“We are young…heartache to heartache we stand…no promises, no demands…”
Ahhhh, the drama of young love, right?
Pat Benatar’s rocking softened up a little bit on this 1983 hit. “Battlefield” was certainly her most synth-heavy and dancefloor friendly song up to that point. Her emotive crooning certainly struck a chord, “Battlefield” was also the highest-charting song of her career, landing at #5 that autumn.
…and then there was the video. Directed by Bob Giraldi and choreographed by Michael Peters (the same team behind Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”), the clip features Benatar as a teenage runaway (she was 30 at the time) who becomes a prostitute/chick who dances with dudes in a bar (yeah, I don’t necessarily get that either). The video’s super-campy coda features Benatar confronting her pimp/boss after he accosts one of the other hoes/dancers. Does Benatar hit him? A swift kick in the balls? Does she open her mouth to shout? Nope. She dances. Actually, the other girls dance, mostly, and Pat gets through a couple of rudimentary moves before she finally tosses a drink in pimp/boss’s face. This, my friends, is why videos were so great in the Eighties.
The sellout tag was thrown around a bit after “Battlefield”, but I’ll take this one over “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” or “Hell is for Children” any day.
