michael jackson history tour beat it

HIStory World Tour: 1996 – 1997

The HIStory Tour was Michael’s last solo tour, which started on September 7th 1996 and ended on October 15th 1997. It consisted of 82 concerts and was seen by approximately 4.5 million people. It was his most popular tour, based on attendance and how much money it made.

During the HIStory Tour, not only was Michael the first pop artist in history to sell out Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii; but he actually performed there twice…both shows a sell out.

Set List – 1st Leg

• Scream/They Don’t Care About Us/In the Closet
• Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
• Stranger in Moscow
• Smooth Criminal
• You Are Not Alone
• The Way You Make Me Feel
• Jackson 5 Medley
• Off The Wall Medley
• Billie Jean
• Come Together/D.S. (For three months only)
• Black Or White
• Heal The World

Set List – 2nd Leg

• Blood On The Dance Floor (For three months only)

Latest News

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Michael Jackson feat. Eddie Van Halen, “Beat It” 1984 Victory Tour

Dallas, 1984

So we’ve all heard Michael Jackson’s multi-platinum jam ‘Beat It’ , which features the legendary Eddie Van Halen pulling double duty on guitar. What makes this song really special, though, is seeing Eddie actually perform it live with the late King of Pop on his 1984 Victory tour! As the legend goes, Michael was performing that night in Dallas, Texas and Eddie just happened to be in the neighborhood; Michael was gracious enough to invite our favorite lead guitarist onstage with him for a rowdy, action-packed performance of ‘Beat It’ just to let the crowd hear that killer guitar solo live and in person.

In true Eddie Van Halen fashion, he did not disappoint – not even Michael was able to contain his excitement at watching the real life guitar hero at work, and neither will you!

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September 7th, 1996 - HIStory World Tour

• Thread starter Moonwalker.Fan
• Start date Sep 7, 2011

Moonwalker.Fan

Proud member.

• Sep 7, 2011

GREAT Thread moonwalker.fan I have linked your contribution to MJJC's featured Thread Today In Michael Jackson HIStory September 7th http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/threads/118717-Today-in-Michael-Jackson-HIStory-September-7th  

CaptainEoLove85

• Sep 8, 2011

OMG! Good times.... :girl_sigh: :heart:  

love is magical

The first video is beautiful. I love and miss him so much. Time doesn't ease the pain.  

• Sep 9, 2011

Miss No Name

• Feb 21, 2022

Michael jackson & Flower met that day the 7th of September 1996 In Prag  

Michaels Lover

Premium member.

MY first MJ concert (Prague). I'll never forget it, the best day of my life  

I was too young and too far away from world of music for these concerts. Just watching them online has made me a fan. I cannot imagine what out of the world experience it would have been in person. No surprise so many people fainted!  

filmandmusic

• Feb 22, 2022

poor ticket sales in Slovenia. How odd, there is a country that has little appetite for Michael!  

• Feb 28, 2022

filmandmusic said: dårligt billetsalg i Slovenien. Hvor mærkeligt, der er et land, der ikke har meget lyst til Michael! Click to expand...

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Beat It by Michael Jackson

Songfacts®:

• Eddie Van Halen played the guitar solo on "Beat It." He did it as a favor for Quincy Jones and was not paid, unless you count the two six-packs of beer brought into the studio. Eddie connected to Quincy through Ted Templeman, who was Van Halen's producer and friends with Jones. It was good timing because Eddie's bandmates were out of town, so they couldn't give him any static for taking on another project. He figured nobody would ever know it was him on the record. According to Eddie, he had the engineer restructure the song to accommodate his solo, then blasted out two takes. Jackson showed up after the second take and was thrilled that Eddie cared enough about the song to rework it. Eddie told CNN : "He was this musical genius with this childlike innocence. He was such a professional, and such a sweetheart." When Van Halen's 1984 album rose to #2 in America for three weeks in March 1984, it was held off the top spot by Thriller .
• Part of Jackson's legacy was his crossover success with white audiences, something many Motown artists achieved, but Jackson took to a new level. He was the first black artist to get regular airplay on MTV, and this song helped expand his audience further by bringing in some of the Van Halen listeners. "Beat It" was a key track in Jackson's rise to superstardom.
• Jackson wrote this song. He came up with it when his producer, Quincy Jones, encouraged him to write something like " My Sharona ," which was a huge hit for The Knack in 1979. (Confirmed in Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones .)
• The lyrics are about life on the streets and gang activity, something Jackson was very detached from. He was schooled by tutors his whole life and became a star at a young age, so his interpretation of "two gangs coming together to rumble" was based on the celluloid interpretations that he'd seen, specifically West Side Story , which used gangs as musical art. West Side Story was a 1957 musical that was made into a popular movie in 1961. Starring Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno, the film won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Some of the first dialogue heard in the movie - in a scene where some gang members have encroached on rival territory - is the emphatic line, "beat it."
• The lyric, "Show me how funky and strong is your fight" is often misheard as something you can't say on the radio. That line also has the distinction of being misquoted on one of the most popular sitcoms of the era , when Mallory on Family Ties (Justine Bateman), demonstrating her idea of good music to her hippie parents, sings, "Show me what's funky, show me what's right..."
• About 2:45 into the song, there is an audible knocking noise just before Eddie Van Halen starts his guitar solo. Rumors were that an angry and drunk Eddie made the noise, that he was telling the assistant producer to f--k off, or that it was the sound of his guitar tremolo being bent. The truth is more mundane, as it was an intentional sound created by Michael Jackson banging on a drum case. On the Thriller credits, Jackson is listed on "Beat It" as "Drum Case Beater."
• Michael Jackson is quoted in Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 songs issue as saying of this, "I wanted to write the type of rock song that I would go out and buy. But also something totally different from the rock music I was hearing on Top 40 radio."
• This won 1983 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Rock Vocal Performance.
• The music video for this song was one of the most popular and memorable of the MTV era. Jackson became the first black artist to get regular airplay on the network when " Billie Jean " went in rotation. When the clip for "Beat It" was delivered, both videos were in hot rotation for much of the summer of 1983. It was Bob Giraldi who directed the clip, which featured real gang members. Giraldi, who later directed the infamous Pepsi commercial where Jackson's hair caught fire, said in the book I Want My MTV : "Everybody says 'Beat It' was taken from West Side Story . It's not true. I had no idea what West Side Story was. My inspiration was the streets of Paterson, New Jersey, where I'm from. I listened to the song over and over, and realized it was about all the Italian hoodlums I grew up with - everybody trying to be tougher than they are, but really, we're all cowards at heart." Giraldi adds that Jackson asked to use members of the rival gangs Bloods and Crips as extras in the video, which they did. He says that on the first day of shooting, things got a little tense, so Giraldi had them shoot all scenes with the gang members on the first day.
• When Jackson reunited with his brothers for two shows at Madison Square Garden, Slash from Guns N' Roses played guitar during the performance of this and "Black And White."
• Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this song called " Eat It ." Rick Derringer played the guitar solo on his version. Yankovic also did a video for his song where he appeared dressed like Jackson but with a voracious appetite. Yankovic says that Michael Jackson had a great sense of humor and gave him permission to do the parody. This gave him validation with other artists who had a hard time declining a parody when Michael Jackson said yes.
• Members of the group Toto played on this: Steve Lukather on lead guitar, Steve Porcaro on synthesizer, and Jeff Porcaro on drums. These guys were seasoned studio pros and had the hot sound - the album Toto IV was one of the best sellers of 1982.
• The US Department of Transportation used this in messages to discourage drunk driving. In exchange, Jackson was invited to the White House where he met President Reagan. Jackson showed up in his sequined suit and sunglasses, which made for an interesting photo with the president.
• Fall Out Boy recorded this in 2008 for their album ****: Live in Phoenix . Their version, which hit #19 in the US, was first performed this during the 2007 MTV Music Video Awards. Excluding tracks that sample any of Michael Jackson's songs, it became the second highest-charting remake of a Jackson song in Hot 100 history. The highest-ranked cover of a Jackson original was SWV's 1993 medley of "Right Here/Human Nature," which peaked at #2. In this cover of "Beat It," John Mayer joined Fall Out Boy, performing Eddie Van Halen's part on lead guitar. Fall Out Boy released a video for the song that contained many allusions to Michael Jackson and the original video.
• Quincy Jones said that when he called Eddie Van Halen to play the guitar solo, "I said, 'I'm not going to tell you what to play, the reason you're here is because of what you do play…' So that's what he did. He played his ass off." Eddie's signature sound, which is evident on the solo, incorporates tapping on the fretboard. He built his own guitars and developed his own style, so getting him on "Beat It" meant the song would have a guitar section distinct from anything heard outside of a Van Halen record. It also brought his innovative technique to the ears of pop fans. "The technique of tapping the fingerboard had been around for decades, but it was sparsely practiced, and almost always as a novelty," Guitar Player editor Jas Obrecht explained . "Eddie brought finger tapping into mainstream rock'n'roll. He spread the gospel of tapping even further with his solo on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It,' which was heard by millions of people around the world. And credit where credit is due: the distinctive rhythm guitar on that song was played by Steve Lukather."
• Eddie Van Halen recalled: "Everybody (from Van Halen) was out of town and I figured, 'who's gonna know if I play on this kid's record?' I didn't want nothing. Maybe Michael will give me dance lessons someday." (Source of above two quotes Q magazine August 2009).
• This was featured in the 1989 film Back To The Future 2 .
• According Rod Temperton, who wrote the title track to Thriller , a mystery blaze broke out in the control room as Eddie van Halen played his guitar solo. "Eddie was playing and the monitor speakers literally caught on fire," recalled Temperton to Q magazine. "The speaker caught fire and were all thinking, like, 'This must be really good, this solo!' That technicians had to race into the control room with fire extinguishers and put it out."
• Anyone who knew their way around a Synclavier at the time probably thought the song's intro synth sounded familiar. According to the album's engineer, Bruce Swedien, it was a stock Synclavier patch. "Any Synclavier will make that sound," he told MusicRadar . "We liked it but we wanted everything to be unrecognizable, unique, so we didn't want to use that sound, but Michael loved it and made us keep it."
• Swedien was in awe of Eddie Van Halen's powerful guitar solo, but he didn't dare record it himself. Fearing the blast would damage his hearing, he left the studio while Eddie was still warming up. "It was so loud I would never subject my hearing to that kind of volume level!" he said. "I didn't record that solo, I hired his engineer - I figured his hearing would probably be a little suspect right now anyway. I then did the mix after it was recorded."
• More songs from Michael Jackson
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• More songs with lyrics that are often misheard
• More songs used in movies
• More popular Karaoke songs
• More songs with videos directed by Bob Giraldi
• More songs from 1982
• Lyrics to Beat It
• Michael Jackson Artistfacts

