Eat 'Em and Smile | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 7, 1986 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 31:04 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Producer | Ted Templeman | |||
David Lee Roth chronology | ||||
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Singles from Eat 'Em and Smile | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Robert Christgau | B+ [7] |
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 7/10 [8] |
Kerrang! | [9] |
Rolling Stone | (favorable) [10] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [11] |
Eat 'Em and Smile is the debut studio album by former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, released on July 7, 1986, after his unpredicted successful debut EP Crazy from the Heat (1985).
After releasing Crazy from the Heat , an EP of lounge standards that became a surprise hit during early 1985, and subsequently parting ways with Van Halen while the band was at its commercial zenith, Roth assembled a new backing band: bassist Billy Sheehan (later of Mr. Big); drummer Gregg Bissonette (later of Ringo Starr's All-Star Band); and virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai, who had played with Frank Zappa, PiL, and Alcatrazz. [10]
Roth later said that the songs written for the album were originally intended to form the soundtrack to a film, Crazy from the Heat, which was never made. [12]
Both a critical and commercial success, Eat 'Em and Smile was praised by Rolling Stone : "No song on the album was as slick as any of the singles from Van Halen's '5150' album" (which featured Roth's replacement, Sammy Hagar) and also opined that Eat 'Em and Smile was much more "trashy fun". [10] Indeed, many of the reviews of Eat 'Em and Smile compared it directly with Van Halen's synth-heavy 5150, often favorably. [13]
The extensive North American Eat 'Em and Smile Tour ran from mid-1986 through early 1987.
The phrase 'Eat ‘Em and Smile' was part of a trademark registered in 1928 by the now-defunct Ward-Owsley Co candy company in Aberdeen, South Dakota. [14]
In 2015, a live concert for the 30th anniversary reunion was planned featuring Vai, Sheehan, Bissonette, and keyboardist Brett Tuggle. Initially Michael Starr was going to sing, but at the last minute David Lee Roth arrived at the venue. Due to safety measures and the overwhelmed capacity of the venue, the fire marshals shut down the show. [15] [16] [17] [18]
Two of the album's original songs became its biggest hits. "Yankee Rose," a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Statue of Liberty, became an MTV and radio hit, rising into the Billboard Top 20. [19] The would-be theme to Roth's then-planned movie, "Goin' Crazy!", also became an MTV staple [20] that reached #66 on Billboard's Hot 100 in October 1986. [21]
Similar to his preceding EP, Roth included two lounge song covers on Eat 'Em and Smile: "That's Life," which was a minor hit at the end of 1986, with a video featuring clips of previous Roth & Van Halen videos being in heavy rotation on MTV, [22] and "I'm Easy." A third cover was John D. Loudermilk's folk-blues song "Tobacco Road," and Billy Sheehan brought in "Shy Boy", a composition from his previous band Talas. The remainder of the songs were written by Roth and Vai.
A version of "Kids in Action," originally by Kim Mitchell (of Max Webster), was also recorded for the album. Billy Sheehan was briefly a member of Max Webster, and according to Kim Mitchell: "It didn’t work out. There were no hard feelings and he went on and did really well. I got a call from him one day and he goes, 'Hey, man, I'm in the studio with David Lee Roth, Ted Templeman and Steve Vai and we're covering your tune 'Kids in Action' and we need the words to the second verse.' I was shaking on the phone. This was right after Roth left Van Halen. Then at the last minute it got bumped off the record for 'Tobacco Road.'" There is no known studio version of Roth's cover available to the public.
This was the first of two Roth albums to feature the duo of Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan on guitar and bass respectively. Throughout the album the two would often sync complicated basslines and lead guitar parts, as on tracks such as "Shyboy" and "Elephant Gun." The album brought Steve Vai into the public eye as a contender with Eddie Van Halen, the previous guitarist who worked with Roth. This album features some of Steve Vai's most renowned guitar work. [21]
Sonrisa Salvaje (literally "Wild Smile") is the Spanish-language version of Eat 'Em and Smile. According to the Van Halen Encyclopedia, the idea to re-record the album in Spanish was the idea of bassist Billy Sheehan, who had read an article in a magazine which reported that over half the Mexican population was between the ages of 18 and 27, a prime record buying market. [23] Roth re-cut all his vocals with the help of a Spanish tutor in the studio. He edited some of the risqué lyrics, so as not to offend the more conservative Spanish-speaking population. With the exception of the vocals, the basic music tracks are the same as the Eat 'Em and Smile version, with the only exception being "Big Trouble", which ends abruptly as opposed to fading out on the English version.
