Rock Chicks

by Alison Stieven-Taylor

  A third album was released in November 1983, Touch. Annie was really coming into her own as a songwriter as was Stewart as a composer and producer. Annie also played flute and keyboards on the album, which reached number seven on the pop charts and thirty-five on the R&B. Touch’s hit single, ‘Here Comes the Rain Again’, apparently written after a volatile clash between Annie and Stewart, made it to number four. ‘In a musical field awash with deep-pocketed clotheshorses and hoary soul revivalists, Eurythmics are creating something unmistakably new,’ Rolling Stone commented.

  Eurythmics gave Annie the opportunity to explore her vocal range. Her voice moved easily among pop, rock, R&B and soul. However, the overuse of her voice, not only in performance but also in fulfilling her publicity commitments, resulted in a nodule on her vocal chords—a creeping huskiness told the singer something was amiss. Fretting that she might require surgery, she quickly learned how to look after her voice by undertaking extensive warm-up exercises and avoiding cigarettes—she is one of the few rock chicks who hasn’t flirted with drugs.

  Much of Annie’s material is autobiographical. She has said she writes her best material when she is at her most miserable. She is not bi-polar, but admits she comes close—she’s either on a searing high or an agonising low, there isn’t much in between. In her younger years she had contemplated suicide. Annie’s confident even bold on-stage persona masked a woman consumed with self-doubt, anxiety and pessimism. Every day she had to make a conscious effort to be positive. Her natural tendency was towards the bleaker side of life.

  In 1984 Annie married Radha Raman, a Hare Krishna and a vegetarian cook who was part of the band’s tour entourage. Her decision to marry shocked everyone around her. Her father advised her not to do it and Stewart had a meltdown. They needn’t have worried. The union was short-lived and by the following year they were divorced. The divorce signaled the end of her interest in the Hare Krishna faith.

  Annie has often said that the more unhappy she is, the more creative. The 1985 album Be Yourself Tonight, which contained material written after her divorce, was a massive commercial and artistic success, charting in the top ten and spawning a number of hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic.

  Be Yourself Tonight was a departure from Eurythmics’ previous work, which had been squarely centred on Annie’s voice and Stewart’s mastery in the studio. This album featured a number of guest performers. Elvis Costello joined Annie on the song ‘Adrian’, Stevie Wonder played harmonica on ‘There Must be an Angel’ and Aretha Franklin sang the duet ‘Sisters are Doing it for Themselves’ with Annie. ‘Would I Lie to You?’, another hit from the album, was nominated for no less than five awards in the 1985 MTV awards.

  she is not bi-polar, but admits she comes close—she’s either on a searing high or an agonising low, there isn’t much in between

  Aretha, who had been living a semi-reclusive life in Detroit, jumped at the chance to work with Annie and Stewart. When the pair met, Annie was shocked Aretha was a heavy smoker: with her own paranoia about her voice, she thought it inconceivable that a voice like Aretha’s was possible in a smoker.

  when she gave birth to a stillborn son, Annie had to endure the reporting of her private ordeal in newspaper headlines

  The shift from pop-synth towards the pop-rock of Be Yourself Tonight was even more pronounced on 1986’s Revenge, which again called on the talents of other musicians, including Blondie’s drummer Clem Burke. The single ‘Missionary Man’ went to number one on the mainstream rock charts and won the duo their first Grammy. The album also featured ‘Thorn in My Side, which was a hit in Britain, and ‘The Miracle of Love’. Eurythmics embarked on a worldwide tour to promote the album—something Annie had wanted to avoid at the outset of her career, but the commercial reality of the music industry was impossible to avoid.

  Savage, released in 1987, heralded a new direction in Annie’s songwriting, revealing a darker, more psychologically intense side and prompting Rolling Stone to state that ‘these are the dreams of the everyday housewife ... the everyday schizophrenic housewife.’ Stewart’s synth-dance compositions left behind the pop-rock sounds of the two previous albums. Sales of Savage were slow, particularly in the USA, but the duo’s top forty run continued, with the single ‘I Need a Man’ entering the top ten on the Billboard dance charts, and reaching thirty-two on the mainstream rock charts. Savage was also released as a video album.

