Eat 'Em and Smile is the debut studio album by former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, released on July 7, 1986.

[10] Roth later said that the songs written for the album were originally intended to form the soundtrack to a film, Crazy from the Heat, which was never made.

[12] 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.

A third cover was John D. Loudermilk's folk-blues song "Tobacco Road," and Billy Sheehan brought in "Shy Boy", a composition from his previous band Talas.

A cover version of "Kids in Action", written by Kim Mitchell of the band Max Webster, was recorded for the album.

I got a call from him one day and he goes, "Hey, man, I'm in the studio with David Lee Roth, Ted Templeman and Steve Vai and we're covering your tune 'Kids in Action' and we need the words to the second verse."

The album brought Steve Vai into the public eye as a contender with Eddie Van Halen, the previous guitarist who worked with Roth.

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.

Many reviews compared Eat 'Em and Smile with Van Halen's synth-heavy 5150 (which featured Roth's replacement Sammy Hagar), often favorably.

[10] Daniel Brogan of the Chicago Tribune found the album to be a "manic spree" where Steve Vai's "stinging guitar work" is the most appealing component.

[24] Terry Atkinson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "And the Ted Templeman-produced "Eat 'Em," which stands up well alongside the best Van Halen albums, features the Roth you know: rock's answer to those pop-eyed libidinous wolves of the old Tex Avery cartoons.