Patricia Mae Giraldo is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum albums, and 15 Billboard top 40 singles, while in Canada she had eight straight platinum albums, and she has sold over 35 million albums worldwide. She is also a four-time Grammy Award winner. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022.
Smokie are an English rock band from Bradford, Yorkshire. The band found success at home and abroad after teaming up with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. They have had a number of lineup changes and were still actively touring in 2023. Their most popular hit single, "Living Next Door to Alice", peaked at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart and, in March 1977, reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as going to No. 1 on the Australian singles chart. Other hit singles include "If You Think You Know How to Love Me", "Oh Carol", "Lay Back in the Arms of Someone", and "I'll Meet You at Midnight".
"Needles and Pins" is a rock song credited to American writers Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono. Jackie DeShannon recorded it in 1963 and other versions followed. The most successful ones were by the Searchers, whose version reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart in 1964, and Smokie, who had a worldwide hit in 1977. Others who recorded the song include the Ramones, Gene Clark, Petula Clark, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Stevie Nicks.
Nicholas Barry Chinn is an English-American songwriter and record producer. Together with Mike Chapman he had a long string of hit singles in the US and UK in the 1970s and early 1980s, including several international number-one records. The duo wrote hits for the Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Mud, New World, Arrows, Racey, Smokie, Tina Turner, Huey Lewis and the News, Exile and Toni Basil.
Michael Donald Chapman is an Australian record producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including The Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Mud and Racey with business partner Nicky Chinn, creating a sound that became identified with the "Chinnichap" brand. He later produced breakthrough albums for Blondie and The Knack. Chapman received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2014 Australia Day Honours.
In the Heat of the Night is the debut studio album by American singer Pat Benatar, released on August 27, 1979, by Chrysalis Records. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 for the week ending October 20, 1979, peaking at No. 12 in March 1980, almost six months after its release.
"Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released in 1975 by EMI as the lead single from the band's third studio album The Best Years of Our Lives. The song was written by Harley, and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons. In February 1975, the song reached number one on the UK chart and received a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry in October 2021. It spent nine weeks in the Top 50, and as of 2015, has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
"Love Is a Battlefield" is a song by American singer Pat Benatar, recorded and released on September 12, 1983, as a single from Benatar's live album Live from Earth (1983), though the song itself was a studio recording. It was written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman. The song was ranked at number 30 in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s. "Love Is a Battlefield" went on to sell over a million records.
"We Belong" is a song recorded by American rock singer Pat Benatar, released through Legacy Music Group on October 16, 1984, as the lead single from her sixth studio album, Tropico (1984). The song written by songwriting duo Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro. It matched the success of "Love Is a Battlefield" on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States, peaking at #5. It reached #3 on Billboard's Top Rock Tracks chart and #34 on the Adult Contemporary.
"Heartbreaker" is a song by American singer Pat Benatar from her debut studio album In the Heat of the Night (1979). Written and composed by Geoff Gill and Cliff Wade, the song had first been recorded by English singer Jenny Darren on her 1978 album Queen of Fools, and Benatar adjusted the original lyrics, as such references as "A to Zed" and "moonraker" would have likely confused American listeners.
"Love Letters in the Sand" is a popular song first published in 1931. The music was written by J. Fred Coots and the lyrics by Nick Kenny and Charles Kenny. Ted Black and His Orchestra, with vocalist Tom Brown, had the first major hit recording of the song in 1931. Pat Boone had a major hit with the song in 1957.
"Rescue Me" is a rhythm and blues song first recorded and released as a single by Fontella Bass in 1965.The original versions of the record, and BMI, give the songwriting credit to Raynard Miner and Carl William Smith, although many other sources also credit Bass herself as a co-writer. It would prove the biggest hit of Bass's career, reaching #1 on the R&B charts for four weeks and placing at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Rescue Me" also peaked at #11 on the UK Singles Chart.
"All Fired Up" is a song written by Kerryn Tolhurst and first performed and released by Australian country rock group Rattling Sabres in 1987. It charted nationally, peaking at number 94 on the Australian Music Report. The following year, American singer-songwriter Pat Benatar recorded a version that became a chart hit in several countries, including Australia, where it reached number two on the ARIA Singles Chart.
"Battlefield" is a song by the American singer Jordin Sparks, taken from her sophomore studio album of the same name. It was written by Louis Biancaniello, Ryan Tedder, Sam Watters and Wayne Wilkins, while production of the song was helmed by Tedder and The Runaways. "Battlefield" was released digitally in the United States on May 8, 2009, as the album's lead single. "Battlefield" is a mid-tempo ballad which draws from the genres of pop, R&B, pop rock and soft rock. The song's lyrics revolve around "a tumultuous relationship where neither side wants to compromise." The song's lyrical theme received comparisons to Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" (1983), and its production was compared to Benatar's "We Belong" (1984).
"Living Next Door to Alice" is a song co-written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Originally released by Australian pop band New World in 1972, the song charted at No. 35 on the Australian chart. The song later became a worldwide hit for British band Smokie.
"I Love How You Love Me" is a song written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber. It was a 1961 Top Five hit for the pop girl group The Paris Sisters, which inaugurated a string of elaborately produced classic hits by Phil Spector. Bobby Vinton had a Top Ten hit in 1968 with a cover version. The song has been recorded by many other artists over the years.
"Lay Back in the Arms of Someone" is a song co-written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, performed by the English band Smokie.
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975. A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album of the same name, became Jett's highest-charting hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the No. 3 song for 1982. The single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing two million units shipped to stores. Jett's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.
"Don't Play Your Rock 'n' Roll to Me" is a song by British rock band Smokie. It was released in early September 1975 as a single and appeared later on the album Changing All the Time. Like the band's previous two singles "Pass It Around" and "If You Think You Know How to Love Me", the song was composed by Nicky Chinn/Mike Chapman.
"Invincible" is the Grammy-nominated lead single from Pat Benatar's sixth studio album Seven the Hard Way (1985), released on July 6, 1985. The song was written by Holly Knight and Simon Climie, and was used as a theme song for the film The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). Helen Slater once stated "That song will always take me back to a part in the movie where Lisa Simpson gets her period,". The song was a huge hit, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on September 14, 1985. The song was also used prominently in the 2002 film Hysterical Blindness starring Uma Thurman.
