12 January 2013

Retro Video Unit (1/11/13)

I heard this while in the car a week or so ago, and it's one of those songs that instantly takes me back to when it was first released as a single in late 1979. At the time I was mainly listening to WBCN, because it was one of the only stations playing the new, different, and interesting music that I craved. But talent is talent, and "Heartbreaker" is the kind of song that forces you to notice it.

It's that voice. At the time, I had never heard a female singer with a voice like Pat Benatar's, except maybe Ann Wilson of Heart. It still kind of amazes me when I hear it. And that's one of the things that remains so thrilling about music—the power of a voice, and the sense of discovery.

(Oh, and Pat just celebrated her 60th birthday on Thursday.)

As is frequently the case with songs from this era, there's no official video that I could locate, but there are several live performances from around the time her first album came out, so I decided to feature a couple of them:




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