YEAR
2022
INDUCTED BY
Sheryl Crow
CATEGORY
Performers
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are among the most formidable power couples in rock history. Together, they created a sound that deeply impacted the sonic landscape of the 1980s.
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Holly Gleason
“Heartbreaker”: Three seconds of sixteenth notes on electric guitar, pummeling, pounding, punching the void; drummer and bass player locked in. At the fourth second, a swerving guitar chord lands, repeating at the seventh and tenth second. But it’s the eleventh second – when a serrated electric guitar lead corkscrews it all – that pins listeners to the wall. It’s the intersection point of punk and arena rock; a ramped-up rush of testosterone with musical acuity. And then, when the voice comes in – that pure, strong, swaggering mezzo-soprano – the seismic shift crashes hard.