Pat Benatar - Greatest Hits by Pat Benatar
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Free Music Notes for Greatest Hits by Pat Benatar
Free Music Review: The perfect single-disc collection of Benatar in her prime
Hit: 5 Stars
THE BAND: Pat Benatar (vocals) and Neil Giraldo (guitars, keyboards) on all tracks... and over the years - Scott St.Claire Sheets (guitars), Roger Capps (bass), Donnie Nossov (bass), Frank Linx (bass), Fernando Saunders (bass), Charlie Giordano (keyboards), Kevin Savigar (keyboards), Glen Alexander Hamilton (drums), Myron Grombacher (drums).
THE DISC: (2005) 20 tracks clocking in at approximately 79 minutes. Included with the disc is a 10-page booklet containing black & white photos of Benatar, song titles/credits (no song lyrics), Billboard chart success of each single, a brief statement from several female artists inspired by Benatar (including Joan Jett, Martina McBride, Sarah McLachlan, Martha Davis, Tori Amos, etc), what songs came from which albums and year released. This compilation follows Benatar from 1979-1988. Remastered sound. Label - Capital Records.
ALBUM REPRESENTATION: In The Heat Of The Night (2 songs), Crimes Of Passion (4), Precious Time (3), Get Nervous (3), Live From Earth (1), Tropico (2), Seven The Hard Way (3), Wide Awake In Dreamland (2).
COMMENTS: 4 Grammy's, 6 platinum albums, 4 gold albums, 19 Top 40 hits... if you're a rock fan, you need some Pat Benatar in your collection. Over a dozen studio albums and almost as many hit compilations from Benatar... what hits package do you ultimately reach for? Looking for an in-depth purchase, go with the 3-disc set "Synchronistic Wanderings" (1999) containing 53 songs (all the hits, several live tracks, B-sides, and alternative takes) - truly a grand collection of master female rocker Pat Benatar. However, if you're looking for that one disc, that gives you just the popular hits... this "Greatest Hits" is the one.
THE GOOD: All the staples are here - "Heartbreaker", "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Hell Is For Children", "Treat Me Right", "You Better Run", "Fire And Ice", "Shadows Of The Night", "Precious Time", "Love Is A Battlefield", "We Belong", "Invincible", "All Fired Up", etc. The songs are presented in chronological order - always a bonus in my opinion - hearing the artist mature and change direction(s) over the years. The digital remastering is superb - crisp highs and deep bass tones. There are so many issues these days with `remastering'... where it seems whoever is behind the control board just pushes all the levels up to 11 and doesn't take anything else into consideration. On Benatar's "Greatest Hits" though, the songs sound perfect. The disc itself is packed full of music - just over 79 minutes worth. The liner notes are extensive - giving you pictures, inspirational notes from other female musicians, and specifics on the individual songs.
THE NOT SO GOOD: Two (extremely) minor things... otherwise this disc is as close to perfection as it gets. In general, a vast majority of the compilations miss the boat. For the single disc though, the song selection is dead on accurate - there's not one song that isn't deserving to be here. 1st - personally, for many years I've been tired of the song "We Live For Love". I feel this song is dated and overplayed (at the time). With that being said though, "We Live For Love" deserves to be here - it was Benatar's 2nd Top 40 hit (behind only "Heartbreaker"). 2nd - I could nit-pick some more and say this disc is not all inclusive. You'll find nothing from "True Love" (1991), "Gravity's Rainbow", "Innamorata" (1997) or "Go" (2003). However, there's no room for another song on this disc. Most of the single disc mixes concentrate on Benatar in her prime (as does this one)... here's hoping an updated 2-disc version is released with some of her more recent material, cover tunes ("I Need A Lover" for one), live performances, etc. all together.
OVERALL: Beginners and long time fans - start your collection here. If you're looking for one disc of Pat Benatar in her prime - her best hits in all their remastered glory - this is it (5 stars).
Free Music Review: Pat Finally Gets A Superb Remastering!
Hit: 5 Stars
It's about time! Previous Benatar remasters have been fair to poor, sounding like they were pulled from any random source rather than the original master tapes. The 1999 'Synchronistic Wanderings' anthology, although an excellent collection of hits and rarities, was simply lacking with the remastering. "Love Is A Battlefield", for example, sounded rather flat for a so-called remaster. The same could be said for "We Belong" and most of the other tracks. Then there was the 2002 'Classic Masters' release. Finally I thought Capitol got it right since I had bought other 'Classic Masters' releases from other acts and was greatly impressed. Again, Capitol failed to impress with it's rather flat mastering treatment.
