We Belong by Pat Benatar

Album: Tropico (1984)

Charted: 22 5

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Pat Benatar struck gold yet again in the early 1980s. Here, the song is about a woman who is stuck in a relationship which appears to be failing, yet the lovers are still too attached to let go. >>
Suggestion credit:
Mike - Santa Barbara, CA
This was written by Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro. They later recorded as the duo Lowen & Navarro. Navarro recalled the story of the song during a talk with Bart Herbison, Executive Director of Nashville Songwriters Association International (Source The Tennessean). "I was kind of lamenting an old relationship, and I kind of wanted to get the point across: 'It doesn't matter if you agree, or disagree, if you're here or gone. There are things that are bigger than both of us, and we belong together,'" he recalled. "I started with that final line and built everything almost backwards. Then I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun for us to belong to all of this stuff: the light, the thunder ...' So it came from there."

"I had written this rambling verse. (Eric) goes, 'I don't like the verse. I like this bit, Dan,'" Navarro added. "He sits down in a corner, writes a first verse, and the first verse was there, whole. And I knew the rest of the song from that point on. I took about ten minutes to write the rest of the lyric. I had set up the destination. He had set up the basis to the story. And I've always believed that next to the chorus - and sometimes even more than the chorus - the first two lines of the song are the most important in the whole song. You've got to hear enough to draw you in, but not so much that you don't want to hear the rest of the song."
This was used in the movies Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2005), Blue Valentine (2010), and Pitch Perfect 2 (2015). It enjoyed a surge in popularity in 2018 after it was used in the raunchy superhero movie Deadpool 2.

It also shows up on several TV shows, including an episode of The Office ("A Benihana Christmas" - 2006), with Mindy Kaling singing it to BJ Novak. Other uses include:

Mixed-ish ("Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" - 2020)
Stumptown ("The Other Woman" - 2019)
Santa Clarita Diet ("The Cult Of Sheila" - 2019)
The Magicians ("The Serpent" - 2019)
This Is Us ("Songbird Road: Part Two" - 2019)
Dynasty ("Dead Scratch" - 2018)
Halt and Catch Fire ("A Connection Is Made" - 2017)
Gossip Girl ("G.G." - 2012)
One Tree Hill ("Weeks Go By Like Days" - 2010)
Nip/Tuck ("Dan Daly" - 2010)
Hill Street Blues ("You're In Alice's" - 1985)
In 2019, this was used in Pepsi commercials titled We Belong Together, which showed how Pepsi paired with hamburgers and pizza.

Comments: 10

David Cobb from AzI remember when Eric first recorded the demo of the song. He was my neighbor at the time He wrote it, and I was just leaving to go to NYC with his girlfriend when she broke up with him to work in NY(We were just friends). She had just gotten cast in Sugar Babies Broadway production and he was heartbroken at her leaving. So I it was really a dual heartbreak song for each artist, something I think Eric left unsaid. Eric charmed his way into to a music executives party sometime later and solicited a music exec at the party, who actually bought the song for $400, for All publishing rights, Eric and Dan retaining song righting royalties. Only 2 weeks later that same executive is at EMI with Pat and her reps. She hadn't made an album in 2 years and didnt have enough new material for the new album she was doing. They asked if the record exec had any new songwriters in his pocket that might have some material she might be able to use. He reached into his briefcase and said, well I just bought this at a party a couple of weeks ago, see what you think. And history was made for many. What is so special to me about the scenario is when Eric started playing it for all of us in his circle, his single guitar live version of the song, it was almost identical to the final full version, it is almost unchanged by Pat. He had so much magic, and so much perfection, in the original scaled down version. it didn't need anything else but to be recorded( of course by a great singer). Pat only added the kids choir....other than that it was all Eric and Dan 's special touch that still permeated the hit by Pat. For all you aspiring musicians....these things do and can happen if you persevere. Eric ate Happy hour free meals at local bars for over 5 years before selling this hit, never giving up the dream that he would one day write a hit song......and He and Dan did.....against what most would say is against all odds. Never give up your dreams.....
Curt from Las Vegas, NvDon from B G, Ky - That IS NOT Thora Birch, he's a boy and his name is Christopher
Stan from Po Box 265I love this song
Bruce from San Jose, Calif.Always love Pat Benatar's voice —so melodic and clear!
Elaine from South UsaI distinctly remember back around 1982, Benatar did an interview and said something like "Now that I'm pregnant, don't go assuming that I'm going to go all soft and maternal and do songs about sweet little kids and how much I love them. I'm badass and always will be." So the next thing she did was this video, where she's leading a kids' choir! I could never decide whether she did it for a tongue-in-cheek joke or some producer talked her into it against her better judgment. The older I get, the more I think it was the former.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn November 17th 1984, Pat Benatar's video for "We Belong" was aired on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
At the time the song was at #25 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and on December 30th, 1984 it peaked at #5 {for 2 weeks}...
It reached #3 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart...
Her record that preceded "We Belong" on the Top 100 was "Love Is a Battlefield", and it also peaked at #5 on the chart...
Between 1979 and 1988 she had seventeen Top 100 records; four made the Top 10, her other two Top 10 records were "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" at #9 in 1980 and "Invincible" at #10 in 1985...
Ms. Benatar, born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, will celebrate her 62nd birthday in less than two months on January 10th {2015}.
Don from B G, KyActress Thora Birch is in this song's music video at the 3:05 mark. She is about three years old. She is in the children's choir.
Karen from Manchester, NhI was dating this guy, and we broke up. He wanted to get back together. I prayed about it, and this song came on the radio. I heard that first verse, and that told me what to do. This year (2011) that guy and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary.
Jeff from Casa Grande, AzI knew it! There's no way a woman wrote this song. Only a man could have. I knew it!!!!
Triumph. "I've invested too much time to give you up that easy to the doubts that complicate your mind," and "Maybe I wouldn't know what to do with my strenght anyway." That's a man thinking, no doubt. I knew it!
Annabelle from Eugene, OrWho are the Choir Voices in this song? Was it a children's choir?