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. 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.
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. The would-be theme to Roth's then-planned movie, "Goin' Crazy!", also became an MTV staple that reached #66 on
Billboards Hot 100 in October 1986. 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, 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: 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 a contender with
Eddie Van Halen, the previous guitarist who worked with Roth. This album features some of Steve Vai's most renowned guitar work. 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. ==Reception==