According to Sheehan, the album was not well received, with many people considering it "gringo Spanish". Any future Spanish-version ideas were dropped. Sonrisa Salvaje was originally released on vinyl and cassette, but deleted almost immediately; a CD version did not appear until 2007. All of the liner notes on the original release were written in Spanish, except for the copyright notice and the Dolby noise reduction information on the cassette version.
Daniel Brogan of the Chicago Tribune found the album to be a "manic spree" where Steve Vai's "stinging guitar work" is the most appealing component. [24] Terry Atkinson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "And the Ted Templeman-produced "Eat 'Em," which stands up well alongside the best Van Halen albums, features the Roth you know: rock's answer to those pop-eyed libidinous wolves of the old Tex Avery cartoons." [25] Eat 'Em and Smile was named "album of the year" by Kerrang! for 1986. [26]
Bryan Rolli of Ultimate Classic Rock described “Ladies’ Nite in Buffalo?” as “the best and boldest song to come from any Van Halen alum since 1984." [27]
Instead of the typical "A Side" and "B Side", the vinyl artwork showed the track listing on one side of the disc, as the A Side had a photograph of Roth in-costume. [28]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Sonrisa Salvaje Title | Length |
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1. | "Yankee Rose" | David Lee Roth, Steve Vai | "Yankee Rose" | 3:55 |
2. | "Shyboy" | Billy Sheehan | "Tímido" | 3:24 |
3. | "I'm Easy" | Billy Field, Tom Price | "Soy Fácil" | 2:11 |
4. | "Ladies' Nite in Buffalo?" | Roth, Vai | "Noche de Ronda en la Ciudad" | 4:08 |
5. | "Goin' Crazy!" | Roth, Vai | "¡Loco del calor!" | 3:10 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Sonrisa Salvaje Title | Length |
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6. | "Tobacco Road" | John D. Loudermilk | "La Calle del Tabaco" | 2:29 |
7. | "Elephant Gun" | Roth, Vai | "Arma de Caza Mayor" | 2:26 |
8. | "Big Trouble" | Roth, Vai | "En busca de pleito" | 3:59 |
9. | "Bump and Grind" | Roth, Vai | "Cuánto Frenesí" | 2:32 |
10. | "That's Life" | Dean Kay, Kelly Gordon | "Así es la Vida" | 2:45 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [42] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [43] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
David Lee Roth is an American rock singer. Known for his wild and energetic stage persona, he was the lead vocalist of the hard rock band Van Halen for three stints: from 1974 to 1985, during 1996, and from 2006 to when they disbanded in 2020. He has also had a successful solo career, releasing numerous RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum albums. After more than two decades apart, Roth re-joined Van Halen in 2006 for a North American tour that became the highest-grossing in the band's history, and one of the highest-grossing of that year. In 2007, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen.
William Sheehan is an American musician known for playing bass guitar with acts such as Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. He is also known for his "lead bass" playing style, including the use of chording, two-handed tapping, "three-finger picking" technique and controlled feedback. Sheehan has been voted "Best Rock Bass Player" five times in Guitar Player readers' polls.
5150 is the seventh studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released on March 24, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records and was the first of four albums to be recorded with lead singer Sammy Hagar, who replaced David Lee Roth. The album was named after Eddie Van Halen's home studio, 5150, in turn named after a California law enforcement term for a mentally disturbed person. The album hit number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, surpassing the band's previous album, 1984, which had peaked at number 2 behind Michael Jackson's Thriller album, on which Eddie made a guest appearance.
Women and Children First is the third studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on March 26, 1980, on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee, it was the first Van Halen album not to feature any cover songs, and is described by critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "[the] record where the group started to get heavier, both sonically and, to a lesser extent, thematically."
Fair Warning is the fourth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on April 29, 1981, by Warner Bros. Records, the album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200, while the single "So This Is Love?" failed to reach Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 110 on the Bubbling-Under list. The album sold more than two million copies in the United States, but was still the band's slowest-selling album of the David Lee Roth era. Despite the album's commercially disappointing sales, Fair Warning was met with mostly positive reviews from critics. It was listed by Esquire as one of the "75 Albums Every Man Should Own".
Diver Down is the fifth studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on April 19, 1982 by Warner Bros. Records. It spent 65 weeks on the album chart in the United States and had, by 1998, sold four million copies in the United States. Despite its commercial success, selling faster than its predecessor Fair Warning (1981), it was more lukewarmly received by contemporary music critics.
