Pat Benatar: Top 40 Songs

Pat Benatar Top 40 Songs

Rock singer Pat Benatar was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on 1/10/1953 in Greenpoint, NY. In elementary school, she became interested in theater and started taking voice lessons. She later trained in opera and planned to go to Juilliard, but opted for health education at Stony Brook University instead. She dropped out after a year to marry Dennis Benatar, her high school sweetheart, in 1972. She began pursuing a singing career in 1975. She divorced Benatar in 1979 and married guitarist Neil Giraldo in 1982. She released her debut album, In the Heat of the Night, in 1979. Her next album, 1980’s Crimes of Passion, sold four million copies. In 1981, her Precious Time album reached #1. She has released eleven albums to date, eight of which have reached gold or platinum status. She has released fifteen singles which reached the Billboard top 40, including top-10 hits “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” “Love Is a Battlefield,” “We Belong,” and “Invincible.” Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Pat Benatar Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists”

Awards:

Top 40 Songs Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. DMDB Top 2%: 1. Hit Me with Your Best Shot (1980) DMDB Top 5%: 2. Love Is a Battlefield (1983) 3. Heartbreaker (1979) 4. We Belong (1984) DMDB Top 10%: 5. Shadows of the Night (1982) 6. Promises in the Dark (1981) 7. Treat Me Right (1980) 8. Fire and Ice (9181) 9. You Better Run (1980) 10. Invincible (1985) 11. Sex As a Weapon (1985) 12. We Live for Love (1979) DMDB Top 20%: 13. All Fired Up (1988) 14. Ooh Ooh Song (1984) 15. Hell Is for Children (1980) 16. Anxiety (Get Nervous) (1982) 17. A Little Too Late (1982) 18. Looking for a Stranger (1982) 19. Le Bel Age (1985) Beyond the DMDB Top 20%: 20. I Need a Lover (1979) 21. Don’t Walk Away (1988) 22. I’m Gonna Follow You (1980) 23. One Love (1988) 24. Everybody Lay Down (1993) 25. Wuthering Heights (1980) 26. Payin’ the Cost to Be the Boss (1991) 27. Precious Time (1981) 28. Please Come Home for Christmas (1991) 29. Somebody’s Baby (1993) 30. Diamond Field (1984) 31. Lipstick Lies (1993) 32. Suburban King (1984) 33. Helter Skelter (1981) 34. The Victim (1982) 35. Silent Partner (1982) 36. Painted Desert (1984) 37. Let’s Stay Together (1988) 38. Out-a-Touch (1980) 39. Temporary Heroes (1984) 40. Just Like Me (1981) Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Pat Benatar Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 1/6/2024.

Pat Benatar Live from Earth

First posted 9/20/2020.

Live from Earth Pat Benatar

Released: September 22, 1983 Peak: 13 US, 60 UK, 25 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.1 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Fire and Ice (live) (Tom Kelly, Scott St. Clair Sheets, Benatar) [3:46] (7/6/81, 17 US, 2 AR, 4 CN, 30 AU) Looking for a Stranger (live) (Franne Golde, Peter McIan) [3:28] (4/23/83, 39 US, 4 AR) I Want Out (live) (Neil Giraldo, Billy Steinberg) [4:05] We Live for Love (live) (Giraldo) [3:39] (2/25/80, 27 US, 8 CN, 28 AU) Hell Is for Children (live) (Giraldo, Benatar, Roger Capps) [6:06] Hit Me with Your Best Shot (live) (Eddie Schwartz) [3:07] (9/15/80, 9 US, 10 CN, 33 AU, gold single) Promises in the Dark (live) (Giraldo, Benatar) [5:14] (9/25/81, 38 US, 16 AR, 31 CN) Heartbreaker (live) (Geoff Gill, Clint Wade) [4:21] (10/26/79, 23 US, 16 CN, 95 AU) Love Is a Battlefield (studio recording) (Mike Chapman, Holly Knight) [5:23] (9/13/83, 5 US, 1 AR, 17 UK, 2 CN, 6 AU) Lipstick Lies (studio recording) (Giraldo, Myron Grombacher) [3:51] Chart data is for original studio recordings. Total Running Time: 43:02

Rating: 3.323 out of 5.00 (average of 4 ratings) Awards:

About the Album: This was Benatar’s first live album after four studio albums. It was her fifth consecutive platinum-seller, but didn’t attain the same chart heights as the previous three albums, which had all reached the top 5. The album featured live versions of six of the nine songs she’d taken to the top 40 in the last six years. That meant most of her big hits, such as Heartbreaker, Hit Me with Your Best Shot, and Fire and Ice are present, but there are a few obvious omissions. Top-20 hit “Treat Me Right” from 1980’s Crimes of Passion is absent, but fan-favorite Hell Is for Children from that album is here. Looking for a Stranger, first on Get Nervous, was her most recent top-40 hit prior to this collection. However, she neglected to include that album’s other two top-20 hits “Shadows of the Night” and “Little Too Late,” opting instead for the album cut I Want Out. The album is rounded out by two new studio recordings. Love Is a Battlefield became Benatar’s biggest hit, reaching #5 on the pop charts and #1 on the album rock chart. The video depicted her as a girl on the streets who ends nonsensically dancing with her new street fans a la Michael Jackson’s zombie party in “Thriller.” It was pretty silly, but it was a popular video at the time.

