 Pat Benatar I was thoroughly infatuated with Pat Benatar when I was a kid … ah, the memories freely flow like chocolate goop from a cracked pudding factory vat. The day I got my vinyl copy of Precious Time in the mail from the RCA music club, then the vinyl being miserably warped, right on cue. Joining the Pat Benatar fan club, and receiving only one thing ever: a pamphlet introducing the members of the band in honor of the release of Get Nervous. The time I was endlessly hassled by the rest of the drum corps for wearing a small Crimes of Passion button on my backpack. "OK", I retorted, "well, which band's button SHOULD I be wearing then, huh?" A unanimous response of "Rush" was thrown back in my general vicinity. Nothing against Rush mind you, but talk about stereotyping. I stood my ground and kept the button on. One of the antagonists eventually went prematurely bald in his early 20s, while I went on to make millions of dollars reviewing records. Well, even though only one of these things is actually "true," I still give myself a small handful of bonus points for standing by my woman. And besides, like Lionel Hutz once said, "What IS truth, anyway?" Unfortunately for the CD buying public, there has yet to be a truly great Pat Benatar compilation released. Best Shots, originally released in 1989, could have sealed the book shut. No offense to either Pat or her husband Neil Geraldo, or to die-hard Benatar fans (who would that be, exactly?), but the hit-making years might be long gone. Er, that's a bit too harsh … a Pat comeback would be a very welcome sight to many, myself included. She's tried with a white blues album (True Love), but has yet to make an official comeback. Maybe another well-timed, quality contemporary Top-40 hit would put all the pieces together, getting the wheels turning for a mild PB revival. Thus, yet a third attempt at a greatest hits package would be the charm … the 2 disc All Fired Up set is too unwieldly, and the 3-disc Synchronistic Wanderings is probably too much of a good thing. And I'm getting to Best Shots. Hold your horses, Harold. Actually, before I get to the disc, I must say this. Why does Pat continually get dismissed by the new set of young female singer/songwriters? You KNOW that Jewel used to rock out in her Alaskan bedroom to "You Better Run" (well, at least I have no problems fantasizing about this), so why not champion Ms. Benatar in her interviews? (Same goes for Alanis, who, as strange as it may seem, had her road paved and striped by Pat). And speaking of "You Better Run," it's not on this disc, as neither are "La Bel Age," "Sex As a Weapon," "Looking for a Stranger," etc, making way instead for lamer tracks from the Tropico album. At least the "The Ooh Ooh Song" is nowhere in sight, but there are some true classics on here, songs that rank in the upper echelon of my all-time favorites: "Invincible," "Shadows of the Night," "Promises in the Dark," … I can't even count how many times I've rocked out to these in my Alaskan bedroom as well. Pat has an amazing voice, and while there's usually a pinch too much of "bar band" to a lot of this stuff, it's actually not a bad thing … in fact, take away this element and you get often songs LIKE "The Ooh Ooh Song." Best Shots doesn't particularly flow very well, and you can't blame that on chronological sequencing, since this isn't the case here. However, thanks to "CD technology," you can skip tracks at will. Say you don't want to hear the overplayed obligatory sports news background track "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," no problem. Just hit the forward button to "Fire And Ice" or "All Fired Up." You know, come to think of it, I have yet to ever listen to this album all the way through, but I guess some albums are designed for select listening … skip around, play three tracks, rock out in your Alaskan bedroom, then go back to doing your math homework. In that case, who can complain? Who WILL complain?
Review by Bradley A. Milton |