Comments: 70

• Chad Eicher from Apple Creek, Ohio I commend Eddie Van Halen for not only providing the guitar solo in the recording session for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album but also performing it in Dallas, Texas during the Jacksons victory tour.
• Michelle from Sc, Usa A great song with a great message!! He had so many great hits. The cruel world didn't deserve him. RIP King Of Pop
• Exobscura from Nyc Thanks for everything Weird Al
• Josh from Tumwater This song is about you don’t want a bully to pick on you tell em beat it
• Jay from Vancouver Wa Steve Lukather also played bass on the song. Also Eddies solo was recorded at his studio 5150. Only Eddie and Don Landee were there. They had to splice the tape so Ed had a section he could play over. The cut screwed up the time code on the tape which resulted in the need to rerecord the track. Quincy called Jeff Porcaro and Steve Lukather in to rerecord the basic track, literally rebuild it.
• Barry from Sauquoit, Ny On March 31st 1983, the cable channel MTV added Michael Jackson's video for "Beat It" to its rotation schedule, thus becoming the first black artist* included in their regular rotation... At the time the song was at #14 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; twenty-four days later on April 24th, 1983 it would peak at #1 {for 3 weeks} and spent all most a half-year on the Top 100 {25 weeks}... It had entered the Top 100 on February 20th, 1983 at #78, and at the time his "Billie Jean" was at #4... * The first black artist to have a video air on MTV was the Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie" in September 1982.
• Delphi from Usa No actually Michael didn't play drums on this track - Jeff Porcaro - a very famous, drummer from the band Toto and a top studio musician at the time played the drums on this.
• Adrian from Johor Bahru, Malaysia An ideal anthem for the non violent movement ! Although the lyrics were aimed at the avoidance of gang fights, it could be expanded to cover many areas as well such as the avoidance of getting into arguments and quarrels or maybe even war "It doesn't matter whose wrong or right just get out of it !" Kudos Mike !
• Kunal Somaiya from Mumbai, India 2 Grammys for Billie Jean and for Beat it, and Total 8. Jackson rocked the 1984 Grammys. A record.
• Cory Stoczynski from Lancaster, Ny Alvin From The Alvin And The Chipmunks Danced With Him On Rockin' With The Chipmunks In 1990!
• Johnny D from La, Bermuda The knocking sound was covered in the May 1984 issue of Rolling Stone. Steve Templeman, VH producer at the time was PO'd that Eddie had volunteered his time for free without consulting anyone. They actually got in a fight in the studio, and the tech kept the tape rolling. You can actually hear Eddie say "F#ck off" right before he starts his solo.
• Allen from New York, Ca Pablo Ferro was the Supervising Editor on this landmark video, for which he received the nomination for "Best Editor"during the AVA awards. http://www.pabloferro.net
• Squigle from Columbus, Oh My favorite Micheal Jackson song. And normally I hate this music! There's a reason Thriller was the best-selling album EVER!!
• Nathan from Warsaw, Ny I first heard this gond on guitar hero world tour. then at one of my soccer games they played this.(it was at perry to)
• Jennifer Harris from Grand Blanc, Mi One of my favorite Michael Jackson songs, He turned 51 in heaven. RIP-King of Pop.
• Abdullaah from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ......by the way, Michael played the drums himself on this song......
• Abdullaah from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Hi Guys....the knocking sound we hear just before the EVH solo is NOT the sound of a door being knocked....IT IS the sound of Eddie's Tremolo being pushed all the way down making the strings bent loose...& as he springs@pulls the tremolo up slowly & skillfully, therefore making the strings turn from being loose to becoming tighter thus this effect produces that fascinating & cool knocking sound just before Eddie's Iconic solo.....try putting on a set of headphones & listen to it carefully, u can hear the tremolo arm bending & eddie's finger's slide upon the fretboard crystally clear...i am a guitar player & you can ask any pro guitar player & they will explain to you this.... this technique is very skillfully played by Eddie & needs much practice & u can hear this played by many Heavy Metal Guitar players such as Kirk Hammet, Marty Friedman, Akira Takasaki, Dan Spitz, Buckethead etc.... for this unique sound it is best played with a Floyd Rose Tremolo type.... R.I.P. King Of Pop
• Abdullaah from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia try listening to the solo with headphones, the sound of the tremolo & eddie's fingers sliding on the fret board are crystal clear.....cool solo....
• Marcus from Aberdeen, Ms Maybe its just me...But i thought the knocking was intentional...Really...Because if u pay attention to the first notes he hits...Its sounds like an old door opening, meaning there would b knocking before it...Kind of hinting to the people that..."hey, eddie's in the room...Im bout to turn this bad boi out!!!" (and showing of skills too)...Kind of an intro to a perfect solo...Jus my theory.
• Cathe from Los Angeles, Ca I remember an interview about this song in which MJ told the story that The Gang members used were the famed LA CRIPS AND BLOODS. Michael convinced them to put down thier differences and do the video. They did not get paid and they did not get credit for community service. In addition, In the 80's, the studio rooms were not as sophistically build as they are today. Some of the materials used for soundproofing today were not even created yet. The audible knock, (listen for it) is there and if Quincy JOnes said that is what happened--that is what happened.
• Linc from Beaumont, Tx Actual gang members were used in the video - it was part of their probation or community service agreements.
• Emily from Toronto, On This is a very good song! The guitar solo rocks!
• Karlitos from Ottawa, On I also find the "knocking on the door" thing hard to beleive. Most studio doors are thinkly padded for soundproofing purposes and dont sound like plywood. Plus, most of these microphones capture sound in a set pattern. For example cardoid mics will capture sound from an area the size of a basketball. So a knock on the door would not be audible. Lastly, any dope who'd be around would notice a red "ON AIR" lighted sign if they were recording (or something similar). I think this is just an urban legend.
• Jeff from Concord, Ca Sorry sly. You should check your facts before saying: This is the true story about Beat It. Yes, it was written by Michael Jackson. Steve Lukather played on the album and did some arranging but did not write Beat It. All you have to do is check the album credits. And where'd you get all the BS about Eddie being drunk? Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. But to say "That's the reason Eddie can never play that exact same solo again" is crap. Of course he can! Just go to YouTube to see many amateur guitar players playing the same solo. P.S. Eddie Rules!!
• Theresa from Murfreesboro, Tn Great choreography, killer guitar solo.
• Roberta from Carleton, Mi Not mentioned in here, I remember hearing that some actual gangmembers were used in Michael's video for this song
• Matt from York, Va Someone "knocking on the studio door" before EVH's solo?? Not. It is deliberate percussion. It is on the beat. Also, the final EVH solo is an edit of several different solos. Notice the gaps between phrases.
• Xavier from Santa Fe, Nm i dont really listen to him but i like this song cause Van Halen did an awesome job on guitar
• Nick from Cairns, Australia The solo rules!! But don't get me wrong, the rest of the song is great, and now the king of pop is dead. It's a shame that people only acknowledge his estranged lifestyle and make more jokes rather than look back on the life he had musically.
• Guitarhero from San Fran, Ca there is a knocking noise just before Eddie Van Halen starts his guitar solo .. that is EVH giving the signal to punch-in and that he will begin playing the solo
• Emily from Around Chicago, Il I heard this song on the radio minutes after I heard the news of Micheal Jackson's death. Since it was in honour of him, I thought it might be appropriate to recognize him on songfacts in the comments of this song. Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop", died on June 25th 2009. Born in 1958, he was 50 years old. We'll miss you!
