
Eat It

"Eat It" is a 1984 song by American comedy music artist "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a spoof of Michael Jackson's 1983 single "Beat It", with the contents changed to be about an exasperated parent attempting to get their picky child to eat. The track was both a commercial and critical success, earning Yankovic a Grammy Award. 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, Rick Derringer.
According to Yankovic, when he presented his lyrics to Jackson for review, he did not know what kind of reaction he would get. Jackson allegedly thought it was amusing, and agreed to allow the parody. On October 19, 1989, the RIAA certified "Eat It" as a gold 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 Grammy Award in the Best Comedy Recording category. "Eat It" also outranked "Beat It" in overall highest position on the Australian Aria Charts, with its highest rank being number 1, while "Beat It"'s highest is third. The RIAA certified "Eat It" as a gold single on October 19, 1989.
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 mimicking the dance moves from the original video in a clumsy manner. The video ends with Yankovic looking into the camera with yellow eyes, a reference to the end of Jackson's video for "Thriller".
Jackson received royalties from Yankovic due to the strong similarities.
Legacy.
As part of a charity effort during the COVID-19 pandemic, David Cross 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" that Gal Gadot and other celebrities had done for COVID-19 awareness but which had been taken as ineffectual.
Yankovic had pulled "Eat It" and his other Jackson song parody, "Fat", from the setlist of his Strings Attached Tour in the wake of the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland", 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."