Resources and Related Links: Pat Benatar’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry WK Wikipedia

Pat Benatar “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” released

Hit Me with Your Best Shot Pat Benatar

Writer(s): Eddie Schwartz (see lyrics here) Released: September 15, 1980 First Charted: October 4, 1980 Peak: 9 BB, 7 CB, 5 GR, 5 HR, 9 RR, 2 CL, 15 MR, 10 CN, 33 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 14.30 video, 233.18 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Pat Benatar was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski in New York City on January 10, 1953. Her debut album, 1979’s In the Heart of the Night, was a platinum seller propelled by top-30 hits “Heartbreaker” and “We Live for Love.” Her sophomore effort, Crimes of Passion, was released in 1980 and became the biggest album of her career, reaching #2 on the Billboard album chart and going four times platinum. Surprisingly, the lead single – “You Better Run” – just missed the top 40, but it became a staple on album rock, as did the follow-up singles “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” (#9 BB) and “Treat Me Right” (#18 BB). Benatar had three more top-10 hits in her career, but “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” arguably was the one which became her signature song. The song was written by Eddie Schwartz who said he came up with the title after going to a “pillow punching” therapy session. The song has been misinterpreted as being sexist and encouraging violence against women, but Schwartz explained that the title was “meant metaphorically – no punches are actually thrown in the song.” SF He said, “The song is laden with sexual innuendo, but at the core is a song about self confidence. It’s a song saying, ‘no matter what you throw at me I can handle it.” SF In 2022, Benatar announced she would no longer play the song in concert in protest of mass shootings in the United States. She said the title “is tongue-in-cheek, but you have to draw the line. I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face I just can’t. I’m not going to go on stage and soapbox – I go to my legislators – but that’s my small contribution to protesting. I’m not going to sing it.” UT Resources: SF Songfacts UT USA Today (7/21/2022). “Pat Benatar refuses to sing ‘Hit Me with Your Best Shot’ after gun violence: ‘You have to draw the line’” by Melissa Ruggieri WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 9/15/2023.

 

Pat Benatar’s Crimes of Passion released

Crimes of Passion Pat Benatar

Released: August 5, 1980 Peak: 2 US, -- UK, 2 CN, 16 AU Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, -- UK, 5.67 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Treat Me Right (Dough Lubahn) [3:24] (12/29/80, 18 US, 3 CL, 31 AR, 12 CN) You Better Run (Eddie Brigati, Felix Cavaliere) [3:02] (7/8/80, 42 US, 11 CL, 31 AU) Never Wanna Leave You (Neil Giraldo, Benatar) [3:13] Hit Me with Your Best Shot (Eddie Schwartz) [2:51] (9/15/80, 9 US, 2 CL, 10 CN, 33 AU, gold single) Hell Is for Children (Giraldo, Benatar, Roger Capps) [4:48] (8 CL) Little Paradise (Giraldo) [3:32] I’m Gonna Follow You (Billy Steinberg) [4:28] (46 CL) Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush) [4:28] (46 CL) Prisoner of Love (Scott St. Clair Sheets) [3:05] Out-a-Touch (Giraldo, Benatar, Myron Grombacher) [4:19] Total Running Time: 37:07

Rating: 4.508 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “With Crimes of Passion, Pat Benatar escaped the dreaded sophomore slump.” AMG Her first album, In the Heat of the Night, was a platinum seller which peaked at #12 and had two top-30 singles. Crimes of Passion sold more than five million copies, reached #2 on the Billboard album chart for 5 weeks, stuck behind John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy. The album also won Benatar her first Grammy Award – for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. While the album cemented Benatar’s status as a rock icon, the original Rolling Stone review knocked it for its “leaden reworkings of hard-rock clichés,” RS “sodden songwrting and excruciating excesses” RS and accused her of “lacking both subtlety and playfulness.” RS However, Benatar does avoid “the synth-happy trends of the early ‘80s and delivers a hard rocking ten-song session of power pop tempered with a few ballads for balance.” AMG The lead single from the album was You Better Run. The song had originally been recorded by the Young Rascals and was a top-20 hit in 1966. Benatar’s version fell just shy of the top 40 hit, but became a landmark video in the MTV era as the network’s second video ever broadcast, following the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The album’s success was due “in no small part to the song that would become the most well-known…of her career, Hit Me with Your Best Shot.” AMG The song was her first top ten hit. It was written by Eddie Schwartz, who later co-wrote Paul Carrack’s “Don’t Shed a Tear” (1987) and the Doobie Brothers’ “The Doctor” (1989), both of which were top 10 hits. The album’s third single, Treat Me Right, became Benatar’s second top-20 hit. On March 21, 1981, the song landed on the maiden album rock chart, despite being nearly three months old at that point. Other songs which likely would have hit that chart had it debuted six months earlier included Hell Is for Children, a slow-building rocker about child abuse, and the ballad I’m Gonna Follow You, released as the B-side of “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.” “The rest of the album is mildly hit or miss, with a few moments of filler.” AMG Most notable may be Benatar’s version of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights. It “is probably one of the most underrated songs of her entire catalog.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Rob Theakston RS Rolling Stone (11/13/80). Review by Debra Rae Cohen. WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/24/2008; last updated 9/3/2021.