“Harden My Heart” (1981) by Quarterflash

I always got them confused with The Motels, but I liked the Motels' song "Only The Lonely" much better.

The only reason this song charted was because everyone thought it was Pat Benatar.

OP yes! I recalled this song several years ago suddenly as an adult after forgetting about it for decades. I just suddenly remembered it and craved to listen to it. And when the track began to play, it filled me with immense joy and warmth and nostalgia. I have way more love and respect for Harden My Heard now than I did as a kid when it originally came out. It's a great fucking tune.

It IS a good tune.

Trash rock—but I liked it

I thought until just now that it WAS Pat Benatar.

I remember. Had the album. Saw them in concert.

Take Me To Heart was another good one.

Take Me To Heart had a weird video with Rindy as a stalker. The guy she stalks is very stalkable.

I’d liked them - or their few hits. Of the time

I loved their first album, but they had the sophomore jinx.

ART SCHOOL LESBIAN DRAMA!!!

For r11, with love.

A tad dramatique.

Lady shit.

Basic bitch being basic.

I liked the theme from Night Shift.

OP check out this end-of-year Top 40 countdown from the show Solid Gold from1982. Harden My Heart came in at #26, and you can watch Quarterflash perform at 45:17. Looks like the singer plays the saxophone herself in the band!

They weren't ahead of their time. They were exactly of their time. I loved how she said, "I'm a gonna harden my heart".

The theme of the song even paralleled Benatar's songs.

It’s been stuck in my head all morning

It played incessantly on the radio when I was in school. I remember liking it, but getting tired of hearing it.

Seafood Mama

I'm French and as a wee-gayling who didn't know a single word of English back then (except for "I don't speak English", "yes", "no", "shit", "fuck" and "voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir"), I loved English songs that featured saxophone so that I didn't have to pretend I understood the words or the meaning conveyed by the song and 1981 gave me two great saxo songs I have never forgotten. The first one was, you guessed it, Quaterflash's Harden My Heart. And the second one, I don't think the Americans ever had a chance to listen to that one, was Hazel O'Connor's Will You. Since I think both songs are deserving of some attention here's the link to Will You.

Rindy Ross, discount Pat Benatar.

"voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir" is not English, R22

Find Another Fool had a great saxophone vs violin duel.

Despite the Benatar voice, the singer and the band had a low rent Patty Smyth and Scandal vibe to them.

[quote] Rindy Ross, discount Pat Benatar.

The McCrory's level Pat Benetar.

She sounds nothing like Benatar.

R28 Uh, yeah, she does. Looks like her, too.

She was obviously promoted because of the similarity.

I remember it because I lived in Portland when it came out -- home of "Seafood Mama," the somewhat eccentric uncategorizable band that was discovered by a music label, renamed "Quarterflash," and launched on to the world as the next big thing via "Harden My Heart."

Quarterflash, the next big thing! For about a quarter, then flash! They're gone!

Zero similarity to Pat Benatar

100% similarity to Pat Benatar, especially in "Find Another Fool."

R32 There are dozens of articles noting the similarity between the two. Here's one example.

Another Portlander here. They were the local band made good on their one good song. I remember always being embarrassed for them being squeezed by record execs into a commercial box: name change, the attempt to package the lead singer as a sexy thang. If I recall correctly, she and her husband were school teachers.

Nu Shooz was another Portland one-hit wonder.

She doesn't really remind me at all of Pat Benatar

Loved that song - I was having a lot of fun in my life when it was released.

As R21 notes, they were originally known as Seafood Mama before becoming Quarterflash. My dad is/was a musician and was sort of mentored by Marv Ross in the late ‘80s, when Portland was still a relatively small city with an even smaller music scene. If I remember correctly, Marv let my dad record some stuff in his home studio. He always spoke really highly of him. I’m not sure if he ever met Rindy.

I don't think she sounds like Pat Benatar.

The Motels is a good comparison, though. I think the Motels music stands the test of time more, though.

80s music videos always looked so Eastern European

R29 only their voices do not sound alike

I’m gonna harden my cock I’m gonna swallow your cum

Of its time is right. Like Bette Davis Eyes and the Luke and Laura saga on General Hospital, Harden My Heart is so very 1981.

I used to confuse New Shooz with Kristina and the Waves, as if I Can’t Wait was their follow up hit to Walking on Sunshine. Walking on Sunshine…blech.

R43 try laying off of the sauce.

I was around people in their fifties and early sixties in the early 1980s and never remember them discussing the minutiae of their pop scene from the late 1930s and 1940s. I wish they had.

