80's Flashback

Pat Benatar, Love Is A Battlefield, 1983. Written by Holly Knight and producer Mike Chapman (both of whom also co-wrote Tina Turner's Better Be Good To Me), this was Benatar's biggest and most enduring hit, reaching #5 on the pop chart, a height she later tied with the less memorable We Belong. The track earned Benatar a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal, but it was accompanying dance video that broke the single, as girls and gay boys nationwide copied the Defiant Hooker Shimmy. (My buddy Ken loves to tell the story about meeting one of the clip's dancers, who told him she was credited as "Disgruntled Whore #3.") Benatar was such a famously bad dancer, it reportedly took many, many takes to get her steps right. Love Is A Battlefield has been covered numerous times by artists such as Cher, Mary J. Blige, White Doves, and Queen Latifiah (who recorded a rap version). Via Durban Bud, here's the literal version.