Love Is a Battlefield

This article is about the song sung by Pat Benatar. For other uses, see Love Is a Battlefield (disambiguation).
"Love Is a Battlefield"
Single by Pat Benatar
from the album Live from Earth
Released September 12, 1983
Format 7", 12"
Recorded 1983
Genre
Length 5:24
4:10 (single/radio edit)
6:29 (extended)
Label Chrysalis Records
Writer(s) Holly Knight, Mike Chapman
Producer(s) Neil Giraldo, Peter Coleman
Pat Benatar singles chronology
"Looking for a Stranger"
(1983)		 "Love Is a Battlefield"
(1983)		 "Lipstick Lies"
(1984)
Music sample
Love Is a Battlefield

"Love Is a Battlefield" is a million-selling, gold hit performed by Pat Benatar, and written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman. It was released as a single from Benatar's live album Live from Earth, though the song itself was a studio recording.

Background

Originally a ballad, the single was Benatar's second American million seller and is tied with "We Belong" as her highest charting single in the United States. It topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983.[1]

It topped the Australian singles chart for five weeks in 1984. The song was re-released in the United Kingdom in March 1985 and reached #17. It was awarded a Gold certification in Canada as well. It was featured in the television series Psych and Drop Dead Diva and in the film 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. In 1984, the song won Benatar her fourth consecutive Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

Music video

The music video features Benatar playing a teenage girl storming out of her home while being yelled at by her father (played by actor Trey Wilson) who says if she leaves, she can forget about ever coming back. Her mother looks on helplessly and her brother (played by actor Philip Cruise) watches sadly from an upper-story window. She later becomes a taxi dancer at a very seedy club to get by in the city, outwardly New York. She writes to her little brother, telling him about her exciting new life and her father seems to feel guilty about being angry at her. Later in the video, she witnesses a pimp (played by actor Gary Chryst) harassing another dancer. Benatar rounds up the girls and leads a rebellion against him. The girls escape and strike out on their own and Benatar walks into the sunrise. The final scene shows Benatar sitting in the back of the bus headed for an unknown destination. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters, who appears briefly in the video.

A special remix of the song is used, which was created specifically for the video. It differs slightly in structure and instrumentation, and aside from appearing in the video, has never been commercially released.

The video was the first ever to feature the use of dialogue.[2] The scenes featuring dialogue include the opening scene of Benatar stomping out of the house while being berated by her father and the scene featuring the pimp harassing the female dancer in which she shouts "Leave me alone!"

The video 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 song is also on the end credits of the 1998 film, Small Soldiers.

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1983–84) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart[3] 1
Dutch Top 40[4] 1
US Billboard Hot 100[5] 5
US Billboard Top Tracks 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play [6] 41
Chart (1985) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 17

Year-end charts

Chart (1984) Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 57

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 57.
  2. ↑ http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=2816
  3. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970 - 1992. Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. pp. 32–33. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  4. ↑ "De Nederlandse Top 40, week 11, 1984". Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  5. ↑ Pat Benatar Album & Song Chart History – Billboard Hot 100. Billboard.com. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
  6. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 32.

External links

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