40 Years Ago: Why Pat Benatar Had to Fight for ‘Shadows of the Night’

“Shadows of the Night” endured a difficult route to becoming a global hit single in 1982 – and Pat Benatar, who made it happen, endured her own challenges along the way.

The song was written by D.L. Byron specifically for the 1980 movie Times Square, but producers of the teenage runaway story felt it didn’t have hit potential, and rejected it. Subsequent versions were released in 1981 by German-based singer Helen Shneider and vocalist and actress Rachel Sweet, with modest results.

As Benatar worked on her fourth album Get Nervous, she and drummer Myron Grombacher decided to reshape “Shadows of the Night” into a track that suited their intentions.

…She recalled that she and Grombacher “rewrote many of the lyrics to make it work for me,” noting that they were never given writing credits for their efforts, a situation that “would not happen today.” With that battle won, the next took place over the accompanying video, at a time when the concept was just beginning to break through.

Benatar had done theater work in her youth, but her band were pure rock ’n’ roll guys. So when the idea of making a mini-movie based in World War II came up, she loved it and they didn’t.

…The story was pretty simple, though admittedly unexpected: a factory girl helping the World War II effort on the home front slips into a daydream about flying into Germany to kill a bunch of Nazis. An homage to [wartime propaganda character] Rosie the Riveter, there would be airplanes and a chase sequence, and some bad guys would die. It would be a four-minute action flick and I’d get to be the heroine.”

Despite her colleagues’ objections, she pushed through the wartime concept, and the video features up-and-coming actors Bill Paxton and Judge Reinhold.

And two iconic California songs ...

JOHN STEWART ft. Stevie Nicks - Gold (1979) HD

When the lights go down in the California town
People are in for the evening
I jump into my car and I throw in my guitar
My heartbeat in time with my breathing

Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

Ah, my buddy Jim Bass, he's a-working pumping gas
And he makes two-fifty for an hour
He's got rhythm in his hands as he's tapping on the cans
Sings rock and roll in the shower

Driving over Kanan, singing to his soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

Ah, California girls are the greatest in the world
Each one a song in the making
Singing right to me, I can hear the melody
Story is there for the taking

Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

(Ooh)

San Andreas Fault Studio Album Tigerlily

Natalie Merchant - San Andreas Fault (Live)

Go west, paradise is there
You'll have all that you can eat
Of milk and honey over there
You'll be the brightest star
The world has ever seen
Sun-baked, slender, heroine
Film and magazine
So go west, paradise is there
You'll have all that you can eat
Of milk and honey over there
You'll be the brightest light
The world has ever seen
The dizzy height of a jet-set life
You could never dream
Your pale blue eyes, strawberry hair
Lips so sweet, skin so fair
Your future bright, beyond compare
It's rags to riches over there
San Andreas fault moved it's fingers through the ground
Earth divided, plates collided, such an awful sound
San Andreas fault moved it's fingers through the ground
Terra cotta shattered and the walls came tumbling down
Oh, promised land (oh, promised land)
Oh, wicked ground (wicked ground)
Build a dream, tear it down
Oh, promised land (oh, promised land)
What a wicked ground (what a wicked ground)
Build a dream, watch it fall down
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Natalie Merchant

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