Thursday, March 8, 2018

Pat Benatar - Promises In The Dark

Pat Benatar's Precious Time album showcases the singer at the height of her powers and to this day it remains your author's favorite Benatar album.  While the LP didn't break new ground, it did show a refinement in the songwriting.  This combination of sharp, straight up rock and that voice (certainly one of the strongest in 1980s rock) proved irresistible to fans and led to huge commercial success.

While "Promises in the Dark" only reached #38 on the charts, the album went to #1 and ended up going double platinum to boot.  Sales were likely helped by the performance video, which was prominently featured on MTV, as was the sister video for "Fire and Ice."

After Precious Time, Benatar's sound evolved in a more of a pop direction, and eventually she even got into jump blues (on the True Love album).

Long time readers will recall that we featured Benatar's "You Better Run" cover as the second post on ERV in August 2011 (not coincidentally it was also the second video ever played on MTV).  In addition, her cover of "All Fired Up" was on ERV in March of 2014



Cool trivia fact:  "Promises in the Dark" is one of only two top 40 singles entirely co-written by Benatar and Giraldo (out of 15 top 40 hits).  The other one: "Ooh Ooh Song" from 1984's Tropico.

Cool trivia fact #2:  "Take It Anyway You Want It," (from the Precious Time LP) was co-written by Neil Giraldo and Martin Briley. (Yes, that Martin Briley, featured on ERV in October 2011 for "Salt of My Tears.")