Pat Benatar
- Music Artist
- Actress
- Music Department
Pat Benatar was born Patricia Andrzejewski in Brooklyn and raised in
suburban Lindenhurst, Long Island. Her mother Millie had sacrificed her
own career as an opera singer to bring up Pat and son Andrew. Years
later, it was Pat who sang classically, honing the powers of her
4.5-octave voice as a member of Lindenhurst High's musical theater
department. Having been accepted at Juilliard, Pat shocked friends and
family by marrying her high-school sweetheart
Dennis T. Benatar, a soldier, and
moving off to Virginia where he had been stationed. Before long,
the tedium of life as a housewife/bank teller proved too much for Pat,
and she joined Coxon's Army, a cabaret band on the Richmond club
circuit. Coxon's Army rose to new heights of fame, and Pat was
instilled with the confidence to move to New York City and pursue her
own dream, which brought her to Manhattan's "Catch A Rising Star".
Having thrilled the audience with her first performance on amateur night, Pat soon found herself with a paying gig, a manager and a recording contract, but her image was still in limbo. Primarily singing torch songs and Judy Garland classics, she longed to perform hard-rocking tunes in the Led Zeppelin vein. Her wishes were fulfilled when her handlers introduced her to Cleveland guitar-man Neil Giraldo, whose aggressive playing unleashed Pat's inner rocker. She had found her muse, and when her audience roared one Halloween night over a sultry costume she wore on stage, she had found her image.
Having thrilled the audience with her first performance on amateur night, Pat soon found herself with a paying gig, a manager and a recording contract, but her image was still in limbo. Primarily singing torch songs and Judy Garland classics, she longed to perform hard-rocking tunes in the Led Zeppelin vein. Her wishes were fulfilled when her handlers introduced her to Cleveland guitar-man Neil Giraldo, whose aggressive playing unleashed Pat's inner rocker. She had found her muse, and when her audience roared one Halloween night over a sultry costume she wore on stage, she had found her image.
