Rediscovered
Talent:
Rock & Roll Pioneer: Pat Benatar
Each month, musicbizadvice.com profiles an artist from the past. Some you may have
heard of, some not, but we hope you'll take time to check out their music...especially if
it's something different than you usually listen to. This month, we rediscover Pat
Benatar.
Pat Benatar was born Pat Andrzejewski in Brooklyn, NY. Trained as an opera singer since
elementary school, she gave up her opera training when it became clear that college would
be too much of a financial hardship on her family. At age 19, she married Dennis Benatar
and moved to Virginia. But music beckoned, and after a stint as a bank teller and singing
waitress, she moved back to New York to persue her career.
Benatar began perfecting her stage presence in the Cabaret scene and church choirs, and by
performing on open mic nights at the legendary Catch A Rising Star. Eventually winning a
permanent slot, she became one of Catch A Rising Star's most popular performers. (Catch A
Rising Star owner Rick Newman was later her manager for 10 years.)
The black eyeliner-wearing, man-eating rock and roll seductress persona that later became
Pat Benatar's trademark was also born at the Catch A Rising-Star, in 1977. Done as a
costume for Halloween night at another club, she kept the costume on for her set at Catch
A Rising Star. The crowd went wild over Benatar's vampy rock and roll seductress get-up,
and an image was born. Combined with her outspoken feminism, the image would later make
Pat Benatar a pioneering rock icon. |
(Uncomfortable
with the conflict between the image and her real life, she would grow to regret it later.)
In 1978 Benatar was signed to Chrysalis Records. Shortly thereafter she was paired with
musical director/guitarist Neil "Spyder" Giraldo, who would become her writing
partner, guitarist, producer, and later, husband. Benatar's first album, In the Heat of
the Night, was released in October, 1979. It reached #12 on the Billboard album
chart--phenomenally successful for a rock album by a female at that time--and yielded the
singles, "We Live for Love" and "Heartbreaker." Also on the album was
"I Need a Lover," written by a little-known singer-songwriter named John
Mellencamp. The public embraced the previously-unheard of combination of rock with
classically-trained vocals, as well as Benatar's 4 1/2-octave (some say five) range.
During this time she, Giraldo, and the band they assembled embarked on a nationwide tour.
In the Heat of the Night was followed in 1980 by Crimes of Passion, which hit #2 on the
Billboard album chart. Spawning several singles and popular album cuts, Crimes also
inadvertently stirred up a bit of controversy with a song about child abuse, "Hell is
For Children." The song's title, coupled with Benatar's man-eating persona, was
misinterpreted by the media as Satanic, causing it to be boycotted by several radio
stations. A quick read of the lyrics would have cleared up any misunderstanding. The song
is clearly about child abuse, and Benatar and Giraldo continue to donate the song's
royalties to child abuse causes. Next
Rediscovered Talent
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