"Maneater" is a single recorded by American duo Hall &
Oates from their 1982 album
HO. It reached number-one on the
BillboardHot 100 chart on December 18, 1982. It remained
in the top spot for four weeks, more than any of the duo's five
other number-one hits. According to John Oates the inspiration
for this song was English model and actress Kelly LeBrock.
In an interview with American Songwriter, Daryl Hall states:
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 in 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.
The Hall & Oates music video opens with a woman walking
down a red staircase, and the band playing in a dimly lit
studio with shafts of light projecting down on them. The band
members step in and out of the light for their lip sync. A
young woman in a short party dress is shown in fade-in and
fade-out shots, along with a black jaguar, hence the song line
"The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar."
The song refrain is "Whoa, oh here she comes; watch out boy,
she'll chew you up; whoa, oh here she comes, she's a
maneater".
In 2006, the song and its subject matter were adapted and
re-interpreted by Nelly Furtado for her song, also called
"Maneater" from her album
Loose. The song was sampled once more in 2006 when the
Ying Yang Twins (featuring Wyclef and Mr. Collipark) released
the song "Dangerous". The Hall & Oates version features a
saxophone solo by Charles "Mr. Casual" DeChant. American rapper
Hot Karl used the music and chorus of Maneater in a song
satirizing the hip hop industry, also called "Maneater". In his
intro, Karl alludes to the original song's popularity, telling
the audience "I don't want to see any of you really hard guys
not singing the words, because I know you know 'em! You don't
not know 'Maneater'!" A cover of the song is also used as the
theme for the pilot episode of the Adult Swim show
Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil. Hall and Oates also
appeared on Will and Grace during Grace's wedding to James,
singing Maneater as she walked down the aisle.
In 2009, the song appeared on the
Ballad Of Gay Tonyepisode of the X-Box 360 exclusive
video game,
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, as a part
of the Vice City FM radio station.
In November 2008, Hall & Oates initiated legal action
against their music publisher (Warner/Chappell Music). An
unidentified singer-songwriter was alleged to have used
Maneater in a 2006 recording, infringing copyright, and by
failing to sue for copyright infringement, Warner Chappell
Music were alleged to have breached their contract with Hall
and Oates.
The song "We're Live (Danger)" by rapper Royce Da 5'9"
(which was featured in the highly acclaimed game Grand Theft
Auto III) contains a sample from the Hall & Oates song
"Maneater".
The now defunct Chicago band Split Habit covered the song
live, and also included it on their 2004 album Put Your Money
Where Your Mouth Is.
Las Vegas band The Kickwurmz released two versions of the
song circa 1998: Maneater, and Man Eata' Digital Media House
Remix.
The original version of the song is heard in the 1999 film
Runaway Bride, and appears on the soundtrack. Early in
the movie Richard Gere's character Ike Graham describes several
mythological 'Maneaters' in a newspaper column, and then cites
one human one, Julia Roberts's Maggie Carpenter, who's left
multiple men standing at the altar.
Jazz/electronica group The Bird and the Bee covered the song
live with John Oates on March 5, 2010 at the El Rey Theater in
Los Angeles, California. Their upcoming album
Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall
and John Oateswill include a studio recorded cover of
"Maneater", featuring backing vocals from Garbage vocalist
Shirley Manson, and is to be released March 23, 2010.