The Toy Box: Pat Benatar

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Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Today I'm checking off my last Pat Benatar album of the 80's. Though not officially her last of the decade, I've already played through 1988's Wide Awake In Dreamland.

Benatar noted that her sixth studio album, Seven The Hard Way cost the most out of all her releases to date but sold the least. It would become her first in the USA to no reach platinum status, selling "only" 600,000 units. It did, however, continue her trend of platinum albums in Canada. Despite being less popular in the US, the album would go on to be another major success for her, spawning the hits Invincible (Theme From The Legend Of Billie Jean), and Sex As A Weapon, peaking at number ten and thirty-eight, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100.

Things return to a more hard rock sound, and with it comes the aforementioned hits, which are the tunes I bought Seven The Hard Way For. Though that's not all to be found here.

I really dug the jazzy and atmospheric Walking In The Underground. It kind of conjures up images of Jim Henson's Labyrinth for me. I'm not sure exactly why, but I'm going to go with it.

Shortly after its release, Donnie Nossov, and Myron Grombacher would depart to work with Lita Ford for her breakthrough album, Lita. However, Grombacher would return by 1988 for Wide Awake In Dreamland.

Red Vision, though not her best work, does offer a unique punchy industrial hard rock sound, all led by a crunchy guitar. Meanwhile, things go to the opposite spectrum with the haunting lyrics of Run Between The Raindrops.

Prior to this last studio album, Benatar would release the massive selling Best Shots, the 1987 compilation featuring a slew of hits, coupled with a select variety of live versions. Much like her prior albums, it would fly into platinum status.

She's continued to release albums, being one of the few artists of the era to survive the 90's but stopped in 2003 with her latest release to date, Go. Though she continues to tour, she announced in 2022 that she would stop performing her hit, Hit Me With Your Best Shot. While I respect her ability to do that, I guess I just don't see the point to virtue signal when you're seventy-two years old, and let's face it, clinging to the past for your bread and butter. Just sing the songs the fans want to hear. I'm looking at you, Rolling Stones!

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
November 26, 1983

THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
November 26, 1988

Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - Tropico

It's been a fairly good trip down the road of Pat Benatar over these past couple of days, and I'd say it's also been lucrative in terms of finding some good tunes to add to my shuffle list. Sadly, my IPOD has also been missing for the past two weeks, and I can't for the life of me find it.

Prior to releasing her fourth studio album in 1984, Benatar first delivered the 1983 live album, Live From Earth. With it came two exclusive studio tracks, and a music video that would hit hard on MTV. That song was, Love Is A Battlefield. Musically, pop friendly, radio ready. Lyrically, a deep-rooted look at domestic abuse. The track would peak at number five on the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the charts for twenty-two weeks. It would also reach number one on the Billboard Rock charts, holding that position for four weeks.

This success served as a piggyback for Tropico upon its release, which would become her fifth consecutive platinum selling studio album, but sixth, including the aforementioned live album. Its lead single, We Belong flew up the charts in multiple countries, peaking at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100. Critics praised the track, and the album as a whole, for its softer and sophisticated direction, with Pat and husband Neil stating it was their first to intentionally move away from hard rock.

A second single, Ooh Ooh Song, followed. However, it was not as successful, reaching number thirty-six in the USA, but failing elsewhere. Following the success of We Belong, Love Is A Battlefield was re-released as a single in the UK and became her highest charting song in that country.

I'm not much into ballad slow type songs, but I will admit We Belong is the reason I bought Tropico. I dare say that Pat is one of the few artists from the 80's where regardless the album you buy, you're going to get a hit. I think only the legacy type artists can truly claim that, and I suppose in hindsight, I would label her as legacy.

While I would have preferred to hear a more hard rock friendly release, I can at least get behind tracks like the above hit, Painted Desert, Love In The Ice Age. When taken into consideration with her discography as a whole, or rather, the tracks I prefer from it, it makes for a well-crafted greatest hits album with a little heavy, a little soft, and of course, all the deep topical matters that come with them all. As for the album as a standalone, I don't know that it would be my go-to.

