BENATAR CHANGED TUNE TO HIT 80`S POP FANS WITH HER BEST SHOT OF THE BLUES

https://youtu.be/pBvRDt1E-X8?si=u9N4BNMsFwCi-UO4

As part of my campaign to write shorter and not sacrifice too many gems while no one wants to comment on Lost Treasures, I thought of a perfect album by a female artist which is not bad but not great that deserves a long overdue mention.

It is a blues album from one of the most unlikeliest of musos. Pat Benatar cut quite a cloth of brilliant pop music in the 80`s, with hits like LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD, WE BELONG, HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT and ALL FIRED UP. 

After the 80`s had ended and pop metal and pop become a bit out of vogue, you could have forgiven Benatar for dabbling in a bit of Alanis Morissette angst rock or resorting to recording stripped down acoustic songs to fit in with the then new alternative music paradigm. 

But in 1991, Benatar returned fire with a set
of blues songs, some covers and some originals, on an album with the moniker of TRUE LOVE. 

With the help of her long term producer husband Neil Giraldo and with the backing of a crack team of blues rock session players, which included a ROOMFUL OF BLUES, Benatar went about recording a partially convincing and partially unconvincing swing blues album.

Neil Giraldo also plays guitar alongside Benatar, perhaps if there can be one criticism of the album it's that Benatar didn't in any way improve on the originals, and in a few instances, it is obvious her pop voice isn't quite grainy enough to hit the lowest notes very synonymous with a heap of African American blues artists. 

Of the ten songs, six probably make par and the other ones are a bit ordinary to be totally honest. But then again, her TRUE LOVE recording is still a lot more convincing than say Australia's Guy Sebastian and his attempt to cover classic soul covers a few years ago on a rather lackluster recording. 

Benatar is on top of her game with the covers on the album rather than the originals that were written or co-written by Giraldo, probably PAYIN' THE COST TO BE THE BOSS, a classic B.B King tune, and Albert King's I GET EVIL would be two of the best.