• A.c. from Auckland, New Zealand Guitar World magazine named this solo "best of the decade". In an interview for the same magazine Eddie Van Halen stated that originally the piece of music just before the solo, the heavy staccato rhythm mainly on an E chord, played by Steve Lukather, was the planned backing for the solo. But Eddie found this too bland and uninspiring so suggested he solo over the verse music. Eddie was apparently very pleased with the solo and the song, but was hassled by David Lee Roth (Van Halen singer) for it, who said he was an idiot for not getting paid.
• Sly from Durban, South Africa This the true story about beat it.It was never written by Michael Jackson it was written by Steve Lukather and the guitar solo was done by Eddie Van Halen he did it as a favour to Steve not Quincy.Now here the good part Eddie Van Halen was drunk when he did the solo for Beat it.They just gave him a guitar and he didnt know he was been recorded.You see even the solo was supposed to be done by Steve but he sound wasnt just quite right so he called on Eddie.Now Eddie was drunk so when the song played for the first time on radio Eddie didnt even know it was him playing the solo.Thats the reason Eddie can never play that exact same solo again.
• Austyn from Racine, Western Sahara Micheal was awarded Billboards #1 album of 1983 & 1984 for "thriller".Quite an accomplishment!
• Sam from Lexington , Ky Eddie Van Halen's solo is incredible in this song. That's the only reason that half the people who like this song like it!! I just don't see how anyone could like this song for anything but the solo. EVH deserves more credit on this song than Michael Jackson if you ask me, considering he is pretty much the one who made it a hit. I think that Michael Jackson was a little on the ??? side anyway, if you know what i mean. But that's just my opinion...
• Cynthia from Scranton, Pa the best memory for me with this song is the walk-off scene in the movie "Zoolander". it is quite possibly the best scene in that hilarious movie.
• John from Nashville, Tn When Quincy Jones called Eddie Van Halen to play the guitar solo on this song, Eddie thought it was a joke and said "who is this asshole?". After the song hit, Quincy sent Eddie a thank you note and signed it as "the asshole".
• Jake from Columbia City, In I like this song because I'm a major Van Halen fan, even though I'm only a teenager.
• Matt from Nyc, Ny this song was also featured in the movie Undercover Brother during a fight scene
• John from Brisbane, Australia a question for Jackson experts: what is the name of the "disco clappers" MJ plays on this song, the only instrument he played on the album, as he also played on "Say Say Say" with Paul McCartney?
• John from Brisbane, Australia "About 2:45 into the song, there is an audible knocking noise just before Eddie Van Halen starts his guitar solo. This noise is the result of a technician accidentally knocking on the studio door, as he didn't realize the take had started...". i find this a bit hard to believe..
• Jason from Denver, Co Although Michael Jackson has been called the "King of Pop", this song sounds more metal to me than pop to me.
• Cristina from Long Beach, Ca i think that this song is great it is so kool and forget all haters
• Joe from Gallipolis, Oh i am not a fan of fall out boy but their cover of this is pretty good! not as good as michael though. john mayer plays guitar in the cover
• Rob from Bingham, Nm that knocking on Beat It has been bothering me for years - now i have closure (if its true) i even asked Steve Lukather (Toto) he explains on his website he actually did most of the production not QJ, however but he didn't reply. He would be the one who could definitively answer the question i suppose.
• Allox from Qld, Australia My fav guitar solo!!!!!!! And fav Michael Jackson song
• Heather from Birmingham, United Kingdom Is the story true about a technician knocking on the door of the studio, unaware that Eddie had started doing his take. You can hear the knocking sound just before the guitar solo starts.
• Andrew from Bartlett, Tn Wow! MJ and Eddie Van Halen in one song. awesome!
• Max from Laconia, Nh Michael Jackson's jacket is so cool! I want one. This was also way before the time that he freaked out and turned "white". Not cool anymore. But the video is super cool, too.
• Defy from Wellington, New Zealand wow one take for the solo. Respect...
• Stratis from Brighton, England It is said that Van Halen solo was done in just one take!
• Mike from Chicago, Ia This song was based on the movie West Side Story (early 1960's), which was based on the Broadway play. The "fight scene" between the Jets and Sharks is somewhat similar to the dancing in the video. Anyway, the very first words spoken in that movie are "Beat it".
• Fredrik from UmeÃ¥, Sweden Actually, I don't care how he look. If he still write good songs (like this)it doesn't matter. But after Dangerous, he haven't written any good song. Hope his next album will be better with some more pop/rock songs.
• Nathan from Defiance, Oh The reason Jackson was the first black artist on regular airplay on MTV is because the only people making videos at the time were a handfull of British new wave bands. It wasn't until after MTV that artists saw value in making videos.
• Rachel from South Point, Oh What is it with people bringing up the race issue and Michael Jackson? I mean, did anybody ever *not* like Michael because he's black? Because he's not exactly black anymore... And he's darn talented.
• Steve from Fenton, Mo One of the best songs of the 80's. Why couldn't Jackson have left his face as it was at this point in time?
• Eric from Phx, Az THis song is bomb!!! But the only problem is the faggy lyrics!!! But the solo makes up White Power!!!!!!!!!!
• Grace from Fairfax Station, Va When I first heard this song, I thought it was about a guy telling off someone, but when I read the lyrics, it sounds almost verbatim what my elementary guidance school counselor told my class: don't fight, just walk away. I still like this song, though.
• Sarah Floyd from Bloomingdale, Il i like this song because its my favorite song. and its judging. because it tells you if you are going to be bad then you should beat it somewhere else. and playing truth or dare they are going to beat and kick you and tell you its fair so beat it. and thats what i like about michael jackson.
• Jeanette from Irvine, Ca michael jackson still wrote it so whether or not eddie had a big part in the song...its still michael jackson's when it comes down to it.
• Brently from Los Molinos, Ca This is one of Michael Jackson's best hits!
• Elson from Los Angeles, Ca I'm sorry Craig, but in my vinyl copy of "Thriller," in the musician's credits for "Beat It," it clearly says, "Featuring: Guitar Solo by Eddie Van Halen." And it's mentioned before all the other musicians credited on this song.
• Stephanie from Denver, Co Yes Michael Jackson was the man back in the 1980s, he did have a good voice but now he is just a so-so musician.
• Aj from Cleveland, Ga It's more of Michael's song than Eddie's. If Black Sabbath fans listen to it just because of the guitar solo, then that's stupid. It's still Michael Jackson, and yet some people act like Eddie owns the song.
• Craig from Guildford, England Although Eddie Van Halen did play the guitar in this song, this is not mentioned on the Thriller album. Eddie just doesn't get enough credit, he is an amazing guitarist
• Peter from Montrose, Dc Eddie is a God!
• Jam Kemal from Lindua, South Africa Putting Beat It on Thriller was an amazing desicion. Remains a rock/pop classic till this day. It's Michael's diversity as a musician what makes him so unique and great. I have friends that are Black Sabbath fans, that listen to Jackson because of Beat It Dirty diana, Give Into me etc.
• Jules from London, United States this is a albumfact really but 'thriller' which eddie van halen played on 'beat it' actually managed to keep his own album '1984' off the US top spot... and may have contributed to dave leaving the band consequently
• Cio from Lithonia, Ga In the spring of 1983, Michael Jackson was ATOP all of Billboard's major charts, and #1 in the UK. This was a first in chart history. WOW!
• Cio from Lithonia, Ga Michael was awarded Billboard's #1 album of 1983 and 1984 for "Thriller". Quite an accomplishment!

