Eddie Van Halen acquired a telephone name from somebody who launched himself as “Quincy” in 1982.
“I don’t know anybody named Quincy,” the guitarist confidently informed the caller. However he did know somebody named Quincy: Quincy Jones, who was producing Michael Jackson’s sixth solo album. Jones wished to know if Van Halen was fascinated about enjoying a guitar solo on one of many LP’s songs, “Beat It.” Jackson had purposefully written the track intending to include a tougher rock sound — “the kind of track that I might purchase if I had been to purchase a rock track,” as he described it.
As soon as Van Halen realized he wasn’t being pranked, he agreed and arrived at Los Angeles’ Westlake Recording Studios to put down a monitor.
“I requested Quincy, ‘What would you like me to do?'” Van Halen recalled to CNN in 2012. “And he goes, ‘No matter you need to do.’ And I’m going, ‘Watch out while you say that. If something about me, watch out while you say, ‘Do something you need!'”
“Beat It,” the third single from Thriller, was a colossal success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100 and staying there for 3 weeks, promoting 7 million copies worldwide and changing into some of the recognizable pop songs in historical past.
We revisit this unlikely collaboration within the under video from our “Odd {Couples}” sequence.
Van Halen Albums Ranked
A rating of each Van Halen album.
