La discografia ufficiale segnala come primo disco di Pat Benatar l'album "In The Hit of the Night". In realtà la prima registrazione risale al lontano 1974 con il 45 giri "Day Gig".  Pubblicato dalla Trace Records nel periodo in cui Pat viveva in Virginia, Day Gig trasuda letteralmente l'atmosfera dell'epoca.

Lo stesso anno Pat si unirà ai Coxon's Army, una band che frequentava il circuito di Richmond (VA).La testimonanza su vinile di questa collaborazione è data dall'album "Live from Sam Miller's Exchange Cafè" (1974) in cui Pat canta le seguenti canzoni: Respect,  If He Walked into my Life, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man ed il medley Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show / Yes We Can Can.  Il destino ha voluto che all'interno di Coxon's Army Pat incontrasse Roger Capps (alla destra della foto) che suonò il basso nella band per i primi anni della sua straordinaria carriera.

Tutte le canzoni che Pat cantò in quel periodo nulla avevano in comune con lo stile che la condusse al successo qualche anno più tardi. E' per questo che in "Synchronistic Wanderings (Recorded Anthology 1979-1999)" Pat a Neil, personalmente coinvolti nella compilazione del progetto, non inserirono volutamente queste tracce. Le doti vocali di Pat erano però già tangibili ed alcune sonorità di quei giorni verranno forse inconsciamente riprese in "True Love" (1991). 

Se volete tuffarvi nel passato per ascoltare Day Gig ed il suo lato B Last Saturday cliccate su www.benatar.it/GRUPPO%20ITA/1974.htm  . (E' necessaria una connessione ad alta velocità).

E per concludere aggiungiamo questa importante testimanianza tratta dal sito www.lindaronstadt.com:

This is a 1974 live LP recording made in conjunction with the broadcast of a 

local PBS TV special. It features a performance by the band, Coxon's Army. 

What makes it interesting is that one of the vocalists is a 21 year old Pat Benatar.

Coxon's Army (Phil Coxon) was the house band at Sam Miller Exchange Cafe, a rather 

preppy establishment in Shockoe Slip, then a freshly renovated section of Richmond, Virginia.  

Just looking at the song titles is enough to make most Benatar fans scratch their heads:

 Theme From Shaft 

 Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man  

 Respect 

 Natural Man 

 MacArthur Park 

 Theme And Variations Unfinished 

 If He Walked Into My Life 

 Hoe Down 

 Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show/Yes We Can Can 

Pat sings lead vocals on some, back-up on others, and a few are instrumentals. 

I personally don't care much for this style of music, and I have never felt 

comfortable at Sam Miller's, but I gotta give props for the inclusion of 

the technical/recording details on the back cover:  

For the technical freaks, all microphones used were Shure dynamics except top drums and 

piano which were AKG or Neumann condenser types. The recording was made using 

Dolby "A" noise reduction at standard level on Ampex 406 mastering tape. The tape was 

recorded on a Scully 280 recorder. 

The first generation master was edited and the master lacquers cut directly from it. This 

resulted in a cleanliness only surpassed by direct recording on the disc. It was an 

engineering pleasure...Nick Colleran

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 Album recorded live at Alpha Audio, Richmond, VA

 Engineers: 

 Nick Colleran 

 Joe Horner 

 Carlos Chafin

 Studio coordination: 

 Eric Johnson

 Album Cover photograph: 

 Bruce Alan Breitstein

 Graphic Design and Art Direction: 

 Tom Freeman

We were distributors for this album and a single containing different material. Most of the 

copies that were actually sold went to people at their shows, but we stocked about 75 copies 

of the 400-500 total pressed. We probably returned about 60 copies when we settled the 

account. Six or seven copies filtered back to us from retail record shops after the account 

was closed. IOW, for our efforts, we actually sold maybe 7 or 8 copies, and took a total loss 

on almost that many....We lost a few bucks. We almost always did with local distribution. 

We usually helped out local acts, by stocking their product. Dave Mathews Band, House Of 

Freaks, Robbin Thompson, Ron Moody and The Centaurs, Steve Bassett, Fighting Gravity, 

D'Angelo and even a young Pat Benatar were all local artists that we distributed...in addition 

to all the countless other artists that I will never be able to remember.

Those 6 or 7 copies that we were stuck with, ended up in our cut-out room, where 

we hoped to eventually get $1.00 or $1.25 for them. But they stayed there, unwanted 

by any record shops for years. Then just before Pat's debut Chrysalis album was released, 

I decided to round up the remaining ones, thinking we could finally sell them thanks to 

all the "local girl makes good" news-buzz. The General Manager told me not to bother with 

it. "Just sh*t-can that old junk...Nobody wants it". So that's how I ended up with 5 copies. 

One of which had the Sam Miller label...indicating that it wasn't even from our pressing run 

(which were all on Trace Records)....but was from the batch sold directly at their shows. 

Over the next few years, I gave away 4 of my copies to friends that were Benatar fans. 

Thirty years ago we couldn't even get a buck for these LP's. Now they sell 

for $500. Why the heck was I giving my extras away?!? 

I knew several people in the band. The drummer, Bobby Antonelli, I knew first, as 

his wife (girlfriend back then) was the singer in another band that I was associated with. 

Through Bobby I met Roger Capps. Roger and I had some common musical interests, 

and he would hang out at my place and jam in the basement where I kept my drum kit. 

 Another bass player (Harvey...can't remember his last name) also lived there, and he 

had his equipment in the basement as well. There was a homemade PA down there. Can't 

remember if that belonged to Harvey or one of his other musical buddies. Roger and 

Harvey already knew each other, and he would often use Harvey's bass amp.

 There were always different people showing up to make noise in the basement, including 

Pat on a few occasions. I remember she hated that PA, and was afraid of the scurrying 

critters down there. Beyond that I have no particular memory of what she sang, ect. 

She probably only came over 3 or 4 times, and only sang maybe once or twice. She was 

still married to Dennis back then, and they lived only a few blocks from me in Richmond's 

Fan District. Roger was the one who was always more interested in playing rock music, 

it seemed...more so than Pat or any of the others in Coxon's Army. That may be far 

from the actual facts, but it's the way I remember it from my limited perspective. 

Roger hung out with us off and on for about 6 months I think. Don't know the exact 

dates, but I moved from that house in the summer of 1975...and I'm sure none of them 

ever came out to my new place in the country.

Roger Capps of course became one of the founding members in Pat's band when she 

signed with Chrysalis, and remained her bass player and occasional songwriter for the 

band until 1984. Phil Coxon went on to work with several big name artists. Mike Ess 

played with the Canadian-based band Lighthouse before returning to Richmond as the 

house guitarist for the same studio that recorded this album. In addition to teaching guitar, 

he is the coordinator of Virginia Commonwealth University's jazz guitar performance program.

In an interview in the April 1999 issue of ICE Magazine, David Tedds, the Compilation 

Producer for Benatar's Synchronistic Wanderings Anthology CD, said that the artist 

requested that this material not be used...that "those songs were just so different."

Probably a good decision....