Feb 23 2009
Favorite Females No. 4: PAT BENATAR
The fiesty lady who dared you to, “Hit me with your best shot… fire away,” celebrates 30 years as a recording artist this year.
Back in 1979, Patricia Mae Andrzejewski- best known as Pat Benatar- released her debut album, In The Heat of the Night. Featuring a cover of John Mellencamp’s “I Need a Lover,” the set also spawned the classic rock anthem, “Heartbreaker,” which appears as a playable song in 2008’s Guitar Hero: World Tour video game.
The debut sold more than 1 million copies, but it was Benatar’s sophomore album- Crimes of Passion- that established her as a force in rock, thanks in part to anthems like “Treat Me Right” and ”Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” Also appearing on Crimes was the powerful child abuse tale, “Hell is For Children,” which stands as one of the best co-writing effort of her career. Despite never being released as a single, “Hell” remains one of Pat’s most-known and revered tracks, continually appearing in every concert tour.
Follow-up albums Precious Time and Get Nervous scored platinum-plus sales, and Benatar landed more memorable hits through the 1980’s- “Fire and Ice,” “Promises in the Dark,” “Shadows of the Night,” “Love is a Battlefield,” “We Belong” and “All Fired Up,” to name a handful.
Benatar’s commercial star waned once the ’80s concluded (a 1991 blues album barely cracked the top 40, and a return to rock was not nearly as successful as past efforts), but her impact and influence continue to register. Touring with the classics routinely, she enjoyed her biggest-selling album since the ’80s with 2005’s Greatest Hits (600,000-plus in sales), and in the album’s liner notes, acts like Joan Jett, Martina McBride, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s, Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos speak of her impact and importance to their careers.
Eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2004, Benatar has yet to be considered. There’s no denying that she is one of the most successful female rock acts of all time, and that she epitomized the “tough rock chick” in her music, videos and on stage (a role she relished). But critics never showered her with all that much acclaim.
Will the Hall of Fame committee throw critical relevance out the window, and remember Benatar’s synonymousness with the 1980’s, and how many consider her a a pivotal figure in the Women in Rock movement? We can only hope.