R45 because it was nearly non existent

R45 if they were in their 50s and early 60s in the 90s then they were not born yet/babies/young children in the 30s and 40s.

Their memories of pop culture would be lined up with the 50s when they were teens and young adults, and that’s when pop music became a big thing.

I just listened to their first 2 albums (thanks to this thread) & enjoyed their "Shane" tune.

Warning! This song is an earworm.

I'm listening to their '85 album & it's better than I expected =

They should've released this as a single after "Conga" by Miami Sound Machine went top 10 =

Some of the'85 album's sounds seem like Foreigner could've recorded them at the time =

You just don't hear a modern single start off with a sax lead in =

The smoldering "Grace Under Fire" sounds like something Madonna would've recorded in the late 80s =

Great track from the Fast Times at Ridgemont Hight soundtrack.

Whoops. Would be nice if I linked the track!

Actually, you didn't really need to link it. We're good.

I’m gonna jerk on my cock. I’m gonna swallow my piss. I’m gonna jerk n jack til I pop on my chest

I think Shane is about a male prostitute.

[quote] Actually, you didn't really need to link it. We're good.

Then leave.

Wasn’t the sax player in the video a blonde muscle stud with dreads? Yes, I remember the song.

[quote] Then leave.

You're too short for that gesture.

The video is terrible. The lead singer was homely and they threw every stylistic contrivance into the mix.

Wasn't the lead singer a elementary school teacher before she did the band thing?

A lot of early 80s videos are terrible. MJ really changed the landscape of music videos.

Good thing she wasn’t a model r63. Back then most people listened to music they liked, it didn’t matter if the artist was hot or not like today. That’s why now we have a bunch of talentless good for nothings.

A particularly sad one for me as an ex could have written it to me based on the end of our time together together. Doesn’t stop me from singing it to myself in the mirror, though. Complete with some badass hair choreography.

I think she sounds more like Sylvia than Benatar.

She sounds nothing like Benatar

True r66. Back then female singers didn't have to look like pole dancers to be successful.

R70 not at all. It was about the music. Now it’s about being a whore.

R71, that was the era of Madonna. It wasn't about music at all. It was about image. MTV made Quarterflash and it also made them a flash in the pan.

R72 Madonna’s big breakout was in 1984.

I still listen to this song on a regular basis. It’s also briefly featured in that “Rock of Ages” movie that nobody remembers.

I like the song! if you had asked me 5 minutes ago whonsang it I would have said Benetar. If you ask me tomorrow I will have forgotten it's not and still answer Benetar.

MTV made Madonna who began in 1983. The only reason Quarterflash was a sensation because people thought it was Pat Benatar.

Thanks for getting this in my head!

Wahhhhhwahhwwaaaaahhh waahh WAAAAAHHH!

R76 ZZZZZZ

R78 you hardened my heart

I like the name Quarterflash. Name a band beginning with Q. Okay Queen. But stop it.

The point is, stop with your Pat Benatar nonsense. Give Quarterflash their one and only hit, damn you bastards!

Sounds nothing like Pat Benatar to me - I don't remember anyone ever thinking that.

r75 "whonsang it I would have said Benetar. If you ask me tomorrow I will have forgotten it's not and still answer Benetar"

Then you must be an idiot

The thing is she doesn’t sound like Benatar at all. Like, at all.

Harden my fart

Everyone I went to school with thought this was Pat Benatar.

EVERY

SINGLE

TIME

THEY

HEARD

IT

r85 NOT

A

SINGLE

PERSON

THOUGHT

IT

WAS

HER

The funny thing is, Hell is for hardened hearts, not children.

Not only did Rindy Ross sound like Benatar (and you see how few people knew her name), Harden My Heart even was thematically similar to her songs.

"Many are the fans of '80s rock who bought a Pat Benatar Greatest Hits album and wondered, "Hey, where's 'Harden My Heart'?" It wasn't there. It wasn't there ... because "Harden My Heart" isn't a song by Pat Benatar."

I played the hell out of this Euro disco remake from the 90s. The English pronunciation is dodgy but that beat is to die for!

Just seeing the thread title has it stuck in my head. Gee thanks, OP.

The retard keeps saying she sounds like Pat Benatar, leading me to assume he’s never actually heard Benatar sing because this isn’t what she sounds like.

Sounds NOTHING alike vocally

Music 🎶

SUCKED in 1981- and I was a teenager then.

Thanks for a note of sanity, R88.

And for correcting the fat cunt at R86.

So (as R30 mentioned) they'd been around before they hit as "Seafood Mama." It took a few years to break that song, I guess.