OU812 is the eighth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released in 1988 and is the band's second album to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. Van Halen began work on the album in September 1987 and completed it in April 1988, one month before its release.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the ninth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released on June 17, 1991, on Warner Bros. Records and is the third to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and maintained the position for three consecutive weeks. The album marked a record in the band's history, seeing seven of its eleven tracks released as singles.
1984 is the sixth studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on January 9, 1984. It was the last Van Halen studio album until A Different Kind of Truth (2012) to feature lead singer David Lee Roth, who left the band in 1985 following creative differences. This is the final full-length album to feature all four original members, although they reunited briefly in 2000 to start work on what would much later become 2012's A Different Kind of Truth. Roth returned in 2007, but Eddie's son Wolfgang replaced Anthony in 2006. 1984 and Van Halen's self-titled debut album are the band's best-selling albums, each having sold more than 10 million copies in the United States.
Best Of – Volume I is the first greatest hits album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on October 22, 1996.
Skyscraper is the second full-length studio album by David Lee Roth, released during his solo career after his departure from Van Halen. It was released on January 25, 1988, on Warner Bros. Records, shortly after the commercially and critically successful Eat 'Em and Smile Tour of 1986–1987.
Edward John “Ted”Templeman is an American record producer. Among the acts he has a long relationship with are the rock bands Van Halen and the Doobie Brothers and the singer Van Morrison; he produced multiple critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums by each of them.
Gregg Bissonette is an American jazz and rock drummer and vocalist. He is the brother of bassist Matt Bissonette, with whom he frequently collaborates. Bissonette is known for playing and recording many different styles of music. That experience led to him winning the 2023 Modern Drummer readers poll for best “All Around” drummer and also winning their 2015 category of best “Studio” drummer. He has played on albums by dozens of recording artists, including David Lee Roth's first three solo albums and has toured as part of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band since 2008.
A Little Ain't Enough is the third full-length studio album by David Lee Roth, released on January 15, 1991, through Warner Music Group. It was certified gold on April 11, 1991. Produced by Bob Rock, the album featured the lead guitar work of Jason Becker, a then up-and-coming guitarist who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis a week after joining the band. He managed to finish recording the album, but was unable to tour in support of the album, as his condition left him with little strength in his hands.
"I'll Wait" is a song by American rock band Van Halen, taken from their sixth studio album, 1984 (1984). It was written by band members Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth, along with Michael McDonald, and produced by Ted Templeman.
Matt Bissonette is an American bass player and vocalist. According to Guitar 9, an online musicianship magazine, he has played bass and other stringed instruments on at least 22 albums, with music styles ranging from jazz, jazz fusion, progressive metal and instrumental rock. Bissonette has played bass with performers such as David Lee Roth (1987–1992), Jeff Lynne and ELO (2001), Ringo Starr (2003–2005), Elton John (2012–2023), and currently REO Speedwagon ). He is the brother of drummer Gregg Bissonette.
Jesse Harms is an American musician and songwriter. He has worked with Sammy Hagar, David Lee Roth, Eddie Money, REO Speedwagon, Bad English, Guitar Shorty, Patty Smyth, and McAuley Schenker Group.
"Love Walks In" is a power ballad by American rock band Van Halen released as the third single from the band's seventh studio album, 5150 (1986). It was the first song the band wrote with vocalist Sammy Hagar. It peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, and reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The David Lee Roth Band was Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth's backing band, formed in Pasadena, California. Originally featuring a supergroup lineup of guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan, and drummer Gregg Bissonette, the band released numerous popular songs and albums from the mid-1980s until the late 1990s. Other well-known musicians in the David Lee Roth Band have included guitarist Jason Becker, guitarist Steve Hunter, guitarist John Lowery, bassist Matt Bissonette, drummer Ray Luzier, and keyboardist Danny Wagner. The backing band's well-known songs include "Yankee Rose", "Goin' Crazy!", "Shy Boy", "Just Like Paradise", "Stand Up", "Damn Good", "A Little Ain't Enough", "She's My Machine", and "Slam Dunk!".
David Lee Roth is an American rock singer best known as the lead singer of Van Halen. His solo discography consists of six studio albums, one extended play, one compilation album, and 20 singles. Of his eight albums, four have been certified Gold or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America. Eat 'Em and Smile, Skyscraper, and Crazy from the Heat are certified Platinum, and A Little Ain't Enough is certified Gold. As of 2012, all of David Lee Roth's Warner Brothers LPs are due for recertification.
rolling stone david lee roth album guide.
Templeman, Ted; Renoff, Greg (2020). Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life In Music. Toronto: ECW Press. pp. 409–12. ISBN 9781770414839. OCLC 1121143123.