PAT BENATAR - LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD

Publicació: 12 de setembre de 1983

Llistes: EUA: #5 Regne Unit: #17

"Love Is a Battlefield" és una cançó de la cantant nord-americana Pat Benatar, llançada com a senzill de l'àlbum en directe de 1983 "Live from Earth", encara que la cançó en si era una gravació d'estudi. El senzill va ser el segon de Benatar que va vendre un milió als Estats Units i està empatat amb "We Belong" com el seu senzill més venut al país.

La cançó va ser escrita per Mike Chapman i Holly Knight. Chapman era un compositor i productor establert, mentre que Knight era una antiga membre de la banda Spider i tot just començava a escriure cançons, cosa que va demostrar que se li donava molt bé. En una entrevista, Knight va explicar la història d'aquesta cançó: "Estava a casa de Chapman, tot just començava a escriure amb ell, i Pat Benatar va trucar i va dir:" Mike, m'encantaria que m’escrivisis una cançó. "Estic fent un àlbum, m'escriuràs un èxit, si us plau?" I diu: "Bé, estic aquí amb una de les meves escriptores, Holly Knight, i ara anàvem a seure per escriure. Així que escriurem alguna cosa per a tu". Així que va penjar i vaig començar a tocar els acords de 'Love Is A Battlefield'. Va dir: "Això és tan fantàstic, m'encanta, segueix fent això". Després va dir: "Ara, el que realment necessitem", -i això és una cosa que vaig aprendre d'ell- "Aquesta cançó és molt enganxosa, molt comercial, escriurem alguna cosa molt, molt estranya. Això la farà especial. I així serà molt millor. Vaig dir: 'Oh, m'agrada'. Ell va dir: "Escriurem alguna cosa molt malaltissa, com... 'and he just spit out 'Love is a battlefield' (i només va escopir, l'amor és un camp de batalla), com a exemple. Vaig dir: "Bé, això funciona per a mi". I vam escriure aquesta cançó. Era com una associació lliure".

Knight i Chapman van escriure aquesta cançó més aviat com una balada, i es van sorprendre en escoltar què va fer Benatar amb ella. Knight diu: "Quan en Mike i jo la vam escoltar per primera vegada ens vam horroritzar, la vam odiar, perquè era molt diferent. Però després es va convertir en un èxit tan gran, que vam haver de recular i dir: "Ja saps, van fer un gran èxit". una bona interpretació d'ella, i així és com havia de ser. Hi ha moltes maneres d'escoltar aquesta cançó, i totes són bones".

El vídeo musical va tenir una gran emissió a MTV en un moment en què l'únic que feien era programar vídeos. Conté elements de la moda dels anys 80 i va ser un dels primers vídeos a incorporar diàlegs a la cançó per avançar en la història, que era Benatar fugint de casa i intentant fer-ho sola. El vídeo, que va ser dirigit per Bob Giraldi, també contenia una seqüència de ball de grup, anterior al vídeo "Thriller" de Michael Jackson, que va sorgir més tard el mateix any 1983. Benatar estava fora del seu element, ja que ballar no era cosa seva, però va aconseguir moures admirablement i va ajudar a crear una escena molt memorable.

PAT BENATAR - LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD

Released: September 12, 1983

Charted: US: #5  UK: #17

"Love Is a Battlefield" is a song by American singer Pat Benatar, released as a single from Benatar's 1983 live album “Live from Earth”, though the song itself was a studio recording. The single was Benatar's second US million-seller and is tied with "We Belong" as her highest-charting single in the United States. 

The song was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight. Chapman was an established songwriter and producer, while Knight was a former member of the band Spider and was just starting to write songs, something she proved very good at. In a interview Knight told the story of this song: "I was at Chapman house, I was just starting to write with him, and Pat Benatar called up and said, 'Mike, I would love for you to write me a song. I'm doing an album, will you write me a hit, please?' And he goes, 'Well, I'm here with one of my writers, Holly Knight, and we were just going to sit down and write. So we'll write something for you.' So he hung up, and I started playing the chords to 'Love Is A Battlefield.' He said, 'That's so great, I love that, keep doing that.' He says, 'Now, what we really need' – and this is something I learned from him - 'This song is very catchy, very commercial, let's write something really, really weird on top of it. That'll make it special. And it'll be that much better.' I said, 'Oh, I like it.' He says, 'We're going to write something really sick, like…' and he just spit out 'Love is a battlefield,' as an example. I said, 'Well, that works for me.' And we wrote that song. It was just like free association."

Knight and Chapman wrote this song as more of a ballad, and they were surprised to hear what Benatar did with it. Says Knight: "When Mike and I first heard it we were horrified, we hated it, because it was so different. But then it became such a huge hit, and we had to step out and say, You know, they did a very good rendering of it, and that's how it was meant to be. There's lots of ways you can hear that song, and they're all good."

The music video got a great deal of airplay on MTV at a time when all they did was show videos. It contains some very '80s fashion and was one of the first videos to incorporate dialogue into the song to progress the storyline, which was Benatar running away from home and trying to make it on her own. The video, which was directed by Bob Giraldi, also contained a group dance sequence, predating Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, which emerged later in 1983. Benatar was out of her element, as dancing is not her thing, but she pulled off the moves admirably and helped create a very memorable scene.

Check out the bass line on this track. Benatar's bass player, Roger Capps, says it's his favorite. 

While the 1982 Gap Band hit "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" comes close, no song uses wartime imagery to describe heartbreak quite like "Love Is A Battlefield."