Pat Benatar
Encyclopedia : P : PA : PAT : Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar (born January 10, 1953) is an American rock/hard rock singer who had numerous hits during the 1980s such as "Heartbreaker", "I Need A Lover", and "You Better Run", the video for which was the second music video ever shown on MTV after the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star [link]
Biography
She was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski to a Polish-Irish family in Brooklyn, but grew up in Lindenhurst, New York, initially studying opera like her mother. [link] At 19, she married her high school sweetheart, Dennis T. Benatar in 1971, providing her the surname with which she became famous. She immediately moved to Richmond, Virginia with her husband, where she worked as a bank clerk and sang gigs at night.[link]. She and her husband moved to New York in 1975 where they were soon divorced. Pat then began to pursue her singing career in earnest. She was discovered at an amateur-night contest in the New York City comedy club Catch a Rising Star in 1977. After performing successfully several times at the club, Benatar finally found her onstage persona in the form of a wild Halloween costume which she had worn as a joke. "The crowd was always polite, but this time they went out of their minds," Benatar would later report. "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. [link]She later married the band's guitarist, Neil Giraldo (incorrectly spelled as "Geraldo" in early liner notes/credits). They have two daughters.
Benatar is known for her 'tough' attitude, having recorded a significant amount of songs with a "battle" metaphor (such as "Invincible", "Hit me with your Best Shot", "Sex as a Weapon", "Fight it Out", and "Love is a Battlefield") and harsh subjects such as child abuse ("Hell is for Children", "Suffer the Little Children").
She won four consecutive Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" from 1980 to 1983, and was nominated four additional times in 1985, 1986, 1988, and 1989.
Benatar still writes and tours with her husband, and has also become a commercial spokeswoman for the Energizer company.
In the summer of 2005 Benatar's daughter, Haley Giraldo, starred in E!'s reality TV series, .
In 2006 her song "We Belong" was part of a $20 million dollar ad campaign for Sheraton hotels.[link]
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album | US | UK | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | In the Heat of the Night | 12 | — | debut album |
| 1980 | Crimes of Passion | 2 | — | — |
| 1981 | Precious Time | 1 | 30 | — |
| 1982 | Get Nervous | 4 | 73 | — |
| 1983 | Live From Earth | 13 | 70 | live album with additional studio tracks |
| 1984 | Tropico | 14 | 31 | — |
| 1985 | Seven the Hard Way | 26 | 79 | — |
| 1988 | Wide Awake in Dreamland | 28 | 11 | — |
| 1989 | Best Shots | 67 | 6 | hits compilation album |
| 1991 | True Love | 37 | 40 | — |
| 1993 | Gravity's Rainbow | 85 | — | — |
| 1997 | Innamorata | 171 | — | — |
| 1999 | Synchronistic Wanderings | — | — | Hits compilation box set |
| 2003 | Go | 187 | — | — |
Singles
| Year | Song | US Hot 100 | US Mainstream Rock | UK singles | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | "Heartbreaker" | 23 | — | — | In the Heat of the Night |
| 1980 | "We Live For Love" | 27 | — | — | In the Heat of the Night |
| 1980 | "You Better Run" | 42 | — | — | Crimes of Passion |
| 1980 | "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" | 9 | — | — | Crimes Of Passion |
| 1981 | "Treat Me Right" | 18 | 31 | — | Crimes Of Passion |
| 1981 | "Fire and Ice" | 17 | 2 | — | Precious Time |
| 1981 | "Promises In the Dark" | 38 | 16 | — | Precious Time |
| 1982 | "Shadows Of the Night" | 13 | 3 | 50 | Get Nervous |
| 1983 | "Little Too Late" | 20 | 38 | — | Get Nervous |
| 1983 | "Looking For a Stranger" | 39 | 4 | — | Get Nervous |
| 1983 | "Love Is a Battlefield" | 5 | 1 | 17 | Live From Earth |
| 1984 | "We Belong" | 5 | 3 | 22 | Tropico |
| 1985 | "Ooh Ooh Song" | 36 | — | — | Tropico |
| 1985 | "Invincible" | 10 | — | 53 | Seven The Hard Way |
| 1985 | "Sex As a Weapon" | 28 | 5 | 67 | Seven The Hard Way |
| 1986 | "Le Bel Age" | 54 | — | — | Seven The Hard Way |
| 1988 | "All Fired Up" | 19 | 2 | 19 | Wide Awake In Dreamland |
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.