For the past week or so, I’ve been listening to “BEST OF” CDS. One that stood out to me is ALL FIRED UP: The Very Best of Pat Benatar (1994). This 2-CD set collects most of Pat Benatar’s hits and more obscure songs.
There’s the politically incorrect “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” the moody “Shadows of the Night,” and the rock anthem, “Love is a Battlefield.”
Are you a Pat Benatar fan? Any favorite songs here? GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
| 1-1 | I Need A Lover | 3:24 | |
| 1-2 | If You Think You Know How To Love Me | 3:43 | |
| 1-3 | Heartbreaker | 3:26 | |
| 1-4 | We Live For Love | 3:35 | |
| 1-5 | You Better Run | 3:02 | |
| 1-6 | Hit Me With Your Best Shot | 2:50 | |
| 1-7 | Treat Me Right | 3:15 | |
| 1-8 | Hell Is For Children | 4:48 | |
| 1-9 | Fire And Ice | 3:20 | |
| 1-10 | Promises In The Dark | 4:48 | |
| 1-11 | Shadows Of The Night | 3:40 | |
| 1-12 | Little Too Late | 3:22 | |
| 1-13 | Looking For A Stranger | 3:24 | |
| 1-14 | Anxiety (Get Nervous) | 3:43 | |
| 1-15 | Love Is A Battlefield | 4:00 | |
| 1-16 | Lipstick Lies | 3:49 | |
| 2-1 | We Belong | 3:40 | |
| 2-2 | Ooh Ooh Song | 4:06 | |
| 2-3 | Temporary Heroes | 4:00 | |
| 2-4 | Invincible (Theme From The Legend Of Billie Jean) | 4:00 | |
| 2-5 | Sex As A Weapon | 4:15 | |
| 2-6 | Le Bel Age | 4:15 | |
| 2-7 | All Fired Up | 4:08 | |
| 2-8 | Don’t Walk Away | 4:10 | |
| 2-9 | Let’s Stay Together | 3:41 | |
| 2-10 | One Love | 4:30 | |
| 2-11 | True Love | 4:41 | |
| 2-12 | Payin’ The Cost To Be The Boss | 3:12 | |
| 2-13 | So Long | 3:56 | |
| 2-14 | Everybody Lay Down | 3:57 | |
| 2-15 | Somebody’s Baby | 3:39 | |
| 2-16 | Crazy | 3:40 | |
| 2-17 | Every Time I Fall Back | 3:59 |
I know Hit Me With Your Best Shot and I think Pat is a fine-looking lady, but I’d hardly call myself a fan!
Bob, our Oldies radio station still plays Pat Benatar’s music!
I can’t reconcile my mind to calling things from the eighties or nineties oldies! Oldies are the fifties and sixties!
Bob, our local Oldies radio station rarely plays any songs older than the 1990s!
I guess “Heartbreaker” is my favorite song of hers, but I was never a huge fan. I remember she got a lot of pushback for the cognitive dissonance of having “Hell Is for Children” (a song about child abuse) right before “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” on one of her albums. 🤨
Deb, Pat Benatar benefited from MTV videos. Benatar was on “heavy rotation” on our local radio stations in the 1980s.
I may have mentioned this before, but I once worked with the “original” Pat Benatar. Her brother, Dennis, married his high school sweetheart, a wannabe singer named Pat; when they divorced she kept his name (a wise decision career-wise — her maiden name was Andrzejewski). Once her sister-in-law (soon to be ex-sister-in-law) began making it, MY Pat Benatar was forced to constantly introduce herself as “The Original” Pat Benatar. I don’t know if my Pat Benatar could sing, though.
Jerry, I’m always astonished by all the “original” people you know!
Not a huge fan, though I kind of like her, though not enough to buy this. She covered the Rascals’ “You Better Run,” a song I always liked.
Jeff, I hadn’t listened to ALL FIRED UP in years so it was fun to travel back to that musical era.
Never got into Benatar’s music.
Beth, there were a few years in the 1980s when Pat Benatar was a popular singer, especially on MTV. Later, her career faded.
I thought she fell to the middle rank of Top 40 singers of the ’80s, was a bit more concerned with her almost dying on stage from anorexia than anything else. I thought her recordings, like those of Foreigner, tended to be better than those of her most direct colleagues, but not fully realized art. Maybe not quite as good pop as those of Olivia Newton-John or Laura Brannigan, but better than Madonna Ciccone’s or certainly Bonnie Tyler’s.
Todd, ALL FIRED UP sounds very good for a 1994 recording! Bonnie Tyler’s albums are hard to listen to.
For many of us, they always were, or would be (since I wouldn’t ever seek one out after the miserable hit).
Toddd, Bonnie Tyler’s career was brief.
from Facebook today:
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“43 Years Ago On This Day…🎶 📺
August 1, 1981 – a day that changed music history! MTV Music Television launched, revolutionizing the way we experience music. The first 20 videos played on MTV were a mix of rock, pop, and new wave classics.
1. “Video Killed the Radio Star” – The Buggles
2. “You Better Run” – Pat Benatar
3. “She Won’t Dance With Me” – Rod Stewart
4. “You Better You Bet” – The Who
5. “Little Suzi’s on the Up” – Ph.D.
6. “We Don’t Talk Anymore” – Cliff Richard
7. “Brass in Pocket” – The Pretenders
8. “Time Heals” – Todd Rundgren
9. “Take It on the Run” – REO Speedwagon
10. “Rockin’ the Paradise” – Styx
11. “When Things Go Wrong” – Robin Lane and the Chartbusters
12. “History Never Repeats” – Split Enz
13. “Hold on Loosely” – 38 Special
14. “Just Between You and Me” – April Wine
15. “Sailing” – Rod Stewart
16. “Iron Maiden” – Iron Maiden (the first heavy metal song on MTV!)
17. “Keep on Loving You” – REO Speedwagon
18. “Bluer Than Blue” – Michael Johnson
19. “Message of Love” – The Pretenders
20. “Mr. Briefcase” – Lee Ritenour
These songs set the tone for a new era in music and pop culture.”
Todd, MTV changed the music industry…for about 20 years. Then music streaming and cell phones changed it again.
I was mostly citing this for timeliness, and the coincidental fact that a Benatar video was one of the first they ran. (Not that they weren’t Very Aware of what videos were doing well in pre-MTV video and industry-pushed audio charts.)(People do seem to falsely imagine that MTV invented promo video rather than being the most successful exploiter of that market.)
Todd, I remember Pat Benatar’s videos being a staple of MTV in the 1980s. And her songs got solid airplay on the TOP 40 radio stations at that time, too.