The Female Rock Anthem That Helped Define an Entire Era of Music

More than 45 years ago, Pat Benatar released “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” a song that cemented her status as a trailblazer in the rock and roll genre. The song became an anthem for women then, and it remains one today.

According to Best Classic Bands “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” was Benatar’s first Top 10 hit. It hit number 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and sold more than one million copies. The album, Crimes of Passion, spent five weeks at number two on the Billboard 200.

Fans embraced the song not only for its memorable chorus and high-energy fun, but as a metaphor for persevering through life’s toughest challenges.

When Benatar was forging her way in the music industry, rock was dominated by male singers. As Benatar’s songs became popular, she showed women that they could be tough, defiant, and resilient.

“This song is part of the soundtrack of my life,” a Facebook user wrote about it.

In an interview with Benatar shared by SBS On Demand, the singer praised a recent documentary made by Billie Eilish. Benatar noted, “The progress that I see is that it probably never occurred to her that she couldn’t do it. That, right there, is everything.”

Benatar added, “When we were doing it, not only did it occur to us that we couldn’t do it, roadblocks, roadblocks, roadblocks. If you weren’t throwing them down for yourself, someone was throwing them in front of you.”

These days, Benatar mused, performers like Eilish never consider that they have to do what they’re told to do. That is the “big change” she sees now, that she loves. She knows that her songs, like “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” helped make that happen.

Benatar previously told AXS TV that when she was first starting out, she looked for songs she could tell from a female’s perspective. At the time, there were few songs focused on strong women.

“I want to be Robert Plant. I don’t wanna be Linda Ronstadt,” Benatar said of her thinking in those days.

She noted she loves Ronstadt. However, Benatar explained, she wanted to sing songs from a tougher, more defiant perspective. She started changing genders in the cover songs she chose to do, and it worked.

Benatar told USA Today that she grew up in a “female-heavy household,” so she was shocked when she got into the real world and discovered women were not treated equally to men. “It was infuriating,” she recalled. As she grew her music career, she was determined to flip the script.

More than 45 years after it first hit the airwaves, Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” is still prominent on classic rock radio, at karaoke bars, and on “best of” lists. Women continue to embrace it as a symbol of independence and strength, just as Benatar intended.