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"Love Is a Battlefield" is a song written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, after Pat Benatar asked Chapman to write her a hit song. It was released as a single from Benatar's album Live from Earth. The single has been certified gold and is her highest charting single in the United States. It topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and made number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983.[1] It topped the Australian singles chart for five weeks in 1984. The song was finally released in the United Kingdom in March 1985 and reached #17.
| "Love Is a Battlefield" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
Chart performance
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100[2] | 5 |
| US Billboard Top Tracks | 1 |
| Chart (1984) | Peak position |
| Australian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Dutch Top 40[3] | 1 |
| Chart (1985) | Peak position |
| UK Singles Chart | 17 |
Music video
The music video, which depicted Benatar as a teenage runaway trying to survive the mean streets of New York City, 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.
The original music video features Benatar playing a teenage girl being kicked out of her house by her father (played by actor Trey Wilson), while her brother watches sadly from an upper-story window. She later becomes a taxi-dancer (clearly[citation needed] a metaphor for prostitution) to get by in the city. She writes to her little brother, telling him about her exciting new life. Later in the video, she witnesses a pimp harassing another dancer. Benatar rounds up the girls and leads a rebellion against him. The girls escape and strike out on their own, Benatar walking into the sunrise. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters, who appears briefly in the video at the 1:40 mark checking out Benatar, wearing a navy cap, a cut-off navy shirt, and short white shorts.
The music video has been credited[who?] as being the first to feature spoken word. Trey Wilson says: "If you leave this house now, you can just forget about ever coming back." [dubious – discuss][citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 57.
- ^ Pat Benatar Album & Song Chart History – Billboard Hot 100. Billboard.com. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
- ^ "De Nederlandse Top 40, week 11, 1984". Retrieved 2008-02-25.