  In 1988 Annie married film-maker Uri Fruchtmann, who is credited with producing Spice World: The Movie. In December that year she gave birth to a stillborn son. Annie had to endure the reporting of her private ordeal in newspaper headlines. She and Uri retreated to their home in Paris to work through their grief.

  Part of her coping mechanism was to go back to work, encouraged by her husband and Stewart, who was by now married to singer Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama (Ba and Shakespeare Sister). Eurythmics went on another international tour in 1989, the year We Too are One was released. Produced by Jimmy Iovine and Stewart, it displayed An Annie’s superior lyric-writing skills, pro proving her theory that misery makes for great art. A hit in Britain, it was less enthusiastically received in the USA. Annie also had a hit with Al Green in 1989 with the duet ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart’.

  By the time the Eurythmics tour con concluded in Rio de Janeiro, Annie was emotionally and physically spent. She and Stewart were also in des desperate need of time out from each other. Eurythmics was shelved and the pair didn’t speak for close on four years.

  Annie delivered a healthy baby girl, Lola, at the end of 1990. Now living back in London, she recorded her first solo album at Mayfair Studios. Produced by Stephen Lipson (Pet Shop Boys) and released in 1992, Diva introduced a more mature Annie, who had successfully overcome her fear that she was incapable of making music without Stewart. Awarded best British album in the Brit Awards in 1993, Diva was also nominated for a Grammy. The album demonstrated Annie’s incredible vocal range, moving from the haunting single ‘Why’ to the more pop-oriented ‘Walking on Broken Glass’, both of which were top forty hits. The single, ‘Little Bird’, was also a hit on the dance charts.

  By the time she came to record 1995’s Medusa she was the mother of two girls. Medusa was Annie’s first covers album—reportedly she was too happy to write anything worthwhile. The album’s biggest hit was ‘No More I Love You’s’, a song earlier recorded by little known British band, the Lover Speaks. Annie tackled a variety of material, including songs by Neil Young, Al Green, Bob Marley and the Clash. Critics weren’t fans of the album, but ‘No More I Love You’s’ and ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ both reached number two on the Billboard hot dance charts and Annie picked up the Grammy the following year for best female pop performance.

  During the 1990s, outside of her two multi-platinum selling solo albums, Annie focused on raising her daughters away from the prying eyes of the press. In 1997 the death of Peet Coombs of the Tourists brought Annie and Stewart back together. In 1999 the duo released another album, the critically acclaimed Peace, the first album from Eurythmics in a decade. Peace gave the duo another worldwide hit with the single ‘17 Again’ reaching number two on the dance charts. ‘I Saved the World Today’ was another stand-out track.

  In 2000 Annie and her husband of twelve years called it a day. Her pain and grief over the ending of her marriage provided ample material for her next solo album, 2003’s Bare. On the cover Annie states, ‘I am a mature woman facing up to the failed expectations of life and facing up to core issues,’ which are exquisitely dealt with in the eleven songs on Bare. It included three number one hits on the Billboard hot dance chart. The album reached number four.

  In 2005 she was one of the artists to perform at Live8 in London and at G8 at Glen Eagles in Scotland. The same year she sang on the 46664 tour to raise funds for Nelson Mandela’s AIDS campaign, performing in remote places, including Tromsø in the far north of Norway. A st
aunch supporter of Mandela’s work in South Africa for victims of AIDS, in 2005 Annie took her daughters with her to visit an HIV/AIDS orphanage and hospice in one of the shantytowns.

  ‘I despair of the women I see in music [today] ... the values are ignorant, materialistic.... l think we’ve gone backwards’

  In 2007 there was another solo release, Songs of Mass Destruction. One of the songs, ‘Sing’, named for her SING campaign for Africa and HIV/AIDS, features a stellar choir of superstars including Madonna, Celine Dion, Fergie, Melissa Etheridge and Gladys Knight. Currently she divides her time between making music, working on AIDS projects and raising her two daughters alone in west London.