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Michael Jackson Wiki

Welcome to the Michael Jackson Wiki , the encyclopedia intending to honor the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson . Here, you can discover or even share your knowledge about the star. Before doing so however, please make sure to check our rules and guidelines .

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" Beat It " is a song by Michael Jackson released as the fifth track from the Thriller album. It was released as a single on February 14, 1983, serving as the third single from the album. The track features Eddie Van Halen on lead guitar. It is considered one of Jackson's biggest songs.

A voice memo (referred to as a demo) of Jackson presenting the track's melodies was released as a bonus track to the posthumous Michael Jackson's This Is It compilation album.

• 1 Background
• 2 Recording Process
• 3 Eddie Van Halen Involvement
• 4 Music video
• 5 Live performances
• 6 2008 Remix
• 10 References

Background [ ]

The track was written and recorded in 1982. According to the Thriller 40 film, Jackson wanted to make "Beat It" rock-oriented due to MTV's statement that "they only play rock" when asked why don't they play black artists' music videos. Additionally, he wanted it to differ from Off the Wall 's sound even more than the rest of Thriller . Eddie Van Halen was asked to perform on the guitar after Michael stated he wanted a guitarist who would attract attention of white male audiences.

"Beat It" has won two Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame.

Recording Process [ ]

The song was initally recorded with Michael's lead vocal, Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo recorded at 5150 Studios, and Michael hitting a drum case and a screwdriver on beats two and four to act as a kick and snare pattern on two 24-track recorders via SMPTE code method. SMPTE code is where two 24-track machines come together to stay in time like a metronome will stay locked in place except for when the tape is cut. Michael's lead vocal was recorded five times. Eddie Van Halen had recorded the guitar solo alongside Michael's vocal and Quincy did not want to re-record Michael's vocal because of it being a first generation tape and being the master vocal track. When the tape of Michael's vocals and drum beat was sent to Eddie Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen had cut the tape, therefore causing not only the song to go out of time but also having the band (Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro) having to re-record the song "backwards." Jeff Porcaro first created a click track using drum sticks, proceeded by recording his drum parts, Steve Lukather then layed down the guitar tracks and bass tracks. [2]

Eddie Van Halen Involvement [ ]

In a later interview with Piers Morgan, Eddie Van Halen, the guitarist and composer for the American rock group Van Halen, opens up about working with Jackson on Beat It. Eddie Van Halen never got paid to do the solo on the track.

Eddie Van Halen also rearranged the song, more specifically the solo section, to which Van Halen claimed had no chord changes underneath it. Steve Lukather, of Toto, also later confirmed this in an interview with Youtuber, Rick Beato. [2]

Music video [ ]

The video was directed by Bob Giraldi and was released on March 31, 1983. For it, actual Los Angeles street gangs, Crips and Bloods, were brought in. The video features Jackson contemplating about senseless violence, while dancing into a fight between the gangsters.

Live performances [ ]

Jackson began performing "Beat It" during the Victory Tour with the Jacksons. Soon after, it joined the set list of his solo tours and stayed on it for all his concerts. For each performance, Michael would rock a red jacket. The last time "Beat It" was performed live took place on June 23, 2009 during the This Is It rehearsals.

2008 Remix [ ]

" Beat It 2008 " is a remix of Michael Jackson's song "Beat It", released as the fourteenth track on Thriller 25 . The rework got made with will.i.am in 2007 and features Fergie of Black Eyed Peas.

[Verse 1] They told him, "Don't you ever come around here Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear" The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear So beat it, just beat it (Ooh!) You better run, you better do what you can (Ooh!) Don't wanna see no blood, don't be a macho man (Ooh!) You wanna be tough, better do what you can So beat it, but you wanna be bad [Chorus] Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it (Beat it) Just beat it (Beat it) Just beat it (Beat it) Just beat it (Beat it, uh) [Verse 2] They're out to get you, better leave while you can Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man You wanna stay alive, better do what you can So beat it, just beat it (Ooh!) You have to show them that you're really not scared (Ooh!) You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare (Ooh!) They'll kick you, then they'll beat you, then they'll tell you it's fair So beat it, but you wanna be bad [Chorus] Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it (Beat it, beat it, beat it) Beat it (Beat it, beat it, ha, ha, ha, ha) Beat it (Beat it, beat it) Beat it (Beat it, beat it) [Guitar Solo] [Chorus] Beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right (Who's right) Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it (Hoo-hoo!) No one wants to be defeated (Oh, lord) Showin' how funky (Hee-hee!) and strong is your fight (Hee-hee-hee!) It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it (Beat it!) No one wants to be defeated (Oh-no!) Showin' how funky (Hoo-hoo!) and strong is your fight (Hee-hee! Hoo!) It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right (Who's right) Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it (Hoo-hoo!) No one wants to be defeated

[Intro] Okay, this is the harmonies and the vocal harmonies on the choruses of, uh, "Beat It" Um, I'll do the verses, then, then I'll do the choruses One, two, three, four [Verse] Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Beat it (Beat it) Da-da, beat it Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Beat it But you're driving me mad [Chorus] So beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it Beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it [Outro] Alright, next track

[Verse 1] They told him, "Don't you ever come around here Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear" The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear So beat it, just beat it You better run, you better do what you can Don't wanna see no blood, don't be a macho man You wanna be tough, better do what you can So beat it, but you wanna be bad [Chorus] Just beat it (Beat it), beat it (Beat it) No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right [Post-Chorus] Just beat it (Beat it), just beat it (Beat it) Just beat it (Beat it), just beat it (Beat it), ooh [Verse 2] They're out to get you, better leave while you can Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man You wanna stay alive, better do what you can So beat it, just beat it You have to show them that you're really not scared You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare They'll kick you and they'll beat you and they'll tell you it's fair So beat it, but you wanna be bad [Chorus] Just beat it (Beat it), beat it (Beat it) No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right (Right) [Post-Chorus] Oh, no Hoo-hoo, hee-hee, hoo-hoo [Chorus] Just beat it (Beat it), beat it (Beat it) No one wants to be defeated Showin' how funky and strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right [Post-Chorus] Just beat it (Beat it) Beat it (Beat it) You want it, you want it, you want it (Beat it) You want it, you want it, you want it (Beat it) Come get it, come get it, come get it You want it, come get it, come get it [Guitar Solo] [Chorus] Beat it (Beat it), beat it (Beat it) No one wants to be defeated (Uh) Showin' how funky strong is your fight It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it (Hoo-hoo), beat it, beat it No one wants to be defeated (No, no) Showin' how funky strong is your fight (Hee-hee, hee-hee) It doesn't matter who's wrong or right Just beat it (Beat it), beat it (Beat it) No one wants to be defeated (Oh, no) Showin' how funky strong is your fight (Hoo-hoo, hee-hee) It doesn't matter who's wrong or right [Outro] Just beat it, beat it Beat it Beat it Beat it

Gallery [ ]

• The song made an appearance in Back to the Future Part II . It appears in the scene where Marty goes to Cafe 80's in 2015. In it, Michael Jackson (portrayed by E'Casanova Evans ) asks for the order.

