When Patricia Mae Andrzejewski saw a magazine ad featuring her in the 1980s, she noticed part of her top had been airbrushed away. Patricia Mae -- better known to the pop music world as Pat Benatar -- could be "accommodating," writes Lucy O'Brien in her book "She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop & Soul."
But Benatar "was never a floozy," O'Brien notes. "When her record company Chrysalis airbrushed part of her top off for a Billboard advertisement, Benatar toned down the sexy stage image and cut her hair short."
Now a wife and mom with two daughters, Benatar is still touring and recording with guitarist Neil Giraldo, her husband of 27 years and musical collaborator for 32 years. Benatar, Giraldo and their backing band will be in concert June 26 at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach.
As a 20-something in the mid-1970s, Benatar gave up her bank clerk job
in Virginia and moved with her soldier husband, Dennis Benatar, back to
her native New York City. Pat sang on Manhattan's cabaret circuit,
divorced her husband, switched to rock 'n' roll and landed a record
deal.
Her debut album, "In the Heat of the Night," was released in September 1979 and sold a million copies while spawning the hit single "Heartbreaker."
According to "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll," "Benatar's early sex kitten image -- which she stated had been thrust upon her -- belied the singer's choice of assertive, tough-girl lyrics and take-no-crap delivery."
From 1980 to '83, Benatar set a record when she won four straight Grammy Awards in the "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" category. The wins came for her album "Crimes of Passion" and the hit singles "Fire and Ice," "Shadows of the Night" and "Love Is a Battlefield."
"Unlike the wayward, unpredictable talent of Janice Joplin, Patti Smith, Joan Jett even, Benatar's talent was reliable, and she was hard-working, with a sort of fluffy-edged feisty sexiness," O'Brien says. Crafting "heavy rock peppered with clear pop melodies ... Benatar's achievement was to take the earth-tremors of heavy metal and sell it back to America in a pop format."
During her '80s heyday, Benatar charted 15 top 40 singles, including "Sex as a Weapon" in 1985 and her last top 40 hit, "All Fired Up," in 1988.
Benatar released "True Love," a jump blues album, in 1991 and the rock album "Gravity's Rainbow " in 1993. She took a break from the music biz after the birth of her and Giraldo's second daughter in 1994.
Since then Benatar has released only two studio albums of new material, 1997's "Innamorata" and 2003's "Go."
In 1999 she and Giraldo compiled "Synchronistic Wanderings," a 55-track, three-CD box set retrospective that included unreleased live recordings and outtakes.
The couple have toured almost annually since the mid-1990s.
If You Go
WHO: Pat Benatar
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. June 26
WHERE: Peabody Auditorium, 600 Auditorium Blvd., Daytona Beach
TICKETS: $37, $45 and $70 plus service charge, available at the auditorium box office and Ticketmaster.
INFORMATION: 386-671-3462
Her debut album, "In the Heat of the Night," was released in September 1979 and sold a million copies while spawning the hit single "Heartbreaker."
According to "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll," "Benatar's early sex kitten image -- which she stated had been thrust upon her -- belied the singer's choice of assertive, tough-girl lyrics and take-no-crap delivery."
From 1980 to '83, Benatar set a record when she won four straight Grammy Awards in the "Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female" category. The wins came for her album "Crimes of Passion" and the hit singles "Fire and Ice," "Shadows of the Night" and "Love Is a Battlefield."
"Unlike the wayward, unpredictable talent of Janice Joplin, Patti Smith, Joan Jett even, Benatar's talent was reliable, and she was hard-working, with a sort of fluffy-edged feisty sexiness," O'Brien says. Crafting "heavy rock peppered with clear pop melodies ... Benatar's achievement was to take the earth-tremors of heavy metal and sell it back to America in a pop format."
During her '80s heyday, Benatar charted 15 top 40 singles, including "Sex as a Weapon" in 1985 and her last top 40 hit, "All Fired Up," in 1988.
Benatar released "True Love," a jump blues album, in 1991 and the rock album "Gravity's Rainbow " in 1993. She took a break from the music biz after the birth of her and Giraldo's second daughter in 1994.
Since then Benatar has released only two studio albums of new material, 1997's "Innamorata" and 2003's "Go."
In 1999 she and Giraldo compiled "Synchronistic Wanderings," a 55-track, three-CD box set retrospective that included unreleased live recordings and outtakes.
The couple have toured almost annually since the mid-1990s.
If You Go
WHO: Pat Benatar
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. June 26
WHERE: Peabody Auditorium, 600 Auditorium Blvd., Daytona Beach
TICKETS: $37, $45 and $70 plus service charge, available at the auditorium box office and Ticketmaster.
INFORMATION: 386-671-3462
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