  After surviving more than thirty years in music, Annie laments what she sees as the regression of women in the industry and the videos which she believes equate to ‘soft porn ... I despair of the women I see in music [today] ... the values are ignorant, materialistic. I don’t think we’ve gone forward ... l think we’ve gone backwards.’

  PAT BENATAR

  The Pixie Who Roared

  Boring is hardly the word for a rock chick like Pat. But her life is extraordinarily normal for someone who has lived in the public eye for the best part of thirty years. Pat has been married to Neil Giraldo, lead guitarist in her band, for over two decades. She’s a superstar who does her own cooking and grocery shopping and hangs with the other moms at her kids’ sports events.

  Pat was initially another success story from the Chapman Chinn stable, who had written hits for Suzi Quatro and produced Blondie’s Parallel Lines. Mike Chapman, producer of Pat’s first album, was the man with the Midas touch. Just as he had launched others into the superstar stratosphere, so he worked his magic on Pat. Since that first album, In the Heat of the Night, she has sold over thirty-five million records.

  Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, born in 1953 of Polish-Irish heritage, lived on the wrong side of the tracks in Lindenhurst on Long Island, New York. Her father was a metal worker, her mother a former opera singer. Money was tight and Pat and her brother Andrew grew up with few material possessions. Lindenhurst was divided by railroad tracks. The middle-class kids lived on one side, the don’t haves on the other. ‘I think I always worried about ... our being so poor,’ Pat said.

  Her mother’s love of music was passed on to daughter. Pat trained as an opera singer, encouraged by her mother to use her natural gift—a three-and-a-half octave range. As she grew into her teens she discovered rock and was a big fan of bands like Led Zeppelin. She found it hard to listen to popular music on the radio and then have to switch to classical tones, and even harder still to stick to rigid practise sessions. Gradually her interest in opera waned. Pat turned her attention to Motown, R&B, the girl groups, the Beatles, the Stones. She performed in every school musical. She wasn’t planning a career in music though. She wanted to be a school teacher.

  it was a good way of gaining a broad musical education—she sang everything from cabaret and R&B to contemporary songs

  At nineteen she married her high school sweetheart Denis Benatar, who was drafted into the army shortly after. The young newlyweds were shunted off to Richmond, Virginia, and Pat shelved any ideas of going to college. To alleviate the boredom she took a job as a bank teller, but it drove her to distraction. ‘I was there with all these proper little Southern girls, which is such a whole other thing when you’re from New York,’ she said.

  Pat took any job with a musical element, including a stint as a singing waitress in a roaring twenties restaurant where, dressed as a flapper, she would hit the stage to sing a few songs before going back to the tables to take orders. It was a good way of gaining a broad musical education—she sang everything from cabaret and R&B to contemporary songs in hotel lounges and smoky clubs.

  By 1975 the pair were back in New York, but the marriage was on the rocks. Before long Pat filed for divorce. She took whatever singing work she could. There were months of performing at cabaret venues on Long Island and a role in the short-lived production of the sci-fi musical Zinger, composed by Harry Chapin.

  She got her big break one evening at Catch a Rising Star, a Manhattan club that held open-mic nights. It was 1977. By the time Pat got her turn to take the stage it was around 3am. The waning crowd was paying little attention to the wannabees on stage until Pat let rip. Singing the Judy Garland song ‘Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody’, she blew them away. ‘Everybody just went crazy. I didn’t do anything spectacular. It was just one of those magical things.’ Afterwards club owner Rick Newman approached Pat about performing regularly. Shortly after he became her first manager.

  Pat sang at the Star for the next year. One night she turned up in a Hallowe’en outfit she’d been wearing at a party and performed her usual routine. The costume—a black catsuit with heavy black eye make-up—gave her an added edge. The crowd was electrified.

  The buzz around Pat was palpable. Jeff Aldrich from Chrysalis Records heard the rumours. He made the trip to the Star and liked what he saw, signing her on the spot. In no time Pat was in LA recording with one of the hottest record producers in the world. Mike Chapman.

  Chapman had not intended to take on any new acts. But when he heard Pat’s voice he couldn’t resist. This woman had a vocal reach strong enough to shake the foundations and high enough to break glass. Sound engineer Peter Coleman also produced several tracks and formed a strong musical bond with Pat.

