Music - Albums - Videos

Pat Benatar (born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953) is a four-time Grammy Award-winning American singer best known for hit songs "Love Is a Battlefield" and the iconic 80's hits "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" and "Heartbreaker".

Benatar is a top-selling artist, and one of the 1980s Top Platinum Album Recipients, according to the Recording Industry Association of America with 12.5 million certified units, including two RIAA-certified Multi-Platinum albums, five RIAA-certified Platinum albums, three RIAA-certified Gold albums, plus 19 Top 40 singles to her credit. Recognized for her thrilling mezzo-soprano vocal range, Billboard Magazine ranked Benatar as the most successful female rock vocalist of all-time. Benatar became eligible for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Born Patricia (Patti) Mae on January 10, 1953 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, to Andrew and Mildred Andrzejewski, the family moved from Brooklyn to N Hamilton Ave, Lindenhurst, Long Island when she was 3 years old. "I have wonderful childhood memories of picking berries in the "woods" by our house, driving to the "docks" on the South Bay to get freshly harvested clams," she said. The daughter of a sheet-metal worker and a beautician who once sang with the New York City Opera, Andrzejewski became interested in theater and began voice lessons, singing at Daniel Street Elementary School her first solo, a song called “It Must Be Spring,” at age eight. She said, "As a kid, I sang at any choir, any denomination, anywhere I could." At Lindenhurst Senior High School (1967 - 1971), Andrzejewski participated in musical theater, playing Queen Guinevere in the school production of Camelot, marching in the homecoming parade, singing at the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, and performing a solo of "The Christmas Song" on a holiday recording of the Lindenhurst High School Choir her senior year. Andrzejewski was cut off from the rock scene in nearby Manhattan though because her parents were "ridiculously strict I was allowed to go to symphonies, opera and theater but I couldn't go to clubs," and her musical training was strictly classical and theatrical. She said, "I was singing Puccini and "West Side Story" but I spent every afternoon after school with my little transistor radio listening to the Rolling Stones..."
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.) He was born on December 29, 1955. 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.
* 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 80s-style ties. In 2007, he replaced the late Danny Federici in the E Street Band.
* 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.

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 with Mike Chapman), 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 and her fifth consecutive RIAA platinum winner.