Pat Benatar Band

Patricia Mae Andrzejewski (born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American singer-songwriter and four-time Grammy Award winner. She is a mezzo-soprano. She has had commercial success, particularly in the United States and Canada. During the 1980s, Benatar had two RIAA-certified Multi-Platinum albums, five RIAA-certified Platinum albums, three RIAA-certified Gold albums, 17 Billboard chartings and 15 of them being Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits, "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", "Love Is a Battlefield", "We Belong" and "Invincible". Other popular singles include "Heartbreaker", "Treat Me Right", "Fire and Ice", "Promises in the Dark", "Shadows of the Night", and "All Fired Up". Benatar was one of the most heavily played artists in the early days of MTV. She was the first female artist to play on MTV, performing "You Better Run".

 

Had to pick two pictures with Neil. Not only do I think he's one of the all-time great guitarists, but they are the example for maintaining a creative and romantic partnership over decades.

 

Pat Benatar
The undisputed queen of 80s hard rock and, pound-for-pound, as technically gifted a singer as there was in the decade. She had a run of five (six as some count it) killer albums to kick of her career and has kept on touring and recording into her 60s. Her relationship with husband/guitarist Neil Giraldo is also a benchmark to shoot for in maintaining a long-term person and professional partnership, too. Everyone knows the singles, but dig a little deeper and there's some really terrific hard rock and synth-pop to discover.

Recommended Listen:
Crimes of Passion

Crash Course:
1. Crimes of Passion
2. Precious Time
3. Tropico

Compilation Replacement:
Best Shots

Signature Songs:
1. "Heartbreaker"
2. "Hit Me with Your Best Shot"
3. "Shadows of the Night"
4. "Love Is a Battlefield"
5. "We Belong"

Personal Note:
Most of her albums have at least one goofy weirdo song ("Evil Genius"/"My Clone Sleeps Alone") but are otherwise excellent. Her whole band is good, but pay particular attention to Neil Giraldo's guitar playing once in awhile. Easily one of my favorite guitarists of all time. He's always memorable/hummable in his solos (a must for me) but also brings in little avant-garde touches where he's working more with noise/sounds than actual notes (i.e. "Shadows of the Night"). I could definitely have included Get Nervous or In the Heat of the Night here, but I think if you're only going to hear three, I stand behind the ones I picked. Seven the Hard Way and Wide Awake in Dreamland are also completely worth the listen, just not quite on the same plane.

 

Fun note:

She was a music video pioneer. Not only was she in heavy rotation right off the bat on MTV, but "You Better Run" was the second song they every played.

 

Alright! I know a few odd songs from here and there, but I haven't heard an album. Looking forward to hearing a couple this week.

 

First time with Crimes of Passion. I knew Hit Me With Your Best Shot, obviously, plus her cover of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.

The first few tracks are real rippers, showing that she can rock like the best of them, with some really cool and powerful solos from the guitarist. From listening to this, i think I find her more engaging and interesting as a rock musician, as opposed to the softer more synth-pop ish moments. It's a pretty consistent album though, there isn't any notable weak moments, and she's a pretty versatile singer throughout.

If there is one negative is that I don't think her version of Bush's Wuthering Heights is particularly worthy, and I think the original is more interesting. However, other than that, I enjoyed this a good amount, with my favourite track probably being Hell Is For Children, or You Better Run.

 

Onto Precious Time now. Feels pretty similar in vibe to Crimes of Passion, but maybe a little bit slicker and shinier. Still a big rocker of an album.

The opening track was pretty fun, when it all bursts into life after like a minute. Her vocals are pretty extraordinary on this, and the solo was great. Just an A+ song in general, everything I'd like to hear from a Rock n Roll band. This album is full of massive choruses, and Benatar is at her best when really pushing her voice and straining to hit the notes. I definitely prefer these bigger and direct arena-rock type tracks like Take It Anyway You Want, to the slightly more meandering, more experimental stuff like Precious Time or Evil Genius. The cover of Helter Skelter at the end was a blast, and definitely a far more "suitable" cover for her than Wuthering Heights.

Overall, like Crimes of Passion, this was great fun. I don't necessarily love it, and I don't think it will make a lasting impact on me, but there's very little to complain about, and lots to like here. 9 tracks, 35 minutes, lovely.

 

All a bit quiet this week, eh?

Listened to Tropico this morning. Definitely a softer album, not quite as rocking as the other two that I've heard, and definitely more "80s" than what I'd previously heard. I quite like the slight change of direction though, keeps things interesting. Again, Benatar shows that she's got a great voice, and I appreciate the subtler more gentle instrumentation.

The album is definitely a bit more meandering and less direct than the previous ones. However, she still shows she's got a dab hand at writing immediate and catchy pop songs, like "We Belong" or "Crazy World Like This". I quite enjoy the more experimental, Kate Bush-esque stuff too, like "Temporary Heroes", or "Outlaw Blues".

Overall, this was good, and nice to hear something new. Again, I have the same general reaction to it as I have done to the previous two; good and enjoyable, but nothing I'm particularly keen to revisit urgently. It's good to fill in some of the many, many blind spots in my musical knowledge though, so never a waste of time!

 

I've been doing a lot of car relistens this week and am realizing that my own 5 song selection would look very little like her 5 signature songs.

Probably more like:
We Live for Love
You Better Run
Take It Any Way You Want It
Promises in the Dark
Fight It Out

 

I underrated Get Nervous for sure. It's a tough, nervy little record. It feels like they had realize they wanted to start experimenting, but weren't entirely sure where to go. Which is always a really exciting sound

 

Crimes of Passion was good. A few duds but a bunch of solid ones.

 

I think Neil is really my favorite soloist ever. Every time he winds up for a solo, you know you're going to get something special and memorable.

 

Pat and Neil inducted into the Rock Hall today! Fuck yeah.

Gonna go air guitar to the greatest guitar solo of all time ("Promises in the Dark")