Like the music to this one song, the lyrics were catchy. Every time I heard the song, I would always hear such lines as, "You're a real tough cookie," "Put up your dukes, let's get down to it," and "Hit me with your best shot, fire away."
That singer, I would later find out, was Pat Benatar, the timeless hit song, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". Other hits I would come to love for life include "Love is a Battlefield," "We Belong," and "Heartbreaker."
In the pages of Pat's autobiography, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, lifetime fans are treated to an in-depth story, a journey of ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs of a trailblazer for the women of rock music.
Though by the time Pat came on the scene with her debut album in 1979, In the Heat of the Night, there were some women fronting rock bands, and more to come, such an Ann and Nancy Wilson and Joan Jett, respectively, Pat herself was not anyone's puppet or doormat, especially when it came to demands from Chrysalis, a big record label at the time.
After a mere two chapters of her backstory, of getting to know where she came from, we readers really get to know her. And it's over from there. By 1979, she had already paid her dues, taking vocal lessons all through grade school and singing at clubs and meeting long-time confidants. That led her to the band who would accompany her to the next level of her career: as a female frontman of a rock band.
She had no sooner signed the contracts that she learned quickly about the demands of writing songs on a regular basis, and unintentionally and easily having an image of someone who was sexy.
As for Pat, she wanted to only write songs; with her slender, flat-chested physique, she didn't consider herself someone to be attractive. The latter was taken advantage of and harassed, both of which were magnified when choosing the album cover for Crimes of Passion.
It was in doing this she met the love of her life, songwriter/musician/producer Neil Giraldo. She knew he was going to be, as she unashamedly put it. "the father of her children." A few years before they met, there was the all-too-well-known intra-band on-again-off-again relationship with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. In light of that, Chrysalis told her under no circumstances was she going to have a relationship with Neil. Three years later, after realizing they couldn't live without each other, Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar met at the altar.
By this time, the reader is approximately halfway through Heart and a Rock Place. They will have learned and appreciated that while Pat is a talented singer, she considers family her number-one priority...in spite of what the record label thinks.
I gained a higher respect for her when she and her band were doing the music video footage of "We Belong" while finding out around that time she was pregnant with her and Neil's first child. Having read that, I now like that song even more.
From there on out, we learn that Pat is no distant mother. She had no maid and no matter what managers and producers expected of her, she was doing to be actively involved in her daughters' lives. Even if it meant having to change their diaper an hour before showtime when she should be "resting."
"Resting" is not something Pat, with her working dog persona, does not do. This has certainly paid off over the years. She is one of few rock singers who never took any drugs, had children only within marriage, can still sing and have some live performances from time to time...and keep alive her 35-plus-year marriage to Neil Giraldo. The three-decade-long road may have been rough for her, with not a few mockings, temptations, and ridicules. However, with a rock-solid refusal to give up, she has been able to inspire many succeeding women in pop and rock music, is considered the King of Rock and Roll's favorite singer, and a favorite of mine and my peers.
