Pat Benatar, Debbie Harry, and Joan Jett are three legendary female rockers that all got
their start in the 1970s.
All three singers are still around today, though they don’t look quite the same as
they used to!
This is especially true of Debbie Harry, who has aged pretty terribly.
Join Facts Verse as we explore how time has not been kind to these female music icons
from the 1970s.
Pat Benatar The first female musician that we’ll be
exploring in this video is none other than Pat Benatar.
Pat was born in a nondescript Long Island suburb in January 1953.
Her mother was an opera singer, though she put her career by the wayside so that she
could take care of Pat.
Lo and behold, Pat would go on to become a classical singer in her own right before becoming
a pop star later on.
The Long Island suburb that Pat Benatar was raised in was called Lindenhurst, and the
young woman attended Lindenhurst High School.
There, she sang in the school’s musical theater department.
Even during these years, Pat’s vocal range was already strikingly impressive.
The young woman boasted a vocal range of 4.5 octaves, which her contemporaries would have
a hell of a time competing with when she came into the popular-music scene.
The exceptional singing skills that Pat Benatar showed off during her high-school career would
pay off in spades once it came time for that young woman to seek higher education.
She ended up being accepted into Julliard, though she shockingly decided not to attend
the prestigious school.
Instead, Pat decided to marry her high-school sweetheart and try to start up an unassuming
life with him in Virginia.
As many may have expected, however, an unassuming life didn’t prove right for Pat.
Pat Benatar’s high-school sweetheart was a man by the name of Dennis.
He was a soldier, and Virginia was where he ended up being stationed.
Living with Dennis in Virginia, Pat worked part time as a bank teller while functioning
predominantly as a housewife.
The lifestyle began to bore the future celebrity sooner rather than later, so she took to pass
the time with an old hobby.
Not long after moving to Virginia, Pat Benatar got the itch to sing again.
She found the opportunity to do so in some grand fashion when she joined a local cabaret
band by the name of Coxon’s Army.
The band performed all over the place on the club circuit in Richmond, Virginia.
The band was somewhat popular in the region, and its popular increased when Pat joined.
This boosted Pat’s confidence, and she soon decided to head out to New York City.
Pat Benatar first started turning heads in New York City when she performed during an
amateur night at the famous Manhattan nightclub Catch a Rising Star.
This led to Pat starting to get paid work, though she was initially branded as a much
more pop-oriented artist than she would’ve preferred.
According to Pat, most of her early gigs found her performing classics in the vein of Judy
Garland.
What Pat really wanted to do was be a rock star.
Things really started picking up for Pat Benatar when she met a man by the name of Neil Giraldo,
who would go on to become her guitarist.
Neil’s hard-rocking style was just what Pat had been looking for, and they found themselves
a match made in heaven.
Pat subsequently realized that she could double the amount of attention that the audience
gave her by wearing more sultry and revealing clothing.
With her new rock guitarist and her new sultry image, Pat was ready to take the world of
rock and roll by storm!
Pat Benatar’s first album came out in 1979, which just so happens to be the very same
year that she finally called it quits on her first husband!
This debut album was a modest success, though true fame would come the rocker’s way in
1980 with the release of the song “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”.
The song became a massive hit, and even more, hits followed for the singer during the ensuing
decade with songs like “Love Is a Battlefield” and “We Live for Love”.
After over a decade of being one of the biggest female rock stars on the planet, Pat Benatar
began to slow down in her career during the 1990s.
Her last two albums featuring new material were 1997’s Innamorata and 2003’s Go.
As is typical with recording artists, the success of these recordings paled in comparison
to the success of the recording that Pat released during her heyday.
Despite the fact that Pat is far from the big rock star she once was, she still pops
up every once in a while with a new song.
In 2015, she released a song specifically for the holiday season, and it was called
“One December Night”.
In 2017, she released a feminist anthem called “Shine”.
The release of this song coincided with the Women’s March.