References [ ]

• ↑ https://books.google.pl/books?id=eTVRByX_QAwC&pg=PA163&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Steve Lukather Talks About Recording "Beat It" Guitar Riff - YouTube Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":0" defined multiple times with different content
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKxKtqB6zAM
• 1 List of unreleased songs
• 2 Bigi Jackson
• 3 Get Your Weight Off of Me

Morning Rundown: 'Critical step' in Baltimore bridge recovery, GOP lawmaker says Russian propaganda 'uttered on House floor,' latest forecast for today's eclipse

South Carolina beats Iowa to take home NCAA women's championship title: Highlights

South Carolina beat Iowa 87-75 to win its third NCAA women’s championship.

The Gamecocks' Tessa Johnson had 19 points and Kamilla Cardoso had 15 as the team smothered Iowa’s hope for its first championship title.

It was the final game in the college career of Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark, who broke Division I scoring records for both women and men , and who is going to the WNBA draft. She had 30 points.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was overcome with emotion and in tears after the win.

“I’m so incredibly happy for our players,” Staley said. “It doesn’t always end like you want it to end, much like last year.”

It was Iowa that knocked South Carolina out of the tournament last year, beating them in the Final Four. But since then, South Carolina has not lost a game.

“I’m super proud of where I work, I’m super proud of our fans — it’s awesome. It’s awesome. It’s unbelievable,” Staley said.

With the win, South Carolina had the 10th perfect season in the history of Division I women’s basketball.

Staley, after accepting the trophy along with her team, congratulated Iowa for an “incredible season,” and she singled out Clark.

“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” Staley said. “She carried a heavy load for our sport. And it’s just — it’s not going to stop here on the collegiate tour, but when she is the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, she’s going to lift that league up as well.”

“So, Caitlin Clark, if you’re out there: You are one of the GOATs of our game, and we appreciate you,” Staley said, using the acronym for “greatest of all time.”

It all comes down to this.

Rebecca Cohen

Tomorrow night, the UConn Huskies face the Purdue Boilermakers in the men's NCAA tournament championship game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, closing the curtain on this year's March Madness tournaments.

Tune in at 9:20 p.m. ET to see who takes the title.

Photo highlights from the women's championship

Whitney Matewe

Clark: 'I'll miss ya'

Shortly after her team fell in the title game, Iowa's Caitlin Clark posted an Instagram story featuring her #22 jersey and signature yellow and black sneaks.

"I'll miss ya," she captioned the post, along with a bunch of yellow heart emojis.

Clark is headed to the WNBA after four years playing for the Hawkeyes.

LSU's Angel Reese congratulates the Gamecocks and looks ahead

Lebron james is a staley stan, tune in to nbc sports’ bet the edge for men's championship preview.

Brian Hamilton, NBC Sports

Jay Croucher  and  Drew Dinsick  will preview the men's national championship on NBC Sports’ Bet the Edge Monday at 6 a.m. ET  right here  or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Indiana Fever will likely snag Clark as the first overall pick

That's a wrap on Clark's college basketball career with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Next up for the NCAA all-time scorer : The WNBA draft .

It's no secret Clark is a heavy favorite to go as the first overall pick during the April 15 draft.

The Indiana Fever won the first overall pick for the 2024 WNBA draft, so it looks like Clark will be staying in the Midwest and donning navy blue, red and gold on the court during the upcoming season.

This is the second consecutive year the Fever got the top pick, according to the WNBA . Last year, they selected Aliyah Boston, who was later voted the 2023 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Obama congratulates South Carolina

Here's who's headed to the wnba next year.

We already know Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are headed to the WNBA next season. Here’s a look at some of the other top prospects who could be early picks in the draft later this month:

Cameron Brink (Stanford)

Rickea Jackson (Tennessee) 

Kamilla Cardoso (South Carolina) 

Aaliyah Edwards (UConn)

 Jacy Sheldon (Ohio State) 

Alissa Pili (Utah)

Dyaisha Fair (Syracuse)

Charisma Osborne (UCLA) 

Nika Mühl (UConn)

Elizabeth Kitley (Virginia Tech) 

Jaz Shelley (Nebraska) 

Savannah Wheeler (Middle Tennessee State) 

Cardoso is tournament's most outstanding player

Asher Feldman

South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso was named the tournament’s most outstanding player following her dominant 15-point, 17-rebound performance in today’s title game. That box score-filling line on the biggest stage comes after two other double-doubles during the earlier parts of the tournament.

Cardoso proved too much to handle for Iowa throughout the game, and the Hawkeyes likely aren't alone in that feeling, as Cardoso ends the tournament averaging a double double: 16.6 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game while shooting 64% from the field.

"Kamilla Cardoso was not going to let us lose a game in the NCAA tournament," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said in her postgame comments, also reflecting on Cardoso's strong WNBA prospects.

Cardoso ends her career with two national titles at South Carolina and was named WBCA defensive player of the year. She also projects as a top-five pick in this year's WNBA draft, along with title game combatant Caitlin Clark.

Raven Johnson's revenge tour is over

"All I have to say is the revenge tour is over," South Carolina's Raven Johnson said in postgame comments following her team's NCAA title and undefeated season.

Dawn Staley lauds Caitlin Clark for lifting up women's basketball

"I really would just like to say that I have to congratulate Iowa on an incredible season, awesome, awesome," South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley said following her team's win and undefeated season.

She went on to thank Clark for bringing such attention to the women's game.

"I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport. And it's just — it's not going to stop here on the collegiate tour, but when she is the number one pick in the WNBA draft, she's going to lift that league up as well," Staley said in postgame comments.

"Caitlin Clark if you’re out there: You are one of the GOATs of our game, and we appreciate you."

Paopao reflects on Gamecocks' journey in postgame chat

Te-Hina Paopao, one of the standouts in South Carolina’s championship game victory, spoke with ESPN after the end of the game, highlighting the Gamecocks’ impressive undefeated run in the face of an entirely new set of starters and nonextraordinary expectations heading into the season.

“We’ve come a long way, this is a long journey,” Paopao told ESPN. “I’m just so proud of this team.”

Paopao finished with 14 points today, the third-leading scorer for the Gamecocks, and she hit the final two free throws to truly put the game away with just more than a minute left.

Dawn Staley sobs over South Carolina win

After her Gamecocks came out victorious, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was crying so hard she could barely get the words out to express her excitement for her undefeated team.

Staley said she is "so incredibly happy for our players" and that "it doesn't always end the way you want it to end," referring to last year's tournament, when Iowa knocked out South Carolina in the Final Four.

"We hope we can erase whatever pain they had last year," Staley said of the win.

She called the win "awesome" and "unbelievable" and said she's "super proud" of her team's work and of the fans.

"You have to let young people be who they are. You have to guide them and navigate them through this world," Staley said. "When young people lock in and have a belief and trust … this is what can happen."

"They etched their names in the history books," Staley said of her team. "This is the unlikeliest group to do it."

Clark, Tessa Johnson clock in as leading scorers

Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes, and the game, as the top scorer with 30 points.

