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Chrysalis

‘Heartbreaker’ – Pat Benatar

By Music News Aug 3, 2023 | 7:00 PM

Writer: G. Hill and C. Wade

Producer: Peter Coleman

Recorded: Early 1979 at MCA Whitney Studios in Glendale, California

Released: October 1979

Players: Pat Benatar — vocals
Neil Giraldo — guitar
Scott St. Clair Sheets — guitar
Roger Capps — bass
Glen Alexander Hamilton — drums
Album: In The Heat Of The Night (Chrysalis, 1979)

Pat Benatar was born Patricia Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. She studied classical singing, briefly at the Juilliard School Of Music, and then married her high school sweetheart.

She worked as a schoolteacher, bank clerk, and waitress, all while singing off-Broadway and at the Catch A Rising Star club. She signed with Chrysalis Records in 1977 and subsequently divorced her husband, but kept his last name.

Benatar's chief creative collaborator became former Derringer guitarist Neil Giraldo, who assembled her band and began writing many of her songs.

“Heartbreaker,” Benatar's debut single, was originally recorded by British singer Jenny Darren.

The song peaked at Number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In The Heat Of The Night peaked at Number 12 on the Billboard 200 and earned a platinum record 10 months after its release.