Pat Benatar
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Benatars sophomore effort, 1980s Crimes of Passion, more than delivered on the debuts promise and its often considered to be the finest recording of her career. Spurred on by such classic rock radio standards as Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Treat Me Right, and You Better Run, the album was certified platinum shortly after its release and Benatar became a certified arena headliner in the U.S. Benatar also became one of the most-played artists during MTVs early days, received several Grammy Awards around this time, and continued to enjoy massive hits and sold-out tours throughout the early to mid-80s, including such albums as 1981s Precious Time, 1982s Get Nervous, 1983s Live from Earth, 1984s Tropico, 1985s Seven the Hard Way, and 1988s Wide Awake in Dreamland, plus the singles Fire & Ice, Promises in the Dark, Shadows of the Night, Love Is a Battlefield, We Belong, and Invincible. But by the end of the decade, it appeared as though Benatar had fallen of the face of the Earth as the hits seemed to dry up.
Benatar opted to shift musical gears and issue an album of lues and R&B, 1991s True Love, which failed to return the singer back to the top of the charts. Benatar returned back to her patented arena rock sound with such further studio releases as 1993s Gravitys Rainbow and 1997s Innamorata (although the latter of which was largely acoustic-based) and while the albums didnt exactly measure up to her earlier releases, both were solid efforts. The late 90s saw a pair of live archival releases hit record store shelves, 1998s 8-15-80 and 1999s The King Biscuit Flower Hour Live, in addition to countless hits collections (although the best of the bunch proved to be 1989s Best Shots, which remains a steady seller to this day). The singer began touring again by the middle of the decade (after taking a five-year hiatus from the road), co-headlining shows with REO Speedwagon, Fleetwood Mac, the Steve Miller Band, and Styx. She also continued to dabble in acting, appearing in the ABC Afterschool Special Torn Between Two Fathers and on various sitcoms. In August 2003, Benatar returned to recording with Go (Vanguard), her first studio LP since 1997s Innamorata. The LP revisited the arena rock/MOR sound that had defined Benatars career, and was accompanied by an extensive tour. ~ Greg Prato & Stephen Thomas Erlewine,
