Concerts

You belong at Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo’s Mass. and NH shows

The freshly minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will visit Lynn Auditorium on July 10 and Hampton Beach Ballroom on July 12.

By Blake Maddux

2 minutes to read

Almost any pop music trivia buff, as well as those with a merely passing interest, can tell you that the first video that MTV aired on August 1, 1981 was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.

The number who can tell you that the song that followed it was “You Better Run” by Pat Benatar is undoubtedly far fewer.

Given that The Buggles was a bass-and-keyboards duo, Benatar pointed out at a 2018 concert in Beverly that bandmate Neil Giraldo was the first guitarist to appear on the network.

Although she didn’t have the punk cred afforded to Joan Jett by her tenure in The Runaways, Benatar nonetheless delivered her unforgettable songs with a pizzazz that allowed her to stand out in a crowded field of unique ’80s female stars that included Jett, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, Janet Jackson, and Madonna.

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Benatar charted an impressive 15 top 40 hits between 1979 (“Heartbreaker”) and 1988 (“All Fired Up”) with the help of a series of equally memorable videos in MTV’s first half-decade.

Her four GRAMMY awards in the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female category were for the 1980 album “Crimes of Passion” and the singles “Fire and Ice,” “Shadows of the Night,” and “Love Is a Battlefield.” Nominations were also forthcoming for “We Belong,” “Invincible,” “Sex As a Weapon,” “All Fired Up,” and “Let’s Stay Together.”

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Conspicuously absent among all this GRAMMY love is what is probably her most famous song, “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.”

Neil Giraldo, nicknamed “Spyder,” played on Benatar’s 1979 debut and the two got married three years later. Therefore, the couple will celebrate their 40th anniversary and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.

Despite Giraldo’s being less – if at all – famous, Benatar recently told Billboard’s Gary Graff, “I’ve lobbied for the past 25 years to get him the credit he’s due …  I was just kind of adamant about going in together, and it was pretty much a ‘no,’ and so, ‘I guess I’m not going in, then,’ and that was it. That’s how it was for a very long time, so I’m very, very pleased it’s going the way it is right now.”

New England fans can witness the musical and personal chemistry that has kept them together since the late ’70s at Lynn Auditorium on July 10 and Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on July 12.

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