Pat Benatar Biography

In 1971, Pat married her High School sweetheart, GI Dennis Benatar, and they moved to Virginia where he was stationed. Working as a bank clerk and a waitress, Pat began to sing in a Roaring Twenties theme restaurant and in hotel lounges.

On her return to New York, Pat divorced and started to take her singing seriously. From musicals she moved on to the cabaret circuit, her voice developing into a hard pop/rock sound.

At an open mike night in the New York City club, Catch a Rising Star, the owner liked Pat’s look and sound, and gave her a regular slot. Chrysallis Records signed her and, in 1979, she released million-selling 'In The Heat Of The Night'. She followed it with multi-platinum 'Crimes Of Passion' the next year.

The early 1980s were a whirlwind for Pat, highly prolific musically and experimenting with video, her face and sound were a mainstay of the fledgling MTV.

In 1985, Benatar and husband/producer/long-time collaborator Neil Giraldo became the proud parents of a baby girl, Haley, but Benatar continued to record and tour right up until 1993, when she was forced to come off the road after the release of 'Gravity's Rainbow', to give birth to her second daughter, Hana.

Back on tour in the summer of 1995 with REO Speedwagon and Fleetwood Mac she proved to the masses, once again, that she was still one of rock's premiere female vocalists.