“Beat It, we did it backwards: Michael’s lead vocal and the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo were done with a couple of small overdubs but no click track. Jeff [Porcaro] made a click track and then a drum ...

He’d give us a chord sheet and say ... Third take was probably the magical take.” Turning to “Beat It,” Lukather recalled: “We did it backwards: Michael’s lead vocal and the Eddie Van Halen guitar ...