Patricia Mae Andrzejewski did not have a straight path to success. Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, she trained as an opera singer, majored in health education, dropped out of college, and worked as a bank teller before becoming the star we know as Pat Benatar.
Pat quit her day job in 1971 after seeing a Liza Minnelli concert in Richmond, Virginia. It would be eight more years of paying dues before Benatar’s first album was released, but it was worth the wait. She was a fixture on the music charts, radio, and MTV throughout the 1980s. Pat Benatar was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Pat Benatar is riveting in her video for “Shadows of the Night.” Literally. She plays a “Rosie the Riveter” character who dreams of flying a fighter plane in World War II. Actors Judge Reinhold and Bill Paxton also appear in it. “Love is a Battlefield” was the first music video to include scripted dialogue and features Pat with her signature ’80s hair and clothes. Benatar’s single “Invicible” was also the theme song for the 1985 movie The Legend of Billie Jean, starring Helen Slater. The video includes scenes from the film.
