What Happens in Vegas: Pat Benatar to Get Regular Las Vegas Gig!

Pat Benatar--and her perpetually co-billed husband, Neil Giraldo--are getting a regular Las Vegas gig! Squee! I'm a huge Benatar fan, from her early days in the late 70s (Heart Breaker), through my high school years (Promises in the Dark, Precious Time, Get Nervous), all the way to her post-hits career (Inamorata, Go). My good friend, "Mrs. Rev. Stu" is possibly an even bigger fan than I am, and will be quite distressed that this event is happening after she moved 1,000 miles away! But maybe I can lure her to town for a weekend to go see the Benatar show, after it begins.

[Excerpt]

'Fantastic' Las Vegas gig for Benatar, Giraldo

The husband-and-wife rockers of Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are in talks to perform a regular gig in Vegas. . . 

Read more at: Las Vegas Review-Journal

Thanks to Dan, my political opposite friend at Las Vegas Badger for the link.


As further proof that I'm a big Benatar fan, here's a rerun of my Blast from the Past featuring her, only one of several posts featuring Benatar during the run of this blog. Check out these amazing tunes, and then come visit us in Vegas once her show opens!

ORIGINAL POST, 5/23/11:

Image from Pat Benatar's Official Fan Club

For this week's Blast from the Past, I thought I'd go to one of my favorite 80s singers (or of any era, frankly), Pat Benatar. This isn't my first Benatar post over these past four years of blogging. But I think I'm due again. As I've said before, I think it's semi-tragic that Benatar's music seems to be pegged solely to the 80s, and that she didn't seem to be able to reboot her career, even though she did put out some good music in the 90s and the 2000s. I'd like to see her land a gig on Celebrity Apprentice or something, to boost her image, and get her a comeback!

Benatar had a lot of his songs, and a whole lot of well-known songs that weren't quite hits. Even though she was an MTV staple, she also had a lot of airplay on "album oriented rock" stations, where songs like Hell is for Children could make a name for itself even though it wasn't a single. So the following is a grouping of major hits, minor hits, and other songs that are just good. I'm limited by the YouTube and Daily Motion selections, but this is the top of that list.

The 80s Curse, Pt. 1: Pat Benatar

Photo from source, Wikipedia

The eighties were good to a lot of musical groups, with the advent of MTV (a channel that used to feature mostly music). Even marginal acts could make a name for themselves if they had a catchy video. But some of the best acts seemed to get trapped in the 80s, no matter how good they were.

One of those is Pat Benatar. I've been a fan of hers since around 1979, but her career really caught fire in the early to mid 80s. Pat's roster of hits would be enviable to almost any performer, but strangely, she never managed to mount a decent comeback. I've had the pleasure to catch Pat and her husband/producer, Neil Giraldo in concert a number of times. Living in Las Vegas has its benefits.

She's only had a couple of albums out in the last dozen years, but I was pleased to add both to my collection. Innamorata is a pleasure from start to finish (almost; the last track drives me a little buggy!). And the most recent CD I'm familiar with, GO had a number of good songs, but was a little to hard-edged for radio, apparently. Other releases have tended to be compilations, relying on past glories. And those glories are pretty spectacular. But I'll never figure out how Cher, Madonna and others have managed to have several comebacks, and Pat Benatar doesn't merit one. She deserves another "shot!"




1 - We Belong (1984) - I wanted to post the earlier We Live for Love, which really showed Pat's vocal range. She doesn't try to reach for these notes in concert anymore, but how amazing that she ever could! For some reason, We Belong always comes to my mind with We Live for Love, so here it is instead. Plus, it was a bigger hit.

2 - Love is a Battlefield (1983) - Ok, so she can't dance, so what? This is probably one of the most famous songs from her hit collection, and definitely one of the bigger video hits. And I love that oddly-paced back beat. Go, Neil!

3 - Shadows of the Night (1982) - Awesome. Love the a capella intro, and just about everything about it.

4 - I Shall Believe (With Sheryl Crow) - Post-80s clips seem to be hard to come by (which is the point of this post), but here is something more contemporary.