Love is a Battlefield was Pat Benatar's most successful single and reached #17 in the UK during 1985 after a re-release. The moderate chart position is actually quite surprising given that the song featured plenty of airplay on UK radio stations.
Interestingly, the song was actually written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman as a ballad. Chapman was a major songwriter an producer during the 1970s, creating hits for artists including Suzi Quatro, Smokie and The Sweet. Producer Neil Girado decided to make the song more uptempo, which I'm very grateful for as I'm not a huge fan of ballads!
The song was released to promote Benatar's first live album Live From Earth, which was recorded during her Get Nervous Tour in 1983. The B-side featured a live version of "Hell is for Children", which also features as track 5 on the album.
"Love is a Battlefield" reached No.1 in Australia (for 5 weeks), Belgium, Netherlands, and the U.S. rock chart.
The video was directed by Bob Giraldi and features Benatar as a teen escaping from her abusive dad.
