In an interview with
American Songwriter in 2009,
Daryl Hall recalled:
John had written a prototype of "Maneater"; he was banging it around with
Edgar Winter. It was like a reggae song. I said, "Well, the chords are interesting, but I think we should change the groove." I changed it to that
Motown kind of groove. So we did that, and I played it for
Sara Allen and sang it for her…[Sings] "Oh here she comes / Watch out boy she'll chew you up / Oh here she comes / She's a maneater… and a…" I forget what the last line was. She said, "drop that shit at the end and go, 'She's a maneater,' and stop! And I said, 'No, you're crazy, that's messed up.'" Then I thought about it, and I realized she was right. And it made all the difference in the song. Hall also opined, "We try and take chances. Our new single 'Maneater' isn't something that sounds like anything else on the radio. The idea is to make things better." John Oates has explained that the song was originally written "about
NYC in the '80s. It's about greed, avarice, and spoiled riches. But we have it in the setting of a girl because it's more relatable. It's something that people can understand. That's what we do all of the time", after describing how they took a similar approach with the earlier song "
I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)". For the song's saxophone solo,
Hugh Padgham processed the instrument with an
AMS digital delay unit, which provided a delayed repeat to the notes. Padgham was not present when the saxophone solo was recorded and believed that the section could have benefited from a more active part. During the mixing process, Padgham said that "we were playing it through and I was frustrated because I didn't like the sax solo that much. I thought it needed more, it was so laid back. I thought: sod it, I'll completely fill in the gaps." Hall and Oates did not intend on adjusting the saxophone solo but ultimately approved of the changes that Padgham made. ==Critical reception==