Songs do pick up the tempo, such as A Crazy World Like This, and Ooh Ooh Song. However, the rockability style of the latter, in light of the softer tone of the rest, kind of feels out of place. Frankly, with how unique it is to the majority of her work, I don't know that it would necessarily fit in anywhere on any of her albums.

It doesn't appear that Benatar embarked on any type of tour, which would be understandable coming off of forty shows in 1983. Instead, it appears she went right back to the studio to begin work on what would become her sixth studio release, 1985's Seven The Hard Way.

With that, there's not much to say until we get to that album tomorrow.

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THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
November 25, 1989

Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - Precious Time

Still checking off boxes, I make my way back to Pat Benatar. She's an artist that has been long since been in my 80's collection for the obvious reasons. However, she's not one who I've necessarily sat down and made an effort to get from point A to point B with. So, it's time to rectify that.

She's one of the rare artists who I went back to the 70's for, and have actually done a Retro Spin on her 1979 debut, In The Heat Of The Night. I've also already go through her first 80's album, Crimes Of Passion (1980), and her last, Wide Awake In Dreamland (1988). So, essentially, it's time to fill in the gap, and let's do that by diving right into 1981's Precious Time.

Things start out with the massive hits, Promises In The Dark, and Fire And Ice. We then dive into the Paul Revere & the Raiders cover, Just Like Me, which is pretty good. While I would normally be quite critical of a cover, I don't actually know the original version to compare it to. I will say that one of the things I came to learn about Benatar in previous Spins was her heavy reliance on covering other people's music.

I was quite surprised at the title track, Precious Time. I'm surprised it didn't get much airplay back in the 80's. It's pretty solid, as far as I'm concerned. I suspect the six (plus) minute runtime probably had a lot to do with that.

Things kept firing on all cylinders with It's A Tuff Life. At first, I thought I wouldn't really like this tune with its reggae style beat, and generic punk sound. However, it quickly grew on me. Tracks taper off from there, remaining good, but not necessarily memorable.

Benatar circles back to the world of cover tunes, and finishes the album off with her rendition of The Beatles Helter Skelter. Since I'm not necessarily a fan of the Fab Four, nor the song, it's kind of a take it or leave it song for me. It's decent, definitely hard rocking, and a solid cover

Overall, it was a good listening session, and one that invigorates me to want to hear more from her. Good thing I have three more albums to go. I'm hoping the momentum can stay high, and that I grab a whole lot more for my ever expanding, and probably bloated, shuffle list.

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THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
November 23, 1985

Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - Wide Awake In Dreamland

I was wide awake in dreamland and all fired up for a solid Retro Spin today, so I decided to take the needle to the platter of Pat Benatar's last entry in the 80's - 1988's Wide Awake In Dreamland.

The album builds the excitement up pretty quickly with the first track, All Fired Up, and from there, goes into a song I had long since forgotten. The slower paced, One Love. Amazing song! Track three, Let's Stay Together, not so much.

Don't Walk Away and Too Long A Soldier were decent, but felt very Madonna like. The rest of the album unfortunately fell to background noise as I moved on to other things - Mentally.

Overall, the album just wasn't popping for me. At this point in Benatar's career, I honestly expected a solid album from front to back. Instead, I got a handful of good tracks, and wide variety of what felt like filler.

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Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - In The Heat Of The Night

Pat Benatar exploded on the scene in 1979, competing with the predominantly male dominated hard rock scene, clawing her way to the forefront to become one of music's leading ladies of the 1980's. With an explosive list of hits, multiple platinum albums, and several Grammy Awards, she is anything but just your average singer.

Inspired one even after taking in a Liza Minnelli concert, she decided to pursue a career in music. Quitting her bank job, she shifted her focus to the night club, The Roaring Twenties, where she worked as a singing waitress. It was here where she met Phil Coxon, and together they formed Coxon's Army.

