Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar’s string of hits is formidable: “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Love Is A Battlefield,” “Heartbreaker,” “We Belong,” “Invincible,” and so on. To type them out is to tap through ’80s jukebox dreams, though present-day Benatar isn’t quite the nostalgia rehash she might otherwise be. Instead, she’s soldiered on through a slate of albums that touch on blues and acoustic ballads—both of which may share time in concert with timelier old songs. She and her guitarist husband Neil Giraldo, who co-wrote "We Live For Love" on her first album, have remained a close-knit working couple her whole career, and he usually joins her on tour.

Updated 08/24/2009