That same year, she also released a song by the name of “Dancing Through the Wreckage”.
This song was included on the soundtrack of a documentary about a pageant for female veterans,
called Served Like a Girl.
Debbie Harry Debbie Harry is another female musician, and
she got the drop on Pat Benatar in more ways than one.
For one thing, she came into this world earlier.
For another thing, she came into the world of popular music earlier.
Debbie was born in Florida in 1945.
At the age of only three months, a couple adopted her by the names of Richard and Catherine
Harry, and they moved her out to New Jersey.
By the time she was a teenager, Debbie Harry was spending a lot of her time in New York
City.
When she was of age, she began working as a Playboy Bunny.
She also loved frequenting Max’s Kansas City.
Despite the name, Max’s Kansas City was a popular nightclub in Manhattan that drew
such notable guests as Andy Warhol.
In 1968, Debbie Harry made her first bid at becoming a professional singer when she joined
a folk band by the name of the Wind in the Willows.
Debbie was a backup singer for the band, and she can be heard singing on its first and
only release of recorded material.
The band ended up breaking up not long after the release of this album because they simply
weren’t finding the commercial success that they desired.
Thankfully, bigger things were waiting just around the corner for young Debbie.
1973 was a fateful year for Debbie Harry, as that was the year that she met Chris Stein.
Not only would Chris become her romantic partner, but the two would also form a band together.
Before forming Blondie in 1974, Debbie and Chris performed together in a more theatrical
rock group by the name of the Stilletoes.
However, they believed that their work with Blondie was where the future lied.
It took a while for Debbie’s and Chris’ faith in their new musical project to pay
off, as Blondie didn’t find the two musicians desired until the end of the decade.
Blondie wasn’t a band that found instant success, but it did end up becoming one of
the most notable rock acts of the late 1970s and the early 1980s.
Some of the band’s most successful songs include “Call Me” and “Heart of Glass”.
The band broke up in 1982, though Debbie would continue finding work over the course of the
rest of the decade both as a popular musician and as an actress on the big screen.
She has released five solo albums and appeared in the cult-classic David Cronenberg film
Videodrome.
Debbie Harry is still around today, though the hard-rocking life that she has lived has
made it so that most people probably wouldn’t recognize her.
During the peak of her career success, Debbie was one of the most stunning women in the
music industry.
Today, she looks more like the female version of Neil Young.
Even so, Debbie stays active and isn’t afraid to perform when she’s asked to, whether
it’s with her old group Blondie or by herself.
Joan Jett Finally, let’s take a brief look at Joan
Jett.
Joan was born in 1958, and legend has it that she received her very first guitar at the
age of only 13.
However, Joan didn’t take to the instrument at first because her instructor was adamant
that she should play only folk songs.
What Joan really wanted to do was play rock music, and her dream paid off!
Joan Jett found her initial success working with the all-girl group Runaways.
The band is remembered for its song “Cherry Bomb”.
The Runaways was a successful group, but Joan would go on to find even more success as a
solo artist.
After the Runaways broke up, Joan formed her own group, called Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.
With Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Joan released such timeless rock hits as “I Love Rock
and Roll” and “Bad Reputation”.
While female rockers like Pat Benatar and Debbie Harry had a pop sheen that oftentimes
covered up their hard-rocking edges, Joan was a true rocker through and through that
could butt heads with any other figure in the industry.
There’s also the fact of the matter that she’s an accomplished guitarist and not
just a vocalist.
Like Debbie Harry, Joan Jett has also done some work as an actress.
This included a turn on Walker, Texas Ranger.
More recently, she appeared in the cartoon show Steven Universe.
Joan may have rocked the hardest during her heyday out of the three artists that we’ve
explored in this video, but she hasn’t aged as poorly as Debbie.
These three women were some of the biggest female rock stars of the 1970s.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Pat Benatar could’ve been an opera
singer and that Blondie’s Debbie Harry got her start singing backup for a folk band?
Comment down below!