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.

Blast from the Past: Classic Songs and Their Remakes

Cover songs are nearly as old as their originals. In fact, back in the early days of the rock era, covers of hit songs would often come out almost simultaneously with their originals, sometimes with the "remake" doing better than the "original." Take for instance Twist and Shout. The original version (then called Shake it Up, Baby was by The Top Notes in 1961. It went nowhere. Then, it was remade by The Isley Brothers in 1962, and it went to #17. But The Beatles took it to #2 (#1 on the Cashbox chart).



Sometimes, a longer amount of time goes between version one and version two. But both become classics of their eras. Take You Keep Me Hangin' ON, which was huge in 1967 for Diana Ross and the Supremes. It was remade by Vanilla Fudge the same year, and went to #6, amazingly enough. But it was in 1987 that it went to number 1 again for Kim Wilde.



Straying into the (early) disco era, a song by LaBelle called Lady Marmalade went to #1 in the States. And though it was remade a couple of times, it took until 2001 to go to #1 again, this time for the movie Moulin Rouge by Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim and Mýa.



But one of my favorite remakes is of Fred Astaire's 1946 Puttin' on the Ritz, itself not truly an original, but a remake itself of a 1929 tune. But aside from the treatment the song was given in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, the 1983 version by one-hit-wonder Taco (#4 on Billboard) is the one that sticks in many minds of my generation.



And that will do it for me for now, folks. Happy Monday!

Rockers Irritated at McCain-Palin for Using Their Songs

Photo from source, PopEater

Several rock stars are pissed that the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign have used their songs for their events. I expressed a sigh of relief when I read this, having been a little startled to hear--in particular--Van Halen when Palin was originally introduced.

There probably isn't anything these artists can do to prevent someone from playing their songs--not in a free country. But you'd think for high profile events, that event planners would see what the artists think before using their work. It just seems like common courtesy. And then to refuse to stop using a song?

I'm watching some sort of McCain-Palin whistle-stop on MSNBC right now, and would swear that Van Halen's "Right Now," played them off. It's starting to sound like a theme song, and I'm quite sure Van Halen doesn't like that idea!

[Excerpt]

Heart Attacks McCain Over 'Barracuda'

"I feel completely [expletive'd] over," the band's Nancy Wilson told EW on Thursday night after their song was played following McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. According to TMZ -- which broke the scandal, the band has filed a cease and desist order. . .

Read more at: PopEater