Pat Benatar Albums Ranked

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Pat Benatar Albums Ranked article takes a look at the albums released by one of rock’s greatest female vocalists of all time. Pat Benatar albums were treasures in the hands of your rock and roll fans in the late 1970s and decade of the 1980s. Pat Benatar’s run of hit singles, albums and dynamic concert performances defines some of the greatest moments of the 80s rock era. We love all the albums that were released by Pat Benatar We run through them on this Pat Benatar albums list picking our favorites from 12 to 1.

# 12 – Live From Earth

Live From Earth was obviously a live album, and a good one at that. It also contained two new studio tracks. One of them won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in the song “Love Is A Battlefield.” All the hits done live and a Grammy Award winning new song makes for a nice live album to add to your Pat Benatar albums collection.

# 11 – True Love

A blues album from a singer whose music never really echoed much of the blues was an interesting choice. Still, because she is Pat Benatar she pulled it off well. But this was just a one shot deal. True Love was released in 1991.

# 10 – Innamorata

Pat Benatar celebrated her tenth album release with her record entitled Innamorata. The album was released in 1997. From a commercial standpoint, it did not sell or chart well. Yet, the songs were great and Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo still sounded at the top of their game on this one. The only problem was the times had changed in the music industry as hip hop and boy bands were ruling the world in 1997.

# 9 – Gravity’s Rainbow

In 1993, grunge and the Seattle sound ruled the world. Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo tried to adept a bit in their style to compete in a Nirvana inspired world. The result was Gravity’s Rainbow. This was a very enjoyable Pat Benatar album and it was nice to hear the two artists take a slight musical change in direction on it.

# 8 – Wide Awake In Dreamland

Wide Awake in Dreamland is Pat Benatar’s last commercially successful album. The record was released in 1988. Wide Awake in Dreamland was Pat and Neil’s eighth album. The record contained the hit single “All Fired Up,” which was written by Kerryn Tolhurst. Nick Gilder who had the number one single “Hot Child In The City,” sang backup vocals on a couple of songs on the record.

# 7 – Go

Pat Benatar’s Go was one of those albums that came out of nowhere. The Go album was released in 2003 independently by Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. The album was a top 10 hit on the Billboard Independent albums charts. This is a rocking album wonderfully recorded filled with great new songs especially the smoking title track. As of this writing in 2021, Go remains Pat Benatar’s most recent studio album released 18 years ago.

# 6 – Seven The Hard Way

In 1985, Pat Benatar released her sixth studio album entitled Seven the Hard Way. The album spawned some major hits including the song “Invincible,” that appeared in the movie The Legend of Billie Jean. The album also included a cover of the Four Tops song “7-Rooms of Gloom.” Two additional singles were released that were minor hits in the songs “Sex As A Weapon,” and “Le Bel Age.”

# 5 – Tropico

Pat Benatar continued her run of hit albums and hit singles in the early eighties with the release of the album Tropico. Like all of the albums before, their were singles released nominated for Grammy Awards because of Pat Benatar’s amazing vocal performances. The big hit from the Tropico album remains one of our favorite Pat Benatar song of all time in the track “We Belong.” The Tropico album was released in the fall of 1984.

# 4 – Get Nervous

Get Nervous was Pat Benatar’s fourth straight amazing rock and roll record album released in the early 80s. With every album she released, Pat Benatar just kept becoming a bigger and bigger star. MTV love her, she looked great on film, great on video, and of course, she just sang her heart out breaking all of ours. The album’s lead single “Shadows of the Night,” was one of her greatest releases of all time. It earned her another Grammy award for Best Female Rock performance. There were so many great songs on this album including the second track “Looking For A Stranger,” which is also one of our favorites. And everyone loved “Anxiety (Get Nervous)” the third track on the album and “Little Too Late,” which opened up side two.

# 3 – In the Heat of the Night

Pat Benatar’s In the Heat of the Night stands as her debut album. The album was released on October 20th 1979. The record’s first single was a cover of John Mellencamp’s or at that time we should say John Cougar’s “I need a Lover.” The song got some airplay on FM rock radio but it was not a hit. The second single “If You Think You Know How To Love Me,” was written by Nikki Chin and Mike Chapman who wrote many great songs back in the early to mid 70s for the band Sweet among others. It was the album’s third single entitled “Heartbreaker,” that broke Pat Benatar big time.

“Heartbreaker,” was a stunning recording. Critics and fans wrote all about how Pat Benatar was the first female rock and roll star, although most of them seemed to completely forget about Janis Joplin and a host of others. Perhaps it was just the ferocity and heaviness of the song that blew people’s minds because it was sung by a female. We can’t forget The Runaways were singing Hard Rock and Roll also, but Pat Benatar did do it in a voice that had not really been done before.

There was something incredibly special about Pat Benatar, there was an empowerment that she had that was shocking and enthralling at the same time. Amazing how every year in the 1970s there was always a handful of new rock and roll acts that would become future legends. Pat Benatar was one of the last new artists of the seventies to do that. It all started with the In the Heat of the Night album.

# 2 – Precious Time

It was tough choosing between the top two albums on this Pat Benatar list because both of these albums were incredibly successful. In 1981, Pat Benatar released her third LP entitled Precious Time. It would become her only number one album on the Billboard Top 200 of her career. A very impressive feat considering that none of the singles from the album broke the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10.

The album’s first single entitled “Fire and Ice,” hit number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it did hit number two on the Mainstream Rock tracks. Nonetheless, the favorite song among most Pat Benatar fans from the album was the great track “Promises In The Dark.” The album also contained two great song covers including Paul Revere and the Raiders “Just Like Me,” and the legendary “Helter Skelter,” from The Beatles. Other standout tracks included “Evil Genius,” “It’s a Tough Life,” and of course the title track written by Billy Steinberg called “Precious Time.” Side one of the album is just phenomenal.

# 1 – Crimes Of Passion

We close out ur Pat Benatar albums list with her biggest selling album of her career entitled Crimes Of Passion. The album was released in August of 1980. While her Precious Time album hit number one, Crimes of Passion LP came pretty close peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and lasting in that spot for over a month. This was an unbelievable rock and roll record. They were so many big hits on this one. The album’s first single was entitled “You better Run,” – a hard rock and roll remake of The Rascals song. The song wasn’t a huge hit as it only reached number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the song’s great arrangement and Pat Benatar’s incredible virtuous heavy rocking vocal performance on the song turned heads instantly letting the industry know she was not going to be just a one hit album wonder.

Pat Benatar proved that point even further with the release of her next single entitled “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” The song broke the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. It stands as Pat Benatar’s signature song. The third single “Treat Me Right,” showed off Pat Benatar’s dynamic vocal range.

Pat Benatar has a loyal following and one of her most popular songs among the most dedicated fans was the closing track on side one entitled “Hell is For Children.” There is also a beautiful cover of the Kate Bush song “Wuthering Heights.” This was the album that cemented Pat Benatar’s place in the rock and roll landscape forever.

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