  Chapman suggested she work with Neil Giraldo, the guitarist from Derringer who was known for his musical arranging skills. When Giraldo, with his dark wavy hair, tattooed arms and rock’n’roll vibe, walked into the studio it was love at first sight. ‘I called up my girlfriend and I go, “I met the father of my children.” She ... says ... “What is wrong with you? ... It’s 1979, you don’t have to marry him to sleep with him.” But I knew. I was in love ... instantly.’

  Her first studio effort was released in 1979. In the Heat of the Night eventually went multi-platinum, reaching number twelve on the Billboard pop charts. But early on it was a struggle to get airplay. After all, Pat was a woman and you could only have one female in the top ten at one time. Her debut single, ‘If You Think You Know How to Love Me’, written by Chapman and songwriting partner Nicky Chinn, was a slow mover. But ‘Heartbreaker’ delivered Pat’s first top forty hit. It was emulated by ‘We Live for Love’, written by Giraldo. At Chrysalis everyone began to realise that Pat Benatar was on her way to being a rock star.

  Despite her amazing vocal range she was on a steep learning curve when it came to making music. Before she’d recorded In the Heat of the Night she’d had little experience with real musicians. And she had found it difficult to articulate what she’d like to sing other than to say she wanted to rock. Giraldo took charge of the musical direction, but Pat the perfectionist wanted to learn as much as she could.

  A touring band was formed with Giraldo on lead guitar and keyboards, Scott St Clair Sheets on rhythm guitar, bass player Roger Capps and ex-Derringer drummer Myron Grombacher. The live Pat Benatar shows rocked. She appealed to both sexes. Pat revelled in the attention, but also could see the humour in it. ‘The guys get silly,’ she said. ‘They take their shirts off like they are guy groupies or something.’

  early on it was a struggle to get airplay. After all, Pat was a woman and you could only have one female in the top ten at one time

  Pat’s opera training meant her voice had the stamina to tackle the big rock numbers she loved. But adapting to rock was no easy matter and, she said, took a good two years, finding out ‘how I could scratch up my voice, rough it up, and still not rip my throat out.’ Her range was a powerful tool. The transition from opera to rock came as a shock to Pat’s mother: ‘she was a little freaked out’. Her father was supportive, but not of the decibels. At his daughter’s concerts, he resorted to wearing earplugs.

  On stage she was a powerhouse. She clad her tiny, athletic body i
n spandex tights worn with a leotard or a top cinched in with a wide belt. She wore high heels and kicked, punched and stomped her way through sets. Pat’s onstage persona drove the audience wild. As soon as the house lights went down, she was transformed into a ‘vampish, sensual bitch everyone wants to love and to make love to,’ one critic wrote. She ‘struts and purrs, prowls and growls, and shakes and screams.’

  Pat loathed the sex kitten image Chrysalis came up with to promote In the Heat of the Night. A poster depicting Pat in tights and leotard was the stuff of male fantasies, the publicity blurb painting her as a tough-talking man-eater: ‘A lot of women singers today seem to be saying, “If you love me and then hurt me I’ll die”. I say, “If you love me then hurt me, I’ll kick your ass”.’ But the sexy, hard-ass act proved its worth in platinum sales. Pat’s records dominated the charts in the early 1980s and Chrysalis took every opportunity to prove that sex does sell.

  As her first album climbed the charts she rebelled, discarding the tights, throwing on a jacket and lopping off her hair, much to the chagrin of her publicists. She also had a clause written into her contract that stipulated no photos would be issued without her approval. But it didn’t matter how much she railed against the image. Pat was viewed as a sex symbol.

  Less than a year after her first album was released, Crimes of Passion produced by Keith Olsen hit the charts. The public went nuts. Crimes of Passion went gold in less than two weeks, clocked up more than four million sales, reached number two on the charts and delivered Pat the first of four consecutive Grammys for best female rock vocal performance—an unprecedented run. One of Pat’s best known songs, ‘Hit Me with Your Best Shot’, was the first single and her first top ten hit.