"Love Is a Battlefield" is a song performed by Pat Benatar, and written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman. It was released in September 1983 as a single from Benatar's live albumLive from Earth, though the song itself was a studio recording. The song was ranked at number 30 in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s. "Love Is a Battlefield" went on to sell over a million records.
Background and composition
Holly Knight and Mike Chapman wrote this song for Pat Benatar initially as a ballad with a beautiful melody and moving chord changes. After some exploration with drum machines and the band, Neil Giraldo decided to make this an uptempo song. The single was Benatar's second American million-seller and is tied with "We Belong" as her highest charting single in the United States. It topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983. It hit #1 on the Australian singles chart in February 1984 and remained there for five weeks, becoming the 11th-biggest-selling single of the year. In The Netherlands, the song peaked the charts for 4 weeks. It became #2 in the 1984 year-end chart. The song was re-released in the United Kingdom in March 1985 and reached #17. It was awarded a Gold certification in Canada as well. The song was featured in the television seriesPsych. In the television series Drop Dead Diva the song is performed by the actresses Brooke Elliott and Faith Prince. It was also featured in the film 13 Going on 30, where "love is a battlefield" is the mantra of the main characterJenna Rink, played by Jennifer Garner. The song in the Kay Gee Remix version, featuring Kay Gee and Queen Latifah, is on the end credits of the 1998 film Small Soldiers. The single was unlike most of Benatar's previous work, as it featured an electronic dance element, but guitars and drums were still present. In 1984, the song won Benatar her fourth consecutive Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. "Love Is a Battlefield" is set in the key of D minor, at a tempo of 90.691 beats per minute.
Music video
The Bob Giraldi-directed music video features Benatar playing a rebellious teenage girl running away from her home with her father warning her, "If you leave this house now, you can just forget about coming back!" Her mother looks on helplessly and her brother watches sadly from an upper-story window. She later becomes a taxi dancer at a seedy club to get by in the city, outwardly New York. She writes to her brother, telling him about her exciting new life, while her father seems to feel guilty about being angry at her. Later in the video, she witnesses the club owner harassing another dancer. Benatar rounds up the women and leads a rebellion against him. As the club owner is cornered by the women against his will, he tries to seduce Benatar only to have her throw a drink in his face. Angered by this, he tries once again to assault her but Benatar and the women overpower and defeat him, then storm out of the club dancing into the sunrise before bidding goodbye to one another, thanking Benatar for their escape. The women escape and strike out on their own and Benatar walks into the sunrise. The final scene shows Benatar sitting in the back of a bus headed for an unknown destination. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters, who appears briefly in the video. A special dance club remix of the song was created by Jellybean Benitez. Benitez also created an edited version of his mix specifically for the video. It differs slightly in structure and instrumentation, and aside from appearing in the video, has never been commercially released. The video was the first ever to feature the use of dialogue. The scenes featuring dialogue include the opening scene of Benatar stomping out of the house while being berated by her father and the scene featuring the pimp harassing the female dancer in which she shouts "Leave me alone!" The video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video and is contained on the DVD for the movie 13 Going on 30.
Charts
Original version
Re-release UK (1985)
Year-end charts
Cover versions
In 2005, Carrie Underwood performed this song in American Idol season 4 under its theme: the year they were born.
