Pat Benatar (VIDEOS)

Meet Pat Banatar...one of the most-played artists in the early days of MTV!

This four-time Grammy winner was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski in Brooklyn on January 10, 1953.  Her father was a sheet metal worker, her mother a beautician.  "Patti" became interested in theater, and began voice lessons at the age of 8.  Her training was strictly classical.  Pat participated in choir and school musicals through high school.

Continuing her classical music training, with a plan to attend Juliard, Pat shocked her family, friends and teachers by deciding to attend college majoring in health education.  At 19, she dopped out of college after one year, to marry her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar. Pat worked as a bank teller, while her husband served in the army in Virginia.

In 1973, Pat Benatar got a job as a singing waitress, and joined a lounge band.  After Dennis Benatar's army discharge, the couple returned to New York, and Pat became a regular at a "Catch A Rising Star," and sang on various commercial jingles (including Pepsi Cola), until she signed a reord contract in 1978.  Pat divorced Dennis Benatar in 1979.

Pat Benatar recorded her first album "In The Heat Of The Night" in June and July of 1979.  The first 2 releases "I Need A Lover" (August 1979) and "If You Think You Know How To Love Me" (October 1979) received litle notice. However, third time was the charm! "Heartbreaker" which hit the top-40 charts December 22, 1979 was an immediate hit.

Benatar's second album, "Crimes Of Passion," hit the record store shelves in August 1980, and gave Pat her signature song "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." This single landed at #9 on the charts, and the album spent 5 weeks at #2 in 1981.  Pat won the "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance of 1980" Grammy.  Other albums and Grammys would follow through the 1980s. "Best Shots," a greatest hits collection was released in 1987. Other compilations and CD box sets would follow in the 1990s and early 2000's. "Ultimate Collection," a 2 CD compilation of 40 remastered songs, was released in 2008.

Pat Benatar has continued to tour through the years, supporting her own albums, and as a part of multi-band tours, including Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon, Steve Miller Band, Blondie, and the Bangles.  This year, Pat is touring with Loverboy and Journey!

What's Pat up to now (with husband and bandmate Neil Giraldo)? Click here!