This was written by Eddie Schwartz, a successful producer who has worked with Joe Cocker, Carly Simon, The Doobie Brothers and Jeffrey Osbourne. He has written over 200 songs, including "Don't Shed a Tear" by Paul Carrack.
Eddie is based in Nashville, but at the time he was a struggling guitarist living in Toronto. He told us: "I was in a kind of weird therapy when I was in my mid-20s, it was called bio-energetics, I believe. One of the things we did was punch pillows, I guess it had something to do with getting out hostility. I went to a session where we punched the pillows for a while. It all seemed kind of strange, but I remember walking outside of this therapy session and standing on the doorstep of the building I'd been in, this small house in Toronto, and the title just came to me, Hit Me With Your Best Shot.... I haven't been to therapy before or since. Maybe I should go back."
After he got the idea for this song, Eddie Schwartz was approached by a publishing company called ATV, who were interested in signing him. ATV was involved in The Beatles catalog and was a very exciting opportunity, but they wanted to hear a demo of Eddie's songs. Eddie didn't have any songs finished and was working as a guitarist for a Canadian singer named Charity Brown. He describes how he put together the demo for this song: "I booked a recording session for after our gig one night. The session started at 3 am and was scheduled to go until 6 or 7 in the morning. I had nothing written. On the way to the gig that night, driving along the highway in Toronto, it seemed like the sky opened up and the song just came to me (musically and the chorus, I didn't have the verse lyrics yet). I madly drove to the gig we were playing, I picked up a guitar and figured out what the chords in my head were and jotted it all down. Then we played the gig and I hired the same guys to come to this demo session. We got there at 3 in the morning, we recorded the tracks, and it was time to sing the vocals. I stepped to the microphone and realized I had no verse lyrics. The sun was coming up and we were all totally exhausted. I said 'Just run the tape 3 times, whatever I sing the third time, those are the lyrics.' I really just improvised the lyrics, and as I sang the first 2 times if anything came out of my mouth that I liked I jotted it down. By the time the engineer pressed record on the third pass the song was written as we now know it."
Eddie sent a demo tape of 4 songs to ATV, with "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" as the last song. ATV signed him and flew him to Los Angeles so they could record some of the songs and pitch them to various artists. Of the songs on the tape, Eddie was most excited about "Hit Me," but ATV hated it. Says Eddie: "That was my introduction to the music business. It took weeks and weeks to convince them to demo it, and once we did demo it they hated it so much they actually erased the master recordings. I was supposed to be there for a number of weeks, but because of all this back and forth about 'Best Shot,' I ended up being there for months. I was about to get on a plane to go back to Toronto and I was so dejected that my favorite song had been recorded and then erased. The engineer, John Rhys, invited me to dinner the last night to cheer me up and at dinner he passed me over a little cassette and said, 'they told me to erase the song and I had to because they're my biggest client, but I made one copy of the song for you because I knew how much you loved the song.' When I got back to Toronto, ATV had just hired a new guy in New York named Marv Goodman. He was working at Chrysalis but he was going to leave and go to ATV, but while he was still at Chrysalis for the last couple of weeks he was listening to material he'd be working with at ATV so I sent him "Hit Me." Sure enough, he liked it and kept playing it over and over again. The story I heard was that Pat Benatar took a meeting in the office next door, heard it through the wall, got excited about it and that's how she heard Hit Me With Your Best Shot."
This was written from a male standpoint, with the lyric "Before I put another notch in your lipstick case." When male bands cover this, they sometimes sing the line as "Put another notch in my guitar case." This was the only line Benatar changed when she recorded it, changing your to my.
Eddie Schwartz explained in our interview: "The song is laden with sexual innuendo, but at the core is a song about self confidence. It's a song saying 'no matter what you throw at me, I can handle it, I can play in your league.'"
The lyrics are suggestive, but most people didn't consider the song offensive. There was some politically correct commentary in newspapers at the time about it being sexist and about encouraging violence against women. Says Eddie: "This shocked me because it was written from a man's standpoint at the beginning and it was always meant metaphorically - no punches are actually thrown in the song."
This was a big hit when Aerobics was catching on in America. It was often played in the classes. Benatar's colorful fashion choices were often emulated in these aerobics classes.
In 1984, Benatar had an interesting exchange with Songwriter Connection magazine regarding this song. Responding to a question about standing behind what she sings, Benatar said: "There's very few songs where I let lyrics go. I mean, there's times when I let lyrics go because the rest of the song is fine. But, most of the time, I'm real meticulous with the lyrics because I gotta sing them. There were certain parts of that song ('Hit Me With Your Best Shot') that I liked, but most of it that I've sort of outgrown. I mean, it's so hard to sing, 'you're a real tough cookie.' One night, you know sometimes you announce people's names, this is by so-and-so? When I said 'Eddie Schwartz,' I swear to God, the room - it wasn't very big, then, it was about 1500 people - it just went dead - silence, like Eddie Schwartz?"
