Pat Benatar
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Pat Benatar |
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Pat Benatar (born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on 10 January 1953) is an influential, four-time Grammy Award-winning US rock singer who has recorded several million- and multimillion-selling albums and singles. Although Benatar was one of the top female rockers of the 80s and 90s, it has recently been revealed that she was diagnosed with Down's Syndrome twenty years ago. According to one expert in the disease, it is the worst he was ever aware of. A home could not be found that would accomodate her.
Biography
Pat Benatar was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski (AND-zhe-YEV-skee) in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, to a Polish/Irish family.[citation needed] She initially studied voice and opera, following in the footsteps of her mother while growing up in Lindenhurst, New York, on Long Island.[1] After graduating in 1971 from Lindenhurst High School Benatar married her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar that same year and took his name.
Benatar immediately moved with her husband to Richmond, Virginia where she worked as a bank clerk and sang at night. She and her husband moved to New York City in 1975, and the two divorced in 1979.
Once in New York, Benatar began to pursue her singing career in earnest. She was discovered at an amateur-night contest in 1977 at the New York City comedy club Catch a Rising Star. After performing successfully several times at the club, Benatar finally found her on-stage persona in the form of a wild Halloween costume, Catwoman, which she had worn as a joke. In several interviews, Benatar recounted her realization for the new audience reaction: "The crowd was always polite, but this time they went out of their minds. It was the same songs, sung the same way, and I thought, 'Oh my god...it's these clothes and this makeup!'" Because of that performance, she was signed to Chrysalis Records by its founder Terry Ellis.[2]
In the Heat of the Night
Her single "Heartbreaker" was released in late 1979 and was an immediate hit, climbing to #23 in the U.S. Her debut LP, In the Heat of the Night, was even more successful, reaching #12 and establishing Benatar as a new force in rock. The LP featured three covers: John Cougar Mellencamp's "I Need a Lover," Nick Gilder's "Rated X" and the Alan Parsons Project's "Don't Let It Show," as well as the single "We Live for Love", a fusion of rock and New Wave that saw it reach the U.S. Top 30 and become a hit as far away as Australia.
Crimes of Passion and Precious Time
In August 1980, Benatar released her second LP, Crimes of Passion, featuring her signature song "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" along with the controversial song "Hell is for Children," which was inspired by reading a series of articles in the New York Times about child abuse in America. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was her first single to break the U.S. Top 10 and eventually sold more than four million copies in the United States alone. The album reached U.S. #2 in January 1981 (behind Yoko Ono and John Lennon's Double Fantasy) and a month later, Benatar won her first Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1980. Other singles released from Crimes of Passion were "Treat Me Right" (US #18) and "You Better Run", which gained some later notoriety when it was the second music video played on MTV, after the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star".[2][3] The album remained on the US album charts for 93 weeks.
Benatar's first (and as yet only) U.S. chart-topper was the LP Precious Time, released in August 1981. It was also her first to chart in the UK, reaching #30. The album's lead single, "Fire and Ice", was another big hit (U.S. #17, AUS #30) and would win Benatar her second Grammy Award, this time for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1981.
In February 1982, Benatar married her lead guitarist Neil Giraldo, with whom she would have two daughters, Haley and Hana.
Get Nervous and Live from Earth
A hit single, "Shadows of the Night", (US #13, AUS #19) heralded a new LP, Get Nervous, released in late 1982. The album was another smash, reaching US #4, and the single would garner Benatar yet another Grammy, again for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1982. The follow-up single, "Little Too Late", was also successful, hitting US #20. The WWII-themed music video for "Shadows of the Night" featured then-unknown actors Judge Reinhold and Bill Paxton as an American fighter copilot and a German radio operator, respectively.
By 1983, Benatar had established a reputation for singing about "tough" subject matters, with a significant amount of songs featuring a "battle" metaphor. This was best exemplified by one of the biggest hits of her career, "Love Is a Battlefield" (penned by noted hit songwriter Holly Knight), released in December 1983. By then her sound had mellowed from hard rock to more atmospheric pop and the story-based video clip for "Love Is a Battlefield" was aimed squarely at MTV, even featuring Benatar in a Michael Jackson-inspired group dance number. This new pop direction was a huge commercial success, with the single peaking at #5 in the United States, her first hit single in the UK at #49, and #1 in Australia for seven weeks. The song would also net Benatar her fourth consecutive Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1983. A live album, Live from Earth, from which "Love Is a Battlefield" was one of two studio-recorded tracks, hit U.S. #13.
In late 1984, the single "We Belong" became another Top 5 smash in America (also hitting UK #22 and AUS #7) but the LP Tropico became her first studio album since the 1979 debut to fail to crack the US Top 10, reaching #14 (AUS #9). A second single release, "Ooh Ooh Song", continued this trend by struggling to U.S. #36.
Benatar would hit the U.S. Top 10 once more, with the #10 single "Invincible" in 1985, but her days of assured multiplatinum commercial success in America were over. "Sex As a Weapon" would only climb as high as #28 in January 1986 and the LP Seven the Hard Way barely dented the US Top 30, peaking at #26 and earning an RIAA Gold certification.
Best Shots: International Success
At the same time, her appeal in the UK began to grow, with a 1987 greatest hits LP, Best Shots, reaching #6 and gold sales status, and re-released singles "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Shadows of the Night" charting at #17 and #50, respectively. Her standing in Australia (always Benatar's most successful territory outside of North America), also remained undiminished, with Seven the Hard Way hitting the Top 10, and Best Shots and 1988's Wide Awake in Dreamland the Top 20. A single lifted from the latter, "All Fired Up" (written by Kerryn Tolhurst, ex-The Dingoes) went Top 20 in the USA and UK and was a #2 smash in Australia, becoming one of the biggest hits of 1988 in that country.
