Songoftheday 3/3/16 - Lookin' for a reason searchin' for a sign, reachin' out with both hands I gotta feel the kick inside...

"All Fired Up" - Pat Benatar
from the album Wide Awake In Dreamland (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day comes from rock singer Pat Benatar, who had continued her success through the decade with her seventh release Seven The Hard Way, which scored her another top-ten hit with "Invincible" along with a moderately successful follow-up in "Sex As A Weapon". After a greatest hits set, her next studio album came along nearly three years later. Wide Awake In Dreamland had a little more of an organic rock sound compared to the synth-heavy last two releases, as demonstrated by the first single "All Fired Up". Written by Australian guitarist Kerryn Tolhurst, the song was a minor hit for his band the Rattling Sabres in 1987, reaching #94...

Pat, along with her guitarist hubby Neil Giraldo and co-producer Keith Forsey, made this a more straight-ahead rock tune that radio took a like to...

Pat's version of "All Fired Up" became her fifteenth and so far most recent top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in August of 1988. The song went all the way to #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart, only bested by her #1 "Love Is A Battlefield" in 1983. Internationally, it was one of her biggest hits, reaching #2 in Australia (possibly on the back of the songwriter), #8 in Canada, #20 in New Zealand, and #19 in the UK (only her third top-40 hit in that country).

Her next single from the album, "Don't Walk Away", popped in at #44 on the American rock chart and #42 on the British singles chart. Her next album in 1991, True Love, delved into the blues, and the track "Payin' The Cost Of Being The Boss" climbed to #17 on the Mainstream Rock chart in Billboard. In 1993, her album Gravity's Rainbow sent the song "Everybody Lay Down" to #3 on that same list. Her most recent singles chart appearance came in 2001 with the holiday track "Christmas In America", which landed at #22 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart. She and Neil continue to tour quite successfully, even without releasing a studio album since 2003...

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And here's Pat and Neil performing live in 2001...

Up tomorrow: A soundtrack king goes back for the gopher.