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 “Love Is a Battlefield” released

Love Is a Battlefield Pat Benatar

Writer(s): Mike Chapman, Holly Knight (see lyrics here) Released: September 13, 1983 First Charted: September 24, 1983 Peak: 5 BB, 4 CB, 3 GR, 3 RR, 14 AR, 17 UK, 2 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 127.8 video, 170.62 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Pat Benatar’s 1979 debut album, In the Heat of the Night, peaked at #12 and sold a million copies. Over the next three years, she released three more studio albums, all of which reached the top 5 on the Billboard album chart and sold at least a million copies. In 1983, she released her first live album, Live from Earth, and racked up her fifth platinum album. The album featured eight live songs alongside two new studio cuts. Both of them – “Love Is a Battlefield” and “Lipstick Lies” – were released as singles. While the latter failed to chart, the former became Benatar’s biggest hit, climbing all the way to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. VH1 ranked it as one of the 100 greatest songs of the 1980s. WK It also garnered Benatar a fourth consecutive Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. One of the songwriters, Mike Chapman, had success as a producer in the 1970s and early ‘80s with Blondie, Exile, the Knack, Huey Lewis & the News, Suzi Quatro, and the Sweet. He and the other writer, Holly Knight, would go on to write Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me” (1984) and “The Best” (1989). Knight also wrote John Waite’s “Change” (1982), Animotion’s “Obsession” (1984), Scandal’s “The Warrior” (1984), and Aerosmith’s “Rag Doll” (1987). She also penned “Invincible,” another top-10 hit for Benatar in 1985. As Knight recalled, she was at Chapman’s house when Benatar called and asked him to write a song for her. The pair started working on “Love Is a Battlefield” as soon as Chapman got off the phone. SF They wrote the song as a ballad but Benatar’s husband and guitarist Neil Giraldo turned it into an uptempo song. At first Knight and Chapman hated it, but when it became a hit, Knight said, “We had to step out and say, You know, they did a very good rendering of it, and that’s how it was meant to be.” SF The video was directed by Bob Giraldi, who’d also famously done Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” Benatar is a rebellious teenage girl kicked out of her home who becomes a taxi dancer. When the club owner harasses one of the dancers, Benatar leads a rebellion against him. After she helps the other dancers, she leaves, “heading for parts unknown” in the final scene showing her sitting in the back of a bus. WK Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/6/2024.