For the Gamecocks, Tessa Johnson led the way with 19 points off the bench.

South Carolina wins it all, 87-75

The Gamecocks take the NCAA trophy, capping off a perfect season with a 38-0 record, making them only the tenth Division I women's basketball team to finish the season undefeated.

The win also marks the end of Caitlin Clark's decorated college basketball career, which stopped short of the ultimate title.

South Carolina might be tested on the line

Down the stretch South Carolina’s free throw shooting might prove essential — a risky proposition for the 245th-ranked team by free throw percentage (69%) during the season in women’s DI basketball. Iowa, by comparison, was 15th in the country at 78% from the stripe.

Gamecocks need the extra offense they're getting

South Carolina, which is looking for its third national title since 2017, will need to do something unusual to get there in this final quarter against Iowa: bring themselves to score more than 70 points in a championship game.

In the Gamecocks’ previous two title game victories in 2022 and 2017, the Dawn Staley-led squad needed just 64 and 67 points, respectively, to get the job done. Already, South Carolina is north of 75 points against the offensive powerhouse that is the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa team.

Iowa is still capable of a comeback, having done so many times throughout the 2023-24 season, including a 12-point comeback against Nebraska in the Big Ten championship game.

A best friend and basketball make for 10-year-old's perfect day in Cleveland

Jesse Kirsch

CLEVELAND — Charlotte Kulesea couldn’t be having a better day in Cleveland.

“A lot,” the 10-year-old said when asked how important the day was to her.

“It’s very important because I get to spend time with my mom and my best friend,” she said.

Charlotte and her best friend, Remy Hood, also 10, were wearing matching Final Four T-shirts at the women’s NCAA title game.

“It’s so fun because I get to watch my role models play. And just it’s so fascinating,” Charlotte said. “I can play and just be myself and work as hard as I want.”

Charlotte’s mom said it was treat watching the kids enjoy the game.

“This is just amazing. ... She loves basketball, so it’s really wonderful watching her be inspired to see these girls do this amazing stuff,” her mom said.

South Carolina maintains lead with 10 minutes to go

At the end of the third quarter, the score sits at 68-59 in the Gamecocks' favor.

Now, it all comes down to the next 10 minutes to determine who will pull through as the NCAA champion.

Star-studded stands in Cleveland

Jason Sudeikis made it back to the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to cheer on the women's game today. He was joined by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts elsewhere in the crowd, the announcers said, even though Hurts wasn't shown on screen.

Cardoso has her third double-double of the tourney

South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso has asserted her dominance, especially in the paint, early and often in Cleveland. The South Carolina senior center already has a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds and has made the most of her time on the court.

That marks her third double-double of the tournament and second in a row after putting up 22 points and 11 rebounds against N.C. State on Friday.

South Carolina extends lead early in second half

A 11-0 South Carolina run across the end of the first half and beginning of the second has upped the Gamecocks' lead to nine, their largest of the game at 55-46.

Caitlin Clark reveals which athlete is on her lock screen — and he’s honored

Alex Portée, TODAY

Clark’s phone’s lock screen is Olympic-level.

The 22-year-old point guard and  all-time leading scorer  in college basketball revealed that she has a photo of Michael Phelps on the lock screen of her phone. The star player made the reveal in an interview posted to the NCAA March Madness women’s basketball X account on Wednesday.

The video shows Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes teammates sharing some behind-the-scenes details.

“This is Michael Phelps swimming ... in the Olympics. It’s pretty tough,” Clark said in the clip.

Click through to read more.

NCAA athletes are inking deals, but lack of laws is creating chaos

College basketball stars such as Clark and Angel Reese have captivated sports fans everywhere with their skill and determination, but their meteoric rise is also shining a spotlight on the NCAA’s name, image and likeness policy that allows student-athletes to make money from their personal brand.

Ever since a landmark decision by the Supreme Court in 2021 paved the way for athletes to monetize their brand and pursue “education-related benefits,” the federal government has done nothing to provide structure or guardrails for how that would work.

Some 30 states have passed their own name, image and likeness (NIL) laws, while a series of court decisions have raised questions about what universities can and cannot do in the recruitment process.

The resulting vacuum has been filled by “collectives,” or third-party organizations formed by deep-pocketed donors and school supporters who can pool money and offer NIL deals to athletes — in some cases effectively creating a bidding war.

Read the full story here.

LeBron James rocks with Caitlin Clark

Women's tourney hype reaches 'snl'.

Rudy Chinchilla

The excitement of women’s college basketball made it to "Saturday Night Live."

Spoofing TNT’s panel of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, the “SNL” cast said what many people have been thinking: The women’s NCAA Tournament has proved more exciting than the men’s tourney.

Smith and Barkley, played by Devon Walker and Kenan Thompson, respectively, told James Austin Johnson’s Ernie Johnson that they didn’t watch the UConn men’s team beat Alabama on Saturday.

“It’s just hard to get excited when there’s better games on,” Walker’s Smith said. “You mean the NBA?” Johnson replied. “Naw, the women’s tournament,” Walker shot back.

Thompson’s Barkley pointed out the star power in the women’s tournament, namely Iowa ace Caitlin Clark, before reluctantly running down the matchups for the upcoming men’s final: “Him and him, this guy on this guy, half-‘stache on braids. Let’s see, baby face versus baby face, tall white versus tall Asian. Yeah, I think that about covers it.”

South Carolina leads heading into the locker room

It's been a battle on the court, but South Carolina is up at the half, after trailing behind Iowa for most of the first two quarters.

The 49-46 lead has been no easy feat for the Gamecocks. With just seconds to go and a 1 point lead, Raven Johnson stole the ball from Caitlin Clark to shoot a layup that secured South Carolina's lead.

Clark equals total from Final Four outing vs. UConn

Clark took a while to score in the second quarter, but she just hit a quintessential long-range three with less than 1:30 left in the half to get to 21 points for the game — already equaling her total from Friday’s Final Four game against UConn, where she struggled to get going in the first half. 

If Friday’s game was any indication, Clark likely has more in store for the rest of the game.

Her tournament high was in the Elite Eight against LSU (41 points) and her season high was 49 points in February against Michigan — both certainly within sights for the senior as she plays her final collegiate game.

South Carolina would have a perfect season if team wins today

Phil Helsel

If the Gamecocks prevail against the Hawkeyes today, it will be the first women’s Division I basketball team to have a perfect season since 2016.

South Carolina has a record of 37-0 this season going into the NCAA championship game held in Cleveland. If the Gamecocks win, it would have the 10th perfect season in the 41-year history of the women's Division I basketball tournament.

The last team to have a perfect season including postseason games was the UConn Huskies in 2016.

Iowa has had four losses in its season.

There have been nine perfect seasons in Division I of women’s basketball, but only four universities — Baylor, UConn, Tennessee and Texas, according to the NCAA . UConn has had six, and the others had one each.

Gamecocks bench shining bright in second quarter

Undefeated South Carolina is proving its depth midway through the second quarter, as the Gamecocks already have 20 points from players coming off of the bench, including freshman guards Tessa Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley's 9 and 7 points, respectively.

That's not to take anything away from South Carolina's starters — highlighted by center Kamilla Cardoso, who is leading the Gamecocks with 11 points and 7 rebounds.

South Carolina takes 1st lead of the game

The Gamecocks took its first lead of the game with a layup by Kamilla Cardoso in the second quarter to bring the score to 36-34.

Iowa responded shortly thereafter to bring it to a 36-36 tie, on a Hannah Stuelke score.

‘She’s fast,’ Iowa coach says of South Carolina’s Fulwiley

Iowa Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder said South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley is so fast, their best option is to try and deny her the basketball.

“Man, she’s fast,” Bluder said after the end of the first quarter. “She’s fast with the basketball, she’s fast going downhill.”

“I think we’ve got to keep the ball out of her hands in order to stop her — because once she gets the ball it’s pretty hard to contain her,” Bluder said.