'Greatest Hits' has been digitally remastered by Evren Goknar @ Capitol Mastering, Hollywood. Oddly enough, Evren also remastered 1999's 'Synchronstic Wanderings' anthology. However, Evren has done a much better job on this 2005 release! The differences on some tracks are striking. The audio is rich, full, clear, and sharp -- a depth unheard of in any previous releases.
FINALLY, Capitol got it right with this release! While many Benatar fans may be reluctant to pick up yet another "hits" release from the rocker the audio quality alone should hopefully be enough to entice a few of the audiophiles.
I popped this disc into my player hoping I wouldn't be let down. From hearing the beginning heavy drum beats of "Heartbreaker" I knew I was in for a real treat! The remastering here is superb! Finally we get "Love Is A Battlefield" and "We Belong" with depth and range! "Shadows Of The Night" has never sounded so heavy! It's nice to have here in it's better single version. "Invincible" actually has a punchy intro. It has always sounded compressed and flat previously. Ah, "Le Bel Age" is breathtaking with it's bass line and drums! Who knew this little '86 hit had so much kick?! All tracks sound nearly flawless!
My only complaint is that while this collection covers most of Pat's biggest hits it's missing selections from the 1990s, notably gems such as "True Love" and "Somebody's Baby." Perhaps it would have been better titled as 'Greatest Hits 1979 - 1989' with another hits collection to follow a few months later, capturing those remaining hits and other strong album cuts.
The liner notes include comments from other female artists, such as Lisa Marie Presley, Tori Amos, and Martina McBride.
Additionally, Capitol have decided to use single versions of select tracks, perhaps for time, since the release is 20 tracks and clocking in 10 seconds short of 80 minutes. While some people may cringe at edited versions, most of them work here. However, I must say I've never been that fond of the single version of "Love Is A Battlefield" since it sounds chopped with the fade-out. Perhaps the full-length version will surface on a future remastered release. The tracklisting:
01 Heartbreaker (Single Mix)
02 We Live For Love (Single Edit)
03 Hit Me With Your Best Shot
04 Hell Is For Children
05 Treat Me Right
06 You Better Run
07 Fire And Ice
08 Promises In The Dark
09 Precious Time
10 Shadows Of The Night (Single Edit)
11 Little Too Late (Single Edit)
12 Looking For A Stranger
13 Love Is A Battlefield (Single Edit)
14 We Belong
15 Ooh Ooh Song (Single Edit)
16 Invincible (Theme From 'The Legend Of Billie Jean')
17 Sex As A Weapon
18 Le Bel Age (Single Edit)
19 All Fired Up (Single Edit)
20 One Love (Song Of The Lion) (Single Edit)
Now Capitol, how about giving Pat's entire catalogue a remastering treatment? 5.1 would be nice!
Free Music Review: 20 Timeless Classics...
Hit: 5 Stars
To say Pat Benatar's first state-side greatest hits CD was a disappointment would be an overwhelming understatement.
Best Shots was issued on Halloween of 1989, ushered in by a week-long prime time co-hosting stint on MTV, and the release of "One Love" as a single (borrowed from her previous studio offering, 1988s Wide Awake In Dreamland), but anyone scanning the tracklisting was left scratching their head as to why half of her hits were missing.
In what seemed like an effort to showcase the more "schlock-rock"-ish selections from her back catalag (a genre then enjoying it's last bursts of chart domination), Chrysalis Records and possibly Benatar herself ignored some of her strongest singles and sucked the fun right out of that decade-spanning retrospective. Still, being the only official, single disc Benatar collection, it went on to be a platinum seller.
Cut ahead nearly 16 years. The worldwide market has been flooded with no fewer than 30 generic "EMI Special Markets" compilations, a result of Chrysalis Records having folded in the early 90s, leaving their entire back catalog vulernable to being, er, whored-out. All such releases notoriously feature hideous, cheap inserts, random track selection and poor sound quality recycled from old analog transfers. They've certainly cooled many peoples desire for "yet another" greatest hits disc (most of all, probably her fans), but Capitol Records has now finally issued the DEFINITIVE Pat Benatar compilation.
You need this CD.
Pat Benatar: Greatest Hits is her first official single disc collection since Best Shots. It features all 12 songs included on that release (the final 3 were CD-only bonus cuts drawn from the One Love single, tacked on to entice buyers to opt for the growing compact disc market), plus 8 additional hits inexplicably omitted from that release.
All 15 top of her top 40 Billboard singles are here along with other key tracks, and they sound fantastic. This isn't a repackaging of the same old tracks to make a quick dollar. Clocking in a mere 10 second under maximum disc capacity (that's 79:50), all tracks have been digitally remasted and given a punch previously unheard on any past release. Capitol has successfully brought these tracks up to todays standards. This also marks the first ever appearance of the superior "Treat Me Right" single remix on compact disc.
