Taking Sides: Pat Benatar's "We Belong" vs. Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero"

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The overall song itself, and also which has the better break-out of children's choir in chorus towards the latter parts of the song.

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 25 July 2005 11:09 (twenty years ago)

BTW, I'd go with "We Belong" for both song and children's choir...

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 25 July 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

― Joe (Joe), Monday, 25 July 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

Tina puts in a more empassioned performance.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 25 July 2005 12:13 (twenty years ago)

Yes, she is singing a song about a thunderdome though. Why get worked up about that?

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 25 July 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

Tina. If it was "Invincible" vs "Hero," I'd go with "Invincible."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 25 July 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

Overall, Tina is a much more defensible artist than Pat.

But the quasimilitary drum part to "We Belong" kicks major ass.

Plus, by the time of "We Don't Need Another Hero" I think Tina had become a sort of caricature of herself. Of course she still sings her heart out, but her passion is kinda wasted when it's brought to such mediocre material.

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 25 July 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Yes, she is singing a song about a thunderdome though. Why get worked up about that?

Have you been in the Thunderdome? It seems pretty traumatic to me.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 25 July 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

Hmm, they're sort of not *that* scary in as much as they don't actually exist. That's what really bugs me about the song - that over-blown horse-fart of a vocal, building up into this roaring dung storm, like Tina's really intent on having us feel this thing. And then right at the top of the vertiginous wall of manure that is the chorus, it's all deflated by a mumbled 'thunderdome' and the realisation that's all basically about a load of old nonsense.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 25 July 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

>Overall, Tina is a much more defensible artist than Pat.

Oh, I wouldn't go that far. Even Tina's stuff with Ike was histrionic crap more than half the time.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 25 July 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

Tina. Totally Tina.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Monday, 25 July 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

If it was "Invincible" vs "Hero," I'd go with "Invincible."

OTMFMFMFMFMFM. "Invincible" gives me chills. I wonder if there's a CD-R's worth of Benatar material worthy of that and "Love is a Battlefield".

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 25 July 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

I downloaded "Invincible" this weekend, at long last. For being songwriting-for-hire and bloat-rock, designed to be blasted over the end credits of "The Legend of Billie Jean," it's damn great. I much prefer Benatar as a post New Wave belter than a faux hard-rocker.

That said, Benatar never made an album as consistent as Private Dancer.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 25 July 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

"Hero" has a lot going for it, not least the reunion of the "What's Love Got To Do With It" team of Lyle and Britten, whose inspired hackwork pairs that world-weary title line with the rousing crescendo it implicitly claims it could do without. And how Tina does shine on that chorus... which does indeed soar above those raggedy-man verses.

But "We Belong" was Pat's biggest hit for a reason. More than just a nice piece of work by Lowen and Navarro, it's a 3-minute, tour de force of desire, obsession, fear and trembling, hopelessness, true faith, and the futility of resistance when passion storms the ego's fragile barricades. It's there in way the tremulous keyboard hook gives way to the irrefutable drums, the way those full stops in the verses' sung melody are swept away by the absolute certainty of the chorus...

Nothing wrong with "Invincible," or "Shadows of the Night," but this "We Belong" is a fuckin' madman, and I'll take the Pepsi Challenge with Thunderdome shit any ol' day of the fuckin' week.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

But "We Belong" was Pat's biggest hit

Was it?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

"Hard to believe," i'n'it? But yup, peaked at #5.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

Hmm. Go know. I'd have sooner suggested "Love is a Battlefield" or "Hit Me with yer Best Shot".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

We Belong!

but yeah Love is a Battlefied is better.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

LiaB peaked at #5 too, apparently.

Growing up far after the peaks of both songs, I'd say I probably heard "Love is a Battlefield" about 40 times before I heard "We Belong" once, for whatever that's worth.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

"Battlefield" also made it to #5. "Hit Me" only made it to #9.

Suppose we could start looking at total sales, weeks on chart, etc etc. fwiw, "Battlefield" (which doesn't do much for me) did seem to pwn MTV for months.

Sadly, she never released her cover of "Wuthering Heights" as a single...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

On oldies radio the only Pat hits you hear are "We Belong" and "Love Is a Battlefield," with "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" a distant third. The other radio hits of the time ("Shadows of the Night," "Treat Me Right," Fire & Ice") seem lost forever.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Don't forget "Hell is for Children".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Or "Promises In The Dark"!