Benatar won four consecutive Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" from 1980 to 1983 for Crimes of Passion, "Fire And Ice," "Shadows Of The Night," and "Love Is A Battlefield," and was nominated four additional times in 1985 with "Invincible," 1986 with "Sex As A Weapon," 1988 for "All Fired Up," and 1989 for "Let's Stay Together." She also earned Grammy Award nominations in 1985 for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female with "We Belong" and in 1986 for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Duo or Group as a member of Artists United Against Apartheid for their single "Sun City." She is also the winner of three American Music Awards: Favorite Female Pop/Rock Vocalist of 1981 and 1983, and Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist of 1985). She was Rolling Stone magazine's "Favorite Female Vocalist" twice. Benatar was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007. Based on overall record sales, and the number of hit songs and their charted positions, Billboard magazine ranks her as the most successful female rock vocalist of all time.[citation needed]
The 1990's
During the 1990's Pat Benatar released 3 original albums. "True Love" was released in 1991 and featured the blues band Roomful of Blues, backing up Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher. The album reached gold status without any radio airplay and limited exposure on VH-1.
"Gravity's Rainbow" was released in 1993 and was a return to the AOR genre. "Everybody Lay Down" was released as a single to rock radio and went all the way to #3. The single was never released to Top 40 radio and a music video was never produced. "Somebody's Baby" was instead released as the 1st single to Top 40 radio and a music video produced. A third single was scheduled and a video shot for "Everytime I Fall Back", but the single was never released and the music video was lost when Chrysalis was sold to EMI records. Pat Benatar had become pregnant and this may have had an effect on her label's support of the album. This was the last album recorded for Chrysalis records.
"Innamorata" was released in 1997 on the CMC International record label. A single video was produced for "Strawberry Wine(Life is Sweet)".
The band
Although billed as a solo artist, Benatar recorded and toured with a consistent set of band members over most of her career, who contributed greatly to the writing and producing of songs and are recognizable characters on album photos and in many of her music videos.
- Neil "Spyder" Giraldo (incorrectly spelled as "Geraldo" in early liner notes/credits) is the distinctive lead guitarist of the band and has performed on all of Benatar's albums. (He is also Pat's second husband.) Neil also sings, plays keyboards and harmonica, and has many writing and producing credits on the Benatar albums. Neil performed with Myron Grombacher in Rick Derringer's touring band, appearing in a possible bootleg entitled Derringer Live At The Paradise Theater Boston, Massachusetts, July 7, 1978 (UPC 672627400428).
- Myron Grombacher is billed as drummer on nine of Benatar's albums and has numerous writing credits. Myron is easily recognizable in the music videos, particularly as the mad dentist in "Get Nervous".
- Charlie Giordano performed keyboard duties on five albums, and is identifiable by his glasses and distinctive array of berets, blazers and 80's-style ties.
- The original bass guitarist was Roger Capps, replaced on Tropico by Donnie Nossov, and then later by Frank Linx.
- Scott Sheets is credited on rhythm guitar on the first few albums.
Other achievements
Benatar still writes and tours with her husband, Neil Giraldo.
In the summer of 2005, the couple's older daughter, Haley Giraldo, starred in E!'s reality TV series Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive.
Stage and screen
In 1975, Benatar performed as the character "Zephyr" in Harry Chapin's off-Broadway sci-fi rock musical Zinger. A rendition of Zephyr's solo piece "Shooting Star" is on the Synchronistic Wanderings collection.
In 1980, she portrayed the character "Jeanette Florescu" in Marcus Reichert's film noir Union City.
Benatar had a song featured in the 1980's version of the movie Metropolis.
In 1985, "Invincible" was the title track to the cult movie The Legend of Billie Jean.
Benatar has made numerous TV appearances, mostly as herself. She appeared with her husband in the Charmed episode "Lucky Charmed", on which "Heartbreaker" was used, and in an episode of Dharma & Greg as herself (singing "We've Only Just Begun" at an impromptu wedding in an airport). In 2006, Benatar performed at the July 4th music event in Dublin, Ohio.
The song "Love Is a Battlefield" was featured twice on South Park, the first being the Season 2 episode "Ike's Wee Wee", but most notably in the episode "Red Man's Greed".
She appeared on an episode of the short-lived sitcom That '80s Show, as herself. She was an old rival of the character Margaret. Her video for "Love is a Battlefield" appeared on an earlier episode of the show as well.
The song "Love is a Battlefield" was also used in the 2004 movie 13 Going on 30, starring Jennifer Garner.
On February 14 and 15, 2008, she and husband Neil "Spyder" Giraldo appeared as themselves on The Young and the Restless when they performed at the Indigo club.
Advertising
In 2006, the song "We Belong" was part of a $20 million dollar ad campaign for Sheraton hotels,[4] although the version used in the commercial was not Benatar's. Her version of the song is featured in the 2006 comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Adam McKay.
Though she had earlier expressed dismay for rock stars endorsing products (including onetime cohort Debbie Harry, who had developed her modeling career simultaneously to her rock career), Benatar herself has now become a commercial spokeswoman for the Energizer company, and is currently being featured in an ad for Candies Vintage shoes for Kohl's department store.
Her 2007 song "Passion" can be downloaded free from the Jell-o Official site.
Discography
References
- ^ Lemuseumdebenatar.com
- ^ a b Hiponline.com
- ^ Trouser Press claims that the second video on MTV was by Todd Rundgren. Kopp, Bill. "Todd Rundgren" (HTML). Trouser Press. Trouser Press LLC. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
'Time Heals'... became the subject of an innovative music video, remembered now as the second video ever shown on MTV.
- ^ Hotel-online.com