After years of training as a coloratura (a singer who can alter the timbre of her/his voice for expressive purposes) with plans to attend Juilliard, Patricia Mae Andrzejewski surprised everyone by changing her mind and deciding to study health education at Stony Brook. But after just a year, the 19 year old who had been born in Brooklyn (in 1953) and raised in Babylon, Long Island, dropped out to marry her high school sweetheart.

An Army draftee, E-4 specialist Dennis Benatar was stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, before being transferred to Fort Lee, Virginia where Patti (as she was known) worked as a bank teller in Richmond. That’s where she was so inspired after seeing a Liza Minnelli concert in 1973, that she quit her job to pursue a singing career. She got a job as a singing waitress then landed a gig with a lounge band, but her big break came in 1975 during amateur night at ‘Catch a Rising Star’ in New York.  Her Judy Garland rendition earned her a call-back from the club owner (who soon became her manager), where she became a regular.

Patti Benatar’s next big turning point was a stylistic one. She’d taken part in a Halloween costume contest at Café Figaro and didn’t have time to change before going onstage at Catch a Rising Star. “I was dressed as a character from this ridiculous B movie called ‘Cat Women of the Moon,’” she later recalled and, although she performed her usual set-list, the crowd went wild.

The (soon to be divorced) Pat Benatar’s star was indeed rising and Chrysalis Records signed her to a contract. Her inaugural album, “In the Heat of the Night” was released in July 1979, reaching Number 12 on the U.S. Charts.  It would go on to be the first of  her five Platinum Albums and would help to make her one of the most heavily played artists in the early days of MTV. Written by Benatar and Roger Capps, today’s selection is the fifth track from that record.

 TODAY’S SONG – Monday 27 February 2012

My Clone Sleeps Alone

You know and I know my clone sleeps alone

She’s out on her own – forever

She’s programmed to work hard

She’s never profane

She won’t go insane, not ever

No VD, no cancer

On TV’s the answer

No father, no mother

She’s just like the other

And you know and I know

My clone sleeps alone

 Your clone loves my clone

But yours cannot see

That’s no way to be, in heaven

No sorrow, no heartache, just clone harmony

So obviously, it’s heaven

No naughty clone ladies allowed in the ’80s

No bed names, no sex games

Just clone names and clone games

And you know and I know

My clone sleeps alone

 Before we existed the cloning began

The cloning of man and woman

When we’re gone they’ll live on, cloned endlessly

It’s mandatory in heaven

But they won’t remember, or ever be tender

No loving, no caring

No program for pairing

No VD, no cancer

On TV’s the answer

No father, no mother

She’s just like the other

 No naughty clone ladies allowed in the ’80s

And you know and I know

My clone sleeps alone!

My clone sleeps alone!

My clone sleeps alone!