The artwork and layout is superb, featuring an iconic selection of photos presented on metallic silver and black stock, topped off with simple red and white lettering. The booklet contains a well-written bio summing up Pat's importance to the world of music, as well as a selection of lengthy tributes from the likes of Tori Amos, Lisa Marie Presley, plus (finally) an accurate and detailed Billboard chart history.
This is the only Pat Benatar CD a casual listener will ever need, and there's plenty here to keep fans happy until Capitol rolls out the full-length album remasters series.
Bravo.
Free Music Review: This Is The One
Hit: 5 Stars
Hard rock is generally considered a male domain--but there have always been exceptions, women who transcended the rules of what is "appropriate" to their gender. From Janis Joplin to Lita Ford, from Patti Smith to the Wilson sisters, the list is a long an honored one, and when the final roll is taken Pat Benatar will be right up there with the best, both male and female.
Popular singers have always worked to conceal their vocal limitations, and in the arena of hard rock this usually involves growls and snarls. Benatar can growl and snarl with the best, but there is no question of artistic limitation: the woman can sing, and that's flat. In the 1980s Rolling Stone magazine stated that she had "some of the best pipes in the business," and if you ever had any doubt about it GREATEST HITS will put them to rest for once and all. Be it stripped down, elemental hard rock and roll or smooth and glossy pop, everything is up front, seemingly effortless, simply there with a shining purity and without studio "touch ups" or anything else that smacks of artifice. Indeed, having seen her perform more than once, I can personally attest to the fact that Benatar is one of the rare concert acts that sounds the same on the stage as she does on the recording.
Benatar's heyday began in the late 1970s when she shocked hard rock fans with scorching, high energy vocals performed against a stripped-down, slap-your-face guitar and drum sound; even "We Live For Love," one of her softer efforts of her early era, is soft only in comparison with her own work, far outstripping what most female vocalists were doing at the time. Benatar's specialty was a blast you feel like a karate chop to the throat: "Heartbreaker" and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" are speaker-blowers if ever there were ones. Over time, Benatar expanded her sound to include glossier tunes as well, with "We Belong" a case in point--and she was fortunate in her decision to keep the ubiquitious synthesizers of the era to a minimum, with the result that she is one of the few 1980s artists whose music doesn't sound distinctly dated. Whether "Fire and Ice" or "Shadows of the Night," you have the distinct feeling that these recordings would still be hits if they were newly released today.
"Greatest Hits" collections generally suffer from what they leave out; there is always something you wish was included but was not. In my case, it would be the jarring "Get Nervous"--not a big charter but a knock-out cut just the same. Even so, this collection is remarkably credible in its scope, including virtually every cut that says Pat Bentar to both fans and casual listeners. And the remastering is a work of art, simply flawless. Whether you're a newcomer or an old fan who simply wants the major recordings in a single set, this is the one.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Free Music Review: All I can say is this: It's about freakin' TIME
Hit: 5 Stars
I believe rather strongly, that it was the music of Pat Benatar that took me down the road to love music to the degree that I do now that I have managed to make it a career (although not in performing it, but in radio as someone who PLAYS it for others). I cannot think of an early Pat Benatar hit that struck me while listening as something I did not want to hear again and again. Few (if any) artists or bands produced music which I so much enjoyed on my very first listen and yet years later love now as much as I did back then--if not more so.
Pat never truly received the acclaim or respect that seemed to be granted to others (specifically men or all-male groups) almost immediately. Whether that helped her to stay true to her roots or not I suppose only she knows for sure, but the end result was a continuous string of just fantastic rockin' songs. In the genre of Rock Music produced by women, the list of really successful artists or bands is, shall we say, rather small to say the least...but Pat Benatar's official place on that list (IMO) rests comfortably high on top.
Her songs were truly diverse, too. Also, while other artists and bands came and went in that time frame (along with numberless forgettable songs) Pat stuck around with songs that (so far) have really stood the test of time and still provide me with a great deal of entertainment. Mark my words: 20 years from now you will be hard pressed for anyone to remember who Britney Spears is/was...but those who love rock music will still be playing and listening to Pat Benatar.
One final note: this particular collection (as noted by other reviewers) was finally given an extra touch of quality with the remastering. Other Greatest hit collections released previously had much less than stellar sound, which for me working daily in a recording studio VERY familiar with digital recordings, means a LOT. Let's face it: almost every group eventually produces a Greatest Hits package sooner or later (regardless of how many actual 'hits' they did or did not have). At least one--if not more--versions will be pathetic, especially given how rather inexpensive a well remastering from original tapes are these days. Is it a well-conceived ploy by the music industry to make an extra buck by producing multiple versions of basically the same collection of songs? (probably) All I know is fans of Pat Benatar can finally rejoice, 'cuz a quality collection of her best material has finally been made available and this is IT.