Clark all-time leading scorer in women's tournament history

Clark now has another notable NCAA record — her 480 points (and counting) in the NCAA tournament is also an all-time record, breaking Tennessee legend Chamique Holdsclaw’s record that she set for the Volunteers in the late 1990s.

Clark sets single-quarter title game record for points

Clark is pouring it on in Cleveland — the Iowa senior has 18 points through the first quarter in the NCAA tournament title game, an all-time record for a single quarter in title game history.

As we all grab a collective breath in between quarters, we can marvel at Clark’s performance so far: 3-for-4 from long range, 5-for-8 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line, all while creating offense all over the court.

Clark has 1st turnover of the game

Clark, after scoring many of the first points of the game, missed on a pass and caused the game’s first turnover.

Clark was inside the 3-point zone and passed back toward where Hannah Stuelke had been, but Stuelke had moved. South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley would go on to score a 3-pointer after the turnover.

Big weekend for Cleveland!

Cleveland is getting quite a lot of attention this weekend.

Between hosting the women's NCAA Final Four and championship game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and being in the path of totality for Monday's eclipse , it's sure an exciting weekend to be an Ohioan.

Hawkeyes ahead at the end of the first quarter

Iowa leads 27-20 after the first 10 minutes of play.

After Clark quickly took an early lead for the Hawkeyes, South Carolina clawed its way back to close the gap a bit as the first quarter closed out.

Uncharted deficit territory for South Carolina in first quarter

Lost in the offensive explosion out of the gate for Iowa and Clark is the deficit that South Carolina is already having to battle back from. The Gamecocks have barely trailed in the NCAA tournament so far, to say nothing of the entire regular season, where South Carolina was notably undefeated, and routinely won games by 20-plus points. 

The Gamecocks are clawing back with a 9-2 run here late in the first quarter, but Dawn Staley's squad is certainly not used to playing from behind.

Gamecocks' Staley among the game's most decorated and seasoned coaches

Dawn Staley has been here before — the Gamecocks inimitable leader is one of women’s basketball’s most decorated individuals and has led South Carolina to four straight Final Fours and two total national titles, and is looking for a third today. 

Staley, who has been in coaching for more than two decades, also has extensive Final Four experience as a player, leading her Virginia team in the late '80s and early '90s to three Final Fours and one title game. Staley averaged 16.3 points per game across her four-year college career before a much-celebrated professional career for Team USA, the American Basketball League and ultimately the WNBA.

Staley entered the college coaching ranks as coach at Temple, where the Owls made six NCAA tournaments before leaving for South Carolina, where she’s been since 2008. In total, Staley-coached Gamecocks squads have been to six Final Fours.

Crowd in Cleveland appears heavily pro-Iowa

CLEVELAND — From the noise, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse sounds like an Iowa home game, despite being a neutral site.

The NCAA final between the Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks has been hugely hyped, in part due to Iowa star Clark.

South Carolina can earn the 10th perfect season in Division I basketball tournament history with a win over Iowa, having never lost a game this season.

Clark already running and gunning

Caitlin Clark needs no introduction, and needed less than 5 minutes to record 13 points in her final collegiate game. This burst out of the gate for the Iowa senior is particularly notable because during Friday night’s Final Four, it took an entire half for her to get to just six points.

Clark's done it from all over the court, already with two 3-pointers, points from the paint and in the midrange.

Iowa sinks the first shot

Kate Martin with the Hawkeyes sunk a three to earn Iowa the first points on the board after South Carolina won the tipoff and missed its first shot.

Women of NASA on the court

The women of NASA are holding the American flag on the court during the national anthem minutes before tipoff.

" @astro_watkins and some of the incredible women at NASA kicked off the @MarchMadnessWBB Championship Game!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson posted on X .

"They represent our amazing workforce who enable us to inspire through discovery."

It's an Iowa crowd in Cleveland

CLEVELAND — The crowd in the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is clearly pro-Iowa, proving to be far louder as chants of "Go Hawks" echo throughout the arena with the band playing in the background during team warmups on the court.

Keys for Iowa to win

The Associated Press

For Iowa to win its first national championship here are a few keys:

Clark effect

Clark has always seemed to play her best on the brightest stage. She had 41 points, eight assists and six rebounds in the win over South Carolina last year in the Final Four. Her coach has run out of words to describe her brilliance on the court. She’ll need to have one more big game for Iowa to have any hope of capping off her historic career with a national championship. South Carolina has the length and athleticism as well as the depth to make Clark work for her shots.

Iowa averages 41.6 rebounds a game, about five less than South Carolina. The Hawkeyes can’t let South Carolina dominate the boards like they did last year when the Gamecocks outrebounded them 49-25. This season they’ve punished opponents with easy putbacks and that would be tough for Iowa to overcome.

“I think going into that game last year, to say we’re going to beat South Carolina on the glass is probably something that’s not going to happen every single time we play them. But you have to be able to manage it the best you can,” Clark said. “And I think we did that versus LSU, and that’s where you get confidence from is just you kind of weather the storms on the glass, you try to come up with big ones when you can.”

Keys for South Carolina to win

For South Carolina to win its third national championship and second in three seasons here are a few keys:

Inside dominance

South Carolina has a distinct advantage inside led by 6-foot-7 center Kamilla Cardoso. She had 14 points and 14 rebounds in the semifinal meeting last season. She’s only gotten better. It’s not just Cardoso as the Gamecocks have other talented post players like Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts.

The Gamecocks routinely have dominated their opponents with outstanding play off the bench. South Carolina reserves are outscoring their opponents by 27.6 points in the postseason and 21.9 on the year. The Gamecocks have seven players averaging more than eight points a game, and in Friday’s win over N.C. State, the reserves had 30 points and 25 rebounds. Iowa got only three points from its reserves in the win over UConn.

“We pick ’em off the bench, and we didn’t miss a beat,” Raven Johnson said. “And that’s what makes us a great team.”

Women's championship expected to shatter viewership records

The NCAA women’s basketball national championship is set to smash viewership records as star players and greater TV coverage drive more fans than ever to the sport.

On Saturday, TickPick said the “get-in” price for today's women’s final was $555 — a record.

Clark had been invited to Team USA training camp

Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark was invited to Team USA’s women’s basketball team training camp, but her team’s appearance in the Final Four and championship berth meant that she couldn’t attend.

Iowa beat Colorado on March 30 and LSU two days later to advance to the Final Four game held Friday, when they beat UConn 71-69. The training camp was held Wednesday to Friday. 

The training camp is one step in Team USA’s process for selecting members to play for USA in Paris this summer, the Olympics said in its announcement of the invitation.

Clark said last week that she was honored to be extended the invitation.

“People that are on that roster are people that I idolize and have idolized growing up. Just to be extended a camp invite is something you have to be proud of and celebrate and enjoy,” she said, according to The Associated Press .

Clark broke plenty of records this season, establishing herself as a college basketball great

It's been quite the season for Caitlin Clark.

The Hawkeyes guard spend her senior year sinking threes and breaking records. Here's a look at all of the titles she now holds as she heads into her final college basketball game, according to the NCAA .

• Dec. 30: Clark sets the all-time NCAA assist record and becomes the first Division I college basketball player — men's or women's — to have 3,000 or more points, 900 or more assists and 800 or more rebounds.
• Jan. 31: Clark becomes the No. 1 scorer in Big Ten history after scoring 35 points against Northwestern.
• Feb. 11: Clark reaches 1,000 career assists, adding her to a club of only five others to achieve the feat, but she's the only one who has scored more than 3,000 points.
• Feb. 15: Clark passes Kelsey Plum as all-time women's Division I points leader .
• Feb. 28: Clark scores her 3,650th point to surpass Lynette Woodward as the highest-scoring player in major-college women's basketball. She also broke the record for single-season three-pointers.
• March 3: Clark becomes the highest scorer in Division I college basketball history for men or women, soaring past Pete Maravich’s 54-year record.
• March 8: Clark passes Stephen Curry for most three-pointers in a single season of NCAA Division I basketball history.
• March 25: Clark unseats Plum (again) to score the most points in a single season with 1,113 points.
• April 1: Clark breaks Diana Taurasi’s record and now holds the title for the most three-pointers scored during the women’s NCAA tournament.

