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Crimes of Passion,                   Chrysalis Records, 1980      Top 40 at  MATT RADIO     View the all-time countdown here!

You co-wrote a number of tunes on Crimes of Passion.  Could you explain what "Hell Is For Children" is about?  It sounds like it's a little off the beaten track of usual rock subject matter.

I don't know where my ideas come from.  I can't write love songs, so I have to write about weird stuff, clones and stuff like that.  "Hell Is For Children" is something I took from a newspaper story about child abuse;  it was the headline.  I'm not a crusader, but I do comment on things I see.

Can we look for you to write more in the future?

It depends.  I don't spend a lot of time writing.  Neil is the real together songwriter in this band.

Do you write mostly words?

I usually write words, although with "Hell" I wrote a lot of the music.  I can't just sit down in a room and write songs.  I have to hear something, like on an airplane.

But I imagine that you will always do cover songs.

Oh yeah, I will always cover songs.  I love to cover songs!  There are so many good songs out.  Now having said that, my next album will probably be all originals. (laughs)

But I do love covers.  Billy Steinberg has written so many good songs.  He did "How Do I Make You" on Ronstadt's Mad Love and "I'm Gonna Follow You" on Crimes of Passion.  And if Bruce Springsteen had a song for me I'd do it in a second.  He's so prolific.  It's not that way for me; songs come to me slowly.

The words have flowed fast and furious about you among the fans and critics.  People are saying all kinds of nice things.  Some want to call you the best singer in rock.

That's kind of silly.  There are a lot of good female singers around.  How could I be the best?  Ronstadt is still alive!

Who is your audience?

It's real strange.  When I started I though this was going to be a totally male trip, which I didn't want, but I didn't know what to do about it.  It never really happened.  My audience is mixed.  There are women right up front screaming their heads off, right up there where they can touch.

The guys get silly.  They take their shirts off, like they are guy groupies or something, which the band hates because they are playing for a bunch of men.  Neil and I are very close, but he still likes to have a girl egging him on from the audience.

When I do "I Need A Lover" girls raise their fists in a sisterhood thing, which is great.  It means they are getting the point.

A lot of people have picked up on the sensuality, sometimes outright sexuality, that is a part of your image.  For instance, the promotional poster used along with the first album was eye-catching.  Do you feel comfortable with that side of you?

As far as the poster goes, I wore the tights because I like to wear them.  I can't stand wearing "clothes" for pictures. You can spend your whole life just deciding what to wear.  I was wearing the tights onstage, so we decided to use them.

But publicity is such a stupid thing.  I hate it so much.  Sometimes I think that if I have to take one more picture, or one more person says my hair looks darker on the album, I'll go crazy.  It's so silly.  And because I am a woman everybody makes a bigger deal out of everything.

source:   Boni Johnson, Record Review, Dec. 1980

The success of Pat Benatar's debut single, "Heartbreaker," made it evident that listeners longed to hear the Long Islander rock out more often.  Instead of stressing new wave-ish material as she generally did on In the Heat of the Night, Benatar cranked up the electric guitars the second time around and delivered the loudest, most aggressively rockin' album of her career.  Both artistically and commercially, this change of direction paid off handsomely.  In 1980, women who rocked forcefully were the exception instead of the rule, and Benatar was among the enjoyable exceptions.  From "Out of Touch" to the celebrated "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," Crimes of Passion is a gritty hard rock gem that is as fun as it is loud.  One song that definitely isn't escapist, however, is "Hell Is for Children," a commentary on child abuse that is downright chilling.

source:   Alex Henderson, allmusic.com