Crimes Of Passion was Benatar's second album and this song was her first Top-10 hit. The single had a slow, steady climb up the charts and eventually sold over 1 million copies.
In our 2012 interview with Neil Giraldo (Benatar's guitarist, producer and husband), he revealed that this is one of his least favorite songs, but he finds ways to make it work when he performs it. Said Neil: "I try to find something new inside the song to do either by the guitar or keyboards or vocal, anything. I try to make it different in a way. I may go, 'Ooh, I like what I did on this one tonight.' So they always change. Even a song like 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' which is one of the ones I hate the most. But some nights I'll go, Wow, I did something different and I really like that. That was my favorite song to play tonight."
Catherine Zeta-Jones performs this song in the 2012 movie Rock of Ages, which features iconic songs from the '80s.
This song returned to the charts in 2011 when it was performed on the TV show Glee in a mashup with Blondie's "One Way Or Another." This version by the Glee Cast hit #86 in the US.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 5, 1980, Pat Benatar performs "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on the ABC-TV weekly late-night live comedy variety program, 'Fridays'... At the time the song was at #11 on Billboard's Top 100 chart, two weeks later it would peak at #9 {for 2 weeks} and it spent almost a half-year on the Top 100 {24 weeks}... It reached #10 on the Canadian RPM Singles chart... And on the same 'Fridays' show she also performed "Hell Is for Children", it was track five of side one on her second studio album, 'Crimes of Passions', the album peaked at #2 {for 5 weeks} on Billboard's Top LPs Albums chart, the five weeks it was at #2, "Double Fantasy" by John Lennon*/Yoko One was the #1 album for those five weeks... Between 1979 and 1988 Pat Benatar had seventeen records on the Top 100 chart, four made the Top 10, besides "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", her three other Top 10 records were "Love Is A Battlefield" {#5 in 1983}, "We Belong" {#5 in 1984}, and "Invincible" {#10 in 1985}... * John Lennon was murder December 8th, 1980 at the young age of 40... May he R.I.P.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 14th 1980 "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar peaked at #9 (for 3 weeks) on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; it had entered the chart on September 28th and spent a almost a half-year on the Top 100 (24 weeks)... It reached #10 in Canada... Was one of three tracks from her 'Crimes of Passion' album, the other two were "You Better Run" (#42) and "Treat Me Right" (#18)... The album peaked at #2 (for 5 weeks) on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart... Ms. Benatar, born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, will celebrate her 61st birthday next month on January 10th.
Tommy from Ny, NyIn 7th or 8th grade I hade a crush on a girl who was a Pat Benatar fan. In music class the teacher played "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and thanked the girl for bringing in the album. That was the first I heard about Pat Benatar and have been a fan since.
Jose from El Centro, CaGh3 =]
Ken from Louisville, KyThis song is obviously about how verbal jabs between men and women can have the same emotional impact as actual physical violence. At the time, if you told someone to "hit me with your best shot", you meant for them to throw their best insult against you, you'll insult them right back.
Meredith from Wauwatosa, WiThis song is so sassy and fun! Love it so much!
Sebastian from Providence, RiI think Mandy Moore has a song called the same. Or is the same one?
Jim from Dayton, OhPat Benatar is a WOMAN. I doubt "his girlfriend" had anything to do with it. Not to mention the facts above clearly explain how the song came to be.
Jayson from Herenesate, MsThis song is actually very sexual, Pat Brenatar's girlfriend at the time wrote it for him, hence the title...
Morgan from New York, NyThis song is an old favorite of mine it is so special to me!!I love "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"!!It is so cool!!
Elliot from St. Louis, MoThis is one of those songs that will be synonomis with the 80's for all eternity. It is pretty catchy, I must admit.
Rick from San Juan, United StatesThe guitar riff in the beginning of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was used by MTV as its music theme during its launching in 1981 and beyond.
Rick from San Juan, United StatesAt the time John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980, this song was being played heavily on the radio. Every time I hear it, it reminds me of that horrible day when I first heard the news on our local station WOSO.
Candice from Vancouver, CanadaI heard this song in a few Tropicana orange juice commercials.
Rob from Santa Monica, CaThis song contains Neil Gerardo's best guitar solo, after "Heartbreaker".
