "Eat It" and his other Jackson song parody, "

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", from the setlist of his Strings Attached Tour in the wake of the HBO documentary ''

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'', in which two men claimed Jackson had sexually abused them when they were children. "I don't know if that's going to be permanent or not," Yankovic said of the decision. "But we just felt that with what's happened recently with the HBO documentaries, we didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable." As part of a charity effort during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix si ...

and Bob Odenkirk held a '' Mr. Show'' online reunion show in May 2020 with many of their former cast members as well as other friends. The show concluded by having Cross, Odenkirk and their cast, as well as Yankovic, sing "Eat It", in a purposely tone-deaf manner that parodied a prior cover performance of "

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

" that

Gal Gadot Gal Gadot-Varsano ( he, גל גדות ; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, whereafter she ...

and other celebrities had done for COVID-19 awareness but which had been taken as ineffectual.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control "Weird Al" Yankovic songs Songs written by Michael Jackson 1984 singles Number-one singles in Australia Cultural depictions of Michael Jackson Songs with lyrics by "Weird Al" Yankovic 1984 songs American hard rock songs Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album Scotti Brothers Records singles