Love Is a Battlefield

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“Love Is a Battlefield”

Single by Pat Benatar
from the album Live from Earth

Released

1983

Format

7", 12"

Recorded

1983

Holly Knight, Mike Chapman

Producer

Neil Geraldo, Peter Coleman

Pat Benatar singles chronology

"Anxiety (Get Nervous)"
(1982)

"Love Is a Battlefield"
(1983)

"Lipstick Lies"
(1984)

"Love Is a Battlefield" is a song written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, notably recorded by Pat Benatar. It was released as a single from Benatar's album Live from Earth, which was popular in 1983 and 1984. The single has been certified gold and is her most successful single in the Americas, as it topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart and made number five on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped the Australian singles chart for five weeks in 1984.

The video, which depicted Benatar as a teenage runaway, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video and was viewable on the DVD for the movie 13 Going on 30. The single was unlike most of Benatar's previous work, as it featured an electronic dance element, but guitars and drums were still present. The song won Benatar a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

1 Chart performance
2 Covers
3 In popular culture
4 References

[edit] Chart performance

Country	Peak position
Australia	1
The Netherlands	1^[1]
UK	19
US	5
US Mainstream Rock	1

[edit] Covers

Zwan recorded "Love Is a Battlefield" in 2002 for the movie Spun. The song was also covered by MorissonPoe on their debut album Evolution (2007), produced by Nile Rodgers and D.S. Poe; the video for this song was directed by R3Y Gutierrez for DarkHak. It has appeared in many versions of the Idol series, including American Idol when it was sung by Carrie Underwood. It was also covered by Jann Arden on her 2007 album, Uncover Me; and by Mary J. Blige and Shakira in the VH1's Divas 2002. The track is currently being covered by Hilary Duff on her current Dignity World Tour 07/08 in support of her third studio album Dignity, and is rumoured to be recorded for the re-release of this album. Brooke White, who is currently a contestant on American Idol, performed this song on the Top 16 with a much more mellow sound with only an acoustic guitar playing the background. Cher also sung the song during her 1992 Love Hurts Tour and has reprised it again for her Colosseum concert series.

[edit] In popular culture

In March 2008, American Idol contestant Brooke White performed an unplugged (acoustic guitar accompaniment only) version of the song to popular reviews from all three judges, and it has been used twice on The Singing Bee game show, on July 17 and August 6 of 2007. In the latter episode, a contestant sung the entire chorus of the song to advance, gaining a standing ovation from the crowd.

In the 2005 movie Domino, Mickey Rourke, playing Ed Moseby, states that he played with Benatar earlier in his career, but only when he needed money. When Domino says that she loves Pat Benatar, Ed replies: "Yeah, who doesn't? Love is a battlefield, baby."

Among other Pat Benatar references in the show, 30 Rock features character Tracy Jordan singing the song on stage at a strip club in the pilot episode.

The music video appears in an episode of That '80s Show and in the movie 13 Going on 30.

An episode of popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation is named after this song.

It also featured on the soundtrack of the popular Playstation 2/PSP game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

Episode #707 of the animated comedy South Park, Red Man's Greed shows the residents of South Park standing up to the native-American invasion by walking down the streets and roof tops, singing an a cappella version of the song and mimicking the original music video.