Benatar had married her high school sweetheart, Dennis Benatar in 1973, and when he returned from the army in 1975, the couple moved to New York so that she could continue her pursuit of music. During this period, she would perform regularly at Catch A Rising Star. Between 1977 and 1978 she would continue to perform at various venues, even recording commercials for Pepsi-Cola. However, it would be her headline at New York City's Tramps club in 1978 that would prove to be the opportunity she needed. The show was heard by representatives of several record labels, but it would ultimately be Terry Ellis of Chrysalis Records who would sign her. Though she would divorce her husband shortly after, she would keep his last name.

Her debut album, In The Heat Of The Night (1979) would serve as her breakthrough album, reaching number three in Canada, and paving the way for future albums, which seemingly only got bigger and better. Throughout her career, she was able to achieve a unique sound, combining both hard rock and pop.

Pat and her guitarist, Neil Giraldo would soon start dating, and by 1982 were married. To date, they remain together, and continue to tour together. A true love story that is so rare these days.

Over her four decade career, Pat Benatar has released twelve studio albums (1979 - 2003), and over twenty compilations of various formats (cassette, CD, VHS, etc.). Though I think it's fair to say her main popularity were her albums released between 1979 and 1991. Yes, sadly, she became another victim of the grunge era, losing popularity in the early 90's as the new sounds of music quickly dominated airways. Despite this, she continues to remain active, touring frequently.

Today, I'm going back to 1979 to revisit that first album which paved the way to her rock-stardom, In The Heat Of The Night.

The album punches you in the face with one of her biggest hits of all time, Heartbreaker, and from there transitions into a subpar rendering of John Mellencamp's I Need A Lover. From there, while it delivers decent tracks, nothing really stands out as amazing by any means.

It wasn't until the tail end of it all, songs seven and eight, X-Rated and Don't Let It Show, that I got interested again. Even then, these are far from "hits". Overall, it was a bit disappointing that for how popular Pat Benatar is that this album was just...Well, adequate. I expected more.

This by no means taints my opinion on her as a singer. She has a ton of hits, and I like a lot of them, if not all of them. I was just hoping to find more to add to my shuffle list than what was already there, which I suppose I did with the two aforementioned tracks.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - Crimes Of Passion

It wasn't her first studio album, but Pat Benatar's first entry into the 80's, Crimes Of Passion, solidified her as a female rocker force to be reckoned with. Her compilation album, Best Shots, was a regular for me, dating all the way back to its original cassette release in 1987. However, I never really took the time to broaden my horizons with her beyond that.

Fast forward to September 2017. I'm big time into buying CD's at this point, building what would become my massive 80's collection. The mood suddenly hits me. I need Pat Benatar. It must have been the perfect time for this decision because I stumbled across a listing on ebay which had all but two of her studio albums (1997's Innamorata and 2003's Go). This didn't really matter much to me because all the ones I did want were present and accounted for. Best of all, it was really cheap for what I was getting. A quick buy it now, and my Pat Benatar collection was complete.

So now we step even further into the future - January 2019. This is when I finally get around to spinning my first album for her - The one I'm writing about today.

Crimes Of Passion is packed full of her hits, such as, Treat Me Right, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Hell Is For Children and (to an extent) Wuthering Heights. But how does the rest of the album stand up? Does it pack as big a punch as the hits? Are the hits the hits for a reason? What's on the disc?

Little Paradise, I'm Gonna Follow You stood out as solid tracks, but not as refined, so to speak, as the above mentioned hits. I wonder if this was because I've heard the hits so much that's its hard not to hold anything else to such a high level of expectation.

Overall, enjoying six out of ten tracks for a fairly good album in my book. I definitely heard some great tracks which made it to my 80's mixes on the ol' iTunes and iPod. I'm looking forward to hearing some more from Pat Benatar in the near future.

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