| Eat 'Em and Smile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 7, 1986 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| 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 | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
| Christgau’s Consumer Guide | 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 formerVan Halen singerDavid Lee Roth, released on July 7, 1986. It follows his successful debutEPCrazy from the Heat (1985). The album was certified platinum in the U.S., selling over a million copies.
After releasingCrazy from the Heat, an EP of lounge standards that became a surprise hit during early 1985, and subsequently parting ways withVan Halen while the band was at its commercial zenith, Roth assembled a new backing band: bassistBilly Sheehan (later ofMr. Big); drummerGregg Bissonette (later of Ringo Starr'sAll-Star Band); and virtuoso guitaristSteve Vai, who had played withFrank Zappa,PiL, andAlcatrazz.[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]
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.[13]
Two of the album's original songs became its biggest hits. "Yankee Rose", a tongue-in-cheek tribute to theStatue of Liberty, became anMTV and radio hit, rising into theBillboard Top 20.[14] The would-be theme to Roth's then-planned movie, "Goin' Crazy!", also became an MTV staple[15] that reached #66 onBillboard's Hot 100 in October 1986.[16]
Similar to his preceding EP, Roth included twolounge song covers onEat 'Em and Smile: "That's Life," which was a minor hit at the end of 1986, with a video featuring clips of previous Roth and Van Halen videos being in heavy rotation on MTV,[17] and "I'm Easy." A third cover wasJohn 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 cover version of "Kids in Action", written byKim Mitchell of the bandMax Webster, was recorded for the album. Sheehan had briefly been a member of Max Webster – according to 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 ofSteve Vai andBilly 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 withEddie Van Halen, the previous guitarist who worked with Roth. This album features some of Steve Vai's most renowned guitar work.[16]
Sonrisa Salvaje (literally "Wild Smile") is the Spanish-language version ofEat '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.[18] 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 theEat '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; aCD 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.
The extensive North AmericanEat 'Em and Smile Tour ran from mid-1986 through early 1987.
In 2015, a live concert for the 30th anniversary was planned featuring Vai, Sheehan, Bissonette, and keyboardist Brett Tuggle. InitiallyMichael Starr was going to sing, but at the last minute Roth arrived at the venue. Due to safety measures and the overwhelmed capacity of the venue, fire marshals shut down the show.[19][20][21][22]
The album was a critical and commercial success. Many reviews comparedEat 'Em and Smile with Van Halen's synth-heavy5150 (which featured Roth's replacementSammy Hagar), often favorably.[23]Rolling Stone wrote "No song on the album was as slick as any of the singles from Van Halen's '5150' album", and opined thatEat 'Em and Smile was much more "trashy fun".[10]
Daniel Brogan of theChicago 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 theLos 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" byKerrang! for 1986.[26]
Bryan Rolli ofUltimate 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 typicalA-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]
All tracks are written byDavid Lee Roth andSteve Vai, except where noted..
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Sonrisa Salvaje title | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Yankee Rose" | "Yankee Rose" | 3:55 | |
| 2. | "Shyboy" | Billy Sheehan | "Tímido" | 3:24 |
| 3. | "I'm Easy" | "Soy Fácil" | 2:11 | |
| 4. | "Ladies' Nite in Buffalo?" | "Noche de Ronda en la Ciudad" | 4:08 | |
| 5. | "Goin' Crazy!" | "¡Loco del calor!" | 3:10 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Sonrisa Salvaje title | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Tobacco Road" (The Nashville Teens cover) | John D. Loudermilk | "La Calle del Tabaco" | 2:29 |
| 7. | "Elephant Gun" | "Arma de Caza Mayor" | 2:26 | |
| 8. | "Big Trouble" | "En busca de pleito" | 3:59 | |
| 9. | "Bump and Grind" | "Cuánto Frenesí" | 2:32 | |
| 10. | "That's Life" (Frank Sinatra cover) |
| "Así es la Vida" | 2:45 |
| Total length: | 31:04 | |||
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| 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. | ||
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.
