While the 1982 Gap Band hit "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" comes close, no song uses wartime imagery to describe heartbreak quite like "Love Is A Battlefield." The song was written by Mike Chapman and Holly Knight. Chapman was an established songwriter and producer, while Knight was a former member of the band Spider and was just starting to write songs, something she proved very good at. Holly Knight explained:
"I was at his house, I was just starting to write with him, and Pat Benatar called up and said, 'Mike, I would love for you to write me a song. I'm doing an album, will you write me a hit, please?' And he goes, 'Well, I'm here with one of my writers, Holly Knight, and we were just going to sit down and write. So we'll write something for you.' So he hung up, and I started playing the chords to 'Love Is A Battlefield.' He said, 'That's so great, I love that, keep doing that.' He says, 'Now, what we really need' – and this is something I learned from him - 'This song is very catchy, very commercial, let's write something really, really weird on top of it. That'll make it special. And it'll be that much better.' I said, 'Oh, I like it.' He says, 'We're going to write something really sick, like…' and he just spit out 'Love is a battlefield,' as an example. I said, 'Well, that works for me.' And we wrote that song. It was just like free association.
Lyrics
(We are young) (We are young) We are young (Heartache to heartache) Heartache to heartache (We stand) We stand (No promises) (No promises) No promises (No demands) No demands (Love is a battlefield) Love is a battlefield Whoooo-oh-oh.... We are strong No one can tell us we're wrong Searching our hearts for so long Both of us knowing Love is a battlefield You're begging me to go Then making me stay Why do you hurt me so bad It would help me to know Do I stand in your way Or am I the best thing you've had Believe me Believe me I can't tell you why But I'm trapped by your love And I'm chained to your side We are young Heartache to heartache we stand No promises No demands Love is a battlefield We are strong No one can tell us we're wrong Searching our hearts for so long Both of us knowing Love is a battlefield When I'm losing control Will you turn me away Or touch me deep inside And when all this gets old Will it still feel the same There's no way this will die But if we get much closer I could lose control And if your heart surrenders You'll need me to hold We are young Heartache to heartache we stand No promises No demands Love is a battlefield We are strong No one can tell us we're wrong Searching our hearts for so long Both of us knowing Love is a battlefield