Why Pat Benatar Discovering Her Vocal Talent Was Frightening, Not Inspiring, at First

When a young Pat Benatar first discovered that her vocal talent was something special, the experience was more frightening than inspiring. There was no hot-shot record executive or a roaring standing ovation from a crowd. It was simply a young fourth grader sitting alone in the hallway outside of her principal’s office, absolutely certain she was about to go to detention.

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Luckily, that little girl couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Moment Pat Benatar Discovered Her Vocal Talent

Singing has always come naturally to Pat Benatar. She started using her voice naturally as a young child, singing along to the radio and learning from her mother, who had trained as an opera singer. So, when the time came for her fourth-grade class to join the elementary school choir, she didn’t think too much of her musical abilities. Benatar lined up with the rest of her class as each student prepared to sing a scale for the choir teacher.

“When I was done, the teacher was just standing there with her mouth hanging open,” Benatar recalled in an interview with Dan Rather. “She said, ‘Do your parents know about this?’ I thought I was in trouble. I thought I’d done something really bad. She called the principal, and my parents had to come in.” Benatar said she waited in the hallway outside of her principal’s office with her head in her hands, fearful of the reason for her parents’ visit to the school. “She just wanted to tell them, ‘Did they know that I could sing?’ That was it from that moment on.”

Benatar’s voice was naturally high and clear, lending itself nicely to musical theatre, opera, and other “legit” vocal styles. She naturally gravitated toward the music she felt comfortable singing, despite being a fan of rock ‘n’ roll and Motown records. The “Love is a Battlefield” singer had plans to attend the Juilliard School of Music in New York City to study opera, but she initially gave up that dream to pursue a career in health education.

How A Legit Singer Helped Steer Her Into A New Style

Shortly after graduating high school, a 19-year-old Pat Benatar moved to Virginia with her husband, who was an Army security agent stationed at Fort Lee. She was working as a bank teller near Richmond when she and some friends saw Liza Minnelli at the Richmond Coliseum. The theatrical singer known for her renditions of “Maybe This Time” and “New York New York” inspired Benatar to pursue a singing career once and for all. Benatar quit her job at the bank the next day, landed a gig as a cover band singer, and eventually moved back to her native New York City.

Funnily enough, Benatar would wrongly assume she landed herself in the hot seat one more time before landing what many would consider her “big break.” One of Benatar’s first performances in the city was at a comedy club’s amateur night, where she performed Judy Garland’s “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody.” After the club crowd went wild over Benatar’s performance, she watched the venue owner, Rick Newman, bust through the club’s swinging doors. She said Newman pointed directly at her and told her to get into his office immediately. The two began talking about her career prospects, and Newman eventually became her manager.

Benatar became a beloved regular performer at various clubs around the city, landing a record deal with Chrysalis Records in 1978. Two years later (and five years after making her debut with a Judy Garland cover, Benatar won her first Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for her second album, Crimes of Passion, which included her signature song, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

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