For some, today’s song is today’s singer beginning to “sell out”. In the early 1980s, she was a rocker, plain and simple. It was easy to overlook her melodic song hooks as she emerged from the 1970s as a tough, leather wearing arena rock star!
But even the toughest rockers tend to soften up a little to reach a wider audience. Think: Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Journey‘s “Open Arms.” So, she exchanged the black mascara and spaghetti-strap blouses for a softer look with more traditionally feminine clothing, lots of eye shadow and longer hair.
And it would mark a new era of songs for her that would finally catapult her into Billboard’s Top 5. Today’s song didn’t make it quite that far, peaking only at number 13, but the songs that followed were huge!
Today’s song was a great fit for today’s singer because it was a song written by a man.
As she had done on her song ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’, she had to reverse the gender. Her powerful voice and strong persona helped pull it off, with lines like "baby take my hand, it'll be alright" which were more typically delivered by the guy trying to comfort his damsel.
Today’s singer won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, four years in a row and this song was her third win along with ‘Crimes Of Passion’, "Fire And Ice," and "Love Is A Battlefield."
In the video for today’s song, there are two beloved actors who were relatively unknown at the time: First you see Judge Reinhold as a pilot and Bill Paxton as a Nazi radio operator along wiht today’s singer as a Rosie The Riverter whoi fantasizes about being a WW11 flying ace.
It’s Pat Benetar...Shadows of The Night...on K103’s I Know That Song.
Congrats to Kelly Bohne who guessed this weeks theme, "songs with 'night' in the title" to win free lunch at Jersey Mikes.