Less than an hour until tipoff

CLEVELAND — With less than an hour to go before the game starts, crowds are pouring in to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Iowa’s Marshall says she received ‘hate comments’ after drawing late foul vs. UConn

Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall said Saturday she received “hate comments” from people upset about her role in a much-discussed foul call late in the Hawkeyes’ Final Four win over UConn.

Marshall responded by “kind of” deleting her social media apps from her phone, she said.

Referees called Huskies forward Aaliyah Edwards  for an illegal screen  on Marshall with 3.9 seconds remaining and UConn trailing by one. The Huskies never got the ball back as Iowa held on  for a 71-69 victory  Friday night and a spot in Sunday’s title game against unbeaten South Carolina.

Marshall was trying to guard UConn star Paige Bueckers when Edwards attempted to set a screen that would have freed up space for Bueckers to get off a shot. Edwards was not set — as the rules stipulate — when Marshall arrived, with the 5-foot-9 Marshall catching a portion of the 6-3 Edwards’ left elbow.

The contact was enough to draw a whistle, and Marshall was animated in her reaction, pointing down the court as if to say “our ball.”

The sequence drew plenty of criticism from fans and onlookers.

South Carolina's Raven Johnson eyes redemption

Raven Johnson couldn’t stop herself. One viewing of South Carolina’s  loss to Iowa  in the Final Four last spring would lead to another. And another. And another.

The image of Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark  waving Johnson off  when the Gamecocks guard had the ball at the top of the key, as if to say “no threat,” became seared into Johnson’s mind. It hurt in ways that left Johnson wondering if she even wanted to do this anymore.

And still, she couldn’t hit pause. Or delete.

“People were like ‘Can you stop watching that game?’” Johnson said yesterday. “And I was like ‘I can’t, I just can’t.’”

It wasn’t until senior Laeticia Amihere basically staged an intervention that Johnson found the strength to move on.

“I don’t even know how she got in my room,” Johnson said. “I thought I locked the door. But she got me closer to God ... She’s really the one that really helped me get over that hump.”

A year later, Johnson believes she’s a different player. One eager for a chance at redemption on Sunday when the unbeaten Gamecocks face Clark and the Hawkeyes in the NCAA championship.

Looking back, Johnson doesn’t see all those viewings of the biggest loss of her still burgeoning career as some form of punishment. She has reframed those dark days. They weren’t torture, even if it might have felt like it at the time amid all the tears. She was growing, even if she wasn’t aware of it.

“I think I was learning from the game, learning what I could have done better, what the team could have done better,” Johnson said. “Looking at how they scouted us. Looking at how they played me. Looking at how they played my team.”

Johnson doesn’t blame Clark for giving her an ocean of space to let it fly, knowing she likely wouldn’t. It’s what Johnson would have done if the player she was guarding made just 24% of her 3-pointers, as she did as a freshman.

It didn’t matter that Johnson actually played well that night, scoring 13 points and making half of her six shots from behind the 3-point arc. She wasn’t a threat from the outside. Not consistently anyway, and she knew it.

Even worse, so did Clark.

A year later, things have changed. Johnson is 7 of 13 from 3 during the NCAA Tournament. She knocked down three of her five attempts from behind the arc in a  blowout win over North Carolina State  in the Final Four on Friday.

They were looks she might not have taken — heck, she didn’t take — a year ago. It’s unlikely Clark will treat her so dismissively in a rematch 12 months in the making.

“She got in the gym, and she got better, and I admire that,” Clark said. “I think that’s what makes great players great. And that’s exactly what she did.”

Johnson allowed there was a time, however brief, in the aftermath of the loss when she considered “quitting.” She never took those concerns to South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. Maybe she didn’t have to.

Staley understands the young women that arrive on campus as 18-year-olds will evolve during their time with the program. Yes, having the game’s biggest star humiliate you on the sport’s biggest stage — as South Carolina’s Bree Hall put it — was difficult. Yet Staley never worried about Johnson’s ability to turn the experience into an opportunity to grow.

“She’s in such a learning phase of her life,” Staley said. “She’s open to learning -- not just basketball, but history. She’s learning what she likes. She’s learning a pathway of who she wants to be. And she’s unafraid to go out there to say or do some things that, it will rock you a little bit, it will make you laugh, but it is who she’s becoming.”

The next step, a vital one, awaits against the Hawkeyes. Johnson admits she was “definitely hoping” for another shot at Iowa. However it goes, she is unlikely to watch it “100 times,” though she has no regret on the path she took to get back to this moment.

“Like Coach says if you don’t watch the bad stuff why watch the good stuff?” Johnson said.

And there has been plenty of “good stuff” during the 37-game win streak that Johnson and the Gamecocks will carry into the final. Her assists are up this season. Rebounds and shooting percentage, too.

The player who was “so nervous” to go out and play last spring hardly looks it this time around. The notes of encouragement she received from Amihere in the aftermath of the Iowa loss have stuck with her. The cards talked of confidence and courage. Of what it takes for a flower to bloom.

The seeds were planted during that time spent holed up in her room, a time whose lessons have propelled her forward.

“Like it made me mentally strong,” Johnson said. “I feel like if I can handle that, I can handle anything in life.”

Iowa-UConn Final Four matchup draws 14.2 million viewers, most in women’s college basketball history

Greg Rosenstein

Iowa’s  71-69 win  against UConn in Friday’s NCAA Final Four game drew 14.2 million viewers, the most in women’s college basketball history, according to ESPN.

The matchup produced the largest audience for a basketball game — college or professional — and was the second-best non-football telecast ever for the network.

Friday’s figure is higher than every World Series and NBA Finals game last year. ESPN said the game peaked at 17 million viewers.

Iowa vs. UConn bested a  viewership record set just days prior  when the Hawkeyes defeated LSU in the Elite Eight on Monday with 12.3 million viewers.

Kylie Kelce meets Kristin Juszczyk and fangirls over her seatmates at the women’s Final Four

Maddie Ellis, TODAY

Places Kylie Kelce  has  business being : the NCAA women’s Final Four.

Kylie Kelce attended the semifinals of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday, meeting plenty of people along the way.

The  wife of former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce  met  Kristin Juszczyk , wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, at the game and posed for a selfie together.

“Finally got to run into this incredibly talented lady,” Kylie Kelce wrote over the pic, adding, “... and yes I made her do a spin so I could admire this outstanding jacket!”

ICYMI: Men's Final Four

Last night, the last standing men's teams battled it out on the court to try to earn their spot in the championship game on Monday, but only two prevailed.

In the first game, Purdue ultimately stymied N.C. State's Cinderella story and knocked out the 11-seed to advance to the championship. The Boilermakers held a steady lead throughout the entire game, proving their worth as a top seed.

Then UConn and Alabama went back and forth on the court in a tough match that saw No. 1 UConn advance to the championship game, sending the No. 4 Crimson Tide back down South.

On Monday, we'll see a battle of No. 1 seeds in Glendale, Arizona, and some real on-court talent from rising stars Zach Edey and Grant Nelson. While UConn has a bit of an edge, according to the bookmakers, it could be anyone's game.

Title game pits superstar Clark against unbeaten South Carolina

This women’s college basketball season, which has pushed the sport to unprecedented popularity, will conclude today with a dream NCAA title game matchup — Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark against unbeaten South Carolina.

Clark, who has become something of a national treasure while shattering scoring records, will play for the NCAA title that eluded her last season with a loss to LSU.

For the Gamecocks, it’s a chance to avenge their only defeat last season — 77-73 to Clark in the semifinals. Clark scored a Final Four-record 41 points as Iowa ended South Carolina’s 42-game winning streak.

How to watch the women's championship game

The Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks will play for the championship title at 3 p.m. ET.

The game will air on ABC.