¡ ! ¡ Pat Benatar ¡ ! ¡


Classic Pose

 

  • 1953 Patricia Andrejewski born 1/10/53 in Brooklyn, NY
  • 1979 In The Heat Of The Night
  • 1980 Crimes Of Passion
  • 1981 Precious Time
  • 1982 Get Nervous
  • 1982 Married Neil Giraldo
  • 1983 Live From Earth
  • 1984 Tropico
  • 1985 Seven The Hard Way
  • 1985 Daughter Haley born
  • 1988 Wide Awake In Dreamland
  • 1989 Best Shots
  • 1994 Daughter Hana born
  • 1991 True Love
  • 1993 Gravity's Rainbow
  • 1994 All Fired Up - The Very Best Of Pat Benatar
  • 1996 Heartbreaker - 16 Classic Performances
  • 1996 Back To Back Hits
  • 1997 Innamorata

    •    Pat Benatar was born Patricia Andrzejewski (an-jie-es-key) on January 10,
    1953, in Brooklyn, New York, to Mildred and Andy Andrzejewski. Her father
    worked in a sheet metal factory and her mother, for many years, sang in the
    chorus of the NY City Opera.
        I think it's notable to point out that 1953 is also approximately the time
    Rock & Roll was born. In fact, Pat and Rock & Roll pretty much grew up
    together.
       About the time Pat was entering Elementary School, Elvis Presley was
    singing Jailhouse Rock and All Shook Up. When Pat was going off to Junior
    High, The Beatles were making their world famous Ed Sullivan appearance
    and The Rolling Stones were not far behind. She did well in High School
    both academically and socially. A mere decade before Heartbreaker hit the
    charts, Pat was using her considerable vocal talents cheering on the local
    football team on the cheerleading squad.
       At the age of seventeen she began vocal training at Manhattan's Julliard
    School Of Music. Pat seemed destined for a life filled with operettas, but
    decided to study health education at a local college instead.
       After a year of college, when she was nineteen, she dropped out and
    married Dennis Benatar, whom she'd met when she was sixteen. After their
    marriage he enlisted into the army and the two of them moved to Richmond,
    Virginia, where he was stationed.
       Pat had hoped to continue her studies in Richmond, but once she and
    Dennis got there and the bills started coming in, she had to work. For two
    and a half years she worked as a bank teller, then, almost on impulse, she
    quit her job and began working as a singing waitress in local restaurants.
    Shortly thereafter, Pat began singing with one of the hottest lounge
    bands in town, Coxun's Army, which was named after its leader Phil Coxun.
    Pat was featured in the band but she had to take second billing to Coxun,
    whose ambitions did not go beyond the city limits of Richmond, so she quit.
    She decided that if she were going to sing, she should go to New York
    and try to break into the music business there. So she and Dennis packed
    up their things and moved back to New York City.
       A lot of her time in New York City was spent on the stage of the
    Catch a Rising Star comedy club singing Streisand songs. The manager
    of the club, Rick Newman, helped her put together a small band and began
    to book her at other clubs in New York and occasionally sent her on the
    road. She and her band began rehearsing almost daily. Pat had artistic
    control but she often relied on the opinions of the band members for
    guidance. She was starting to get an idea of what making it in rock was
    all about. She and her band was booked at a club in Richmond and played
    on the same bill with Coxun's Army. She was no longer lead singer with
    someone else's band, she was her own band leader. She was beginning to
    evelop an individual style.
       Pat and her band put together a demo tape with an arrangement of Roy
    Orbison's 'Crying.'The combination of the tape and a well-received run at a
    club called "Tramps" in lower Manhattan brought  record company executives
    and, in the late spring of '78, a recording contract with Chrysalis. Signing
    with Chrysalis proved to be the beginning of a number of headaches. It became
    apparent that Pat's interest in rock music was not shared by the people at
    Chrysalis and thus began months of nothing happening.
      She and Dennis began having problems, separating and then getting back
    together. She found herself at the mercy of the record executives.Chrysalis
    chairman Terry Ellis convinced Michael Chapman, who helped Debbie Harry
    develop her style, work with Pat, unknowingly making a perfect combination
    of performer and producer. This was also about the time that her and Neil
    Giraldo began working together. The success of Heartbreaker in 1979 and
    the success of the album took few people by surprise. In the space of a year
    Pat went from obscurity to national prominence. She told reporters at the
    time she didn't feel as though she belonged where she was.
      That was at the beginning of 1980. What followed the ground-breaking
    success of In The Heat Of The Night is now rock and roll history.Pat Benatar
    is a rock icon. She absolutely cleared the path for other ladies of rock to be
    taken seriously and given a shot.
      Pat and Dennis eventually divorced and no one has heard from him since. Pat
    and Neil Giraldo married in February of 1982, Pat gave birth to their first child,
    Haley, February 16, 1985, and their second child, Hana, on March 12, 1994. Pat
    and Neil continue to make music together. Their latest album, Innamorata was
    released in June of '97 and they are currently touring the U.S. promoting it .

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