Eat 'Em and Smile

Background

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-Starr 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]

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]

Production

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.^[14] "Goin' Crazy!", the would-be theme to Roth's then-planned movie, also became an MTV staple^[15], reaching #66 on Billboard's Hot 100 in October 1986.^[16]

Similar to his preceding EP, Roth included two lounge song covers on Eat 'Em and Smile: "That's Life", which became 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 is 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 cover version of "Kids in Action", written by Kim Mitchell of the band Max 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.'

This is 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 often synced 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 an accomplished replacement for Eddie Van Halen, the previous guitarist who worked with Roth. This album features some of Steve Vai's most renowned guitar work.^[16]

Sonrisa Salvaje

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.^[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 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.

30th anniversary attempt

In 2015, a live concert for the 30th anniversary was planned featuring Vai, Sheehan, Bissonette, and keyboardist Brett Tuggle. Initially Michael 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]}

Tour

In 1987, Kerrang! magazine reviewed the Cobo Hall concert, calling it "One of the best shows I've ever witnessed" and "Pure entertainment with a sense of surprise. No one is better at this than DLR. Believe it!"^[28]

In 2016, Ultimate Classic Rock's retrospective review said, "With help from touring keyboardist Brett Tuggle, the foursome tore through a set list that included an equal blend of Van Halen classics and songs from its new album each night, livening up Roth's traditional pre-'Ice Cream Man' storytelling introduction with a steel drum solo, and turning bass and guitar virtuosos Sheehan and Vai loose for an extended duel."^[29]

In 2024, Billy Sheehan denied a rumor that there was a "duct tape line" on the stage during this tour that band members besides Roth could not cross. However, that became true of the Skyscraper tour and is why he did not join it.^[30]

Charts

Additional personnel

• Jeff Bova – keyboards on 1
• Jesse Harms – keyboards on 5
• Sammy Figueroa – percussion on 5
• The Waters Family – backing vocals on 10
• The Sidney Sharp Strings – strings on 10
• Jimmie Haskell – horn and string arrangement on 10