Alfred, don't worry, "Shadows Of The Night" will live on for as long as there is breath in my lungs on karaoke night. It's epic, though the chorus repeats get a little tired.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 25 July 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

God, I need to find a karaoke bar with "Invincible."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 25 July 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

I've definitely seen it done in LA. Quite the crowd-pleaser, iirc.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 25 July 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

I'll side with "We Belong", but "Invincible" is indeed much better. "Sex As A Weapon" from around the same time is pretty good too.

― LeRooLeRoo (Seb), Monday, 25 July 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

"The Ooh Ooh Song"!

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 25 July 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

TINA! TINA! TINA!

This kid at day camp had a couple of visors of various colors, emblazoned with the word(?) "BOOZ".

About four of us sang to him, to the tune of the Tina Turner song: "We don't need another BOOOOOOOZ hat!"

In my head I misheard "We don't need another hero" as "We don't need two 'nother wang ho's"

Another misheard line is "We are the ones to Philbin the air"

― Curtisse, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

We Belong is the hott shitt.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 03:58 (twenty years ago)

I'd totally forgotten about the existence of "We Belong" but it's an awesome song isn't it.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 04:47 (twenty years ago)

It IS awesome. I especially love how it begins: with those quivering strings, and that one abbreviated TWEENG! And then you're waiting for it to explode, and you hear phrases like "...doubts that complicate your mind...", and it does blow up, and then quiets down again. There's no looking forward! There's no turning back! Whatever we deny or embrace, for worse or for better! C'mon, that's just ace.

― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 07:46 (twenty years ago)

Benatar almost almost beats Turner in my dusty book.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)

Imagine a Tina/Pat duet on "Better Be Good To Me."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:10 (twenty years ago)

I always loved the handclaps in "We Belong." And in the video, there's just a shot of her looking at the camera and clapping - it's all about the iconic power of the handclap. I sound like I'm being ironic, but seriously, in context it rules.

You gotta love Tina in general, but "Hero" is supposed to be set in this savage, post-apocalyptic, post-technological future, and the song drips with air-conditioned-LA-studio, sushi-eating, yoga-doing vibe. It's doesn't fit.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Tina.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

Honest question: can someone explain me the "Invincible" love? It's certainly got a rousing fist-shaker of a chorus, but strikes my ear as kinda thin and wispy Hoiday Inn cheap-synth "funk" everywhere else.

Even after factoring in the chorus, "Invincible" seems no better or worse than much of the Benatar/Geraldo catalog, from "Hard To Believe" to "Le Bel Age." What am I missing?

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

The drum fills are something fierce, roger. The synth sparkles = nuevo wavo. I love how in the chorus she changes key on every fourth syllable. "Invincible" is more convincingly bombastic than anythign she ever did.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

"Invincible" is more convincingly bombastic than anythign she ever did.

THAT, folks, is what we call a bold statement. Respec'.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 28 July 2005 04:53 (twenty years ago)

eleven years pass...

Wye Oak's cover of "We Belong" made me fall back in love with this song.

https://youtu.be/sWlP5rCXWmA

― leprechaundriac (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 26 May 2017 13:45 (eight years ago)

three years pass...

ALL THE CHILDREN SAY

― Neanderthal, Monday, 7 September 2020 13:04 (five years ago)

otm

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 7 September 2020 17:10 (five years ago)

yes

has to be the 6-minute version from the soundtrack/12", though

― umsworth (emsworth), Monday, 7 September 2020 20:35 (five years ago)

I fucking love that synth loop in We Belong so much, Giraldo is such a lowkey mad genius - he has such a skill for setting the table for Benatar to belt it out of the park

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 7 September 2020 21:04 (five years ago)

the 12" instrumental cut here is one of my secretest secret weapons

https://www.discogs.com/Tina-Turner-The-Balearic-Sound-Of-Tina-Turner/release/6235018

― the late great, Monday, 7 September 2020 21:05 (five years ago)

thunderdome is sick. and private dancer. both are sick.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 00:34 (five years ago)

"One of the Living" >>>> "We Don't Need Another Hero"

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 00:44 (five years ago)

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