Biography
Songwriter Holly Knight left a lasting mark on 1980s pop radio through her distinctive fusion of driving rhythms and memorable hooks. As part of Spider she reached the Billboard Hot 100’s upper half in 1980 with “New Romance (It’s a Mystery),” and later, as a co-writer, she supplied several Top Ten singles, among them Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” (1983), Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me” (1984), Scandal’s “The Warrior” (1984), and Animotion’s “Obsession” (1984). In 1986 Device’s “Hanging on a Heart Attack” gave her another chart entry, and she issued the self-titled Holly Knight on Columbia two years afterward. Even as musical trends evolved she kept writing for Heart and Aaron Neville during the 1990s, while her original themes for the WB series Angel and the CBS sitcom Still Standing continued to air into the mid-2000s. Across the following two decades she occasionally produced tracks for artists that included Antonia Bennett, the Donnas, and Fefe Dobson. Several of her earlier compositions resurfaced when Tina: The Tina Turner Musical premiered on the West End in April 2018 and reached Broadway in November 2019; one of those songs, “The Best,” underscored Joe Biden’s presidential victory address in November 2020.
Born in New York City, Knight began classical-piano lessons at four and later attended the Mannes School of Music at the New School. She founded the band Spider in 1977 alongside lead singer Amanda Blue Leigh, guitarist Keith Lentin, bassist Jimmy Lowell, and drummer Anton Fig, who would later join David Letterman’s house band; Knight herself played keyboards and supplied backing vocals. Dreamland Records released the group’s debut album, Spider, in 1980; it climbed to number 130 on the Billboard 200, propelled by “New Romance (It’s a Mystery),” which Knight and Fig wrote and which peaked at number 39 on the Hot 100. From the follow-up LP Between the Lines (1981) the Knight-penned “It Didn’t Take Long” stopped at number 43, while another of her compositions, “Change,” became a 1982 hit for John Waite. The same album also contained “Better Be Good to Me,” co-written by Knight, Nicky Chinn, and Dreamland president Michael Chapman; after Turner scored a Top Five success with the track, Chapman urged Knight to relocate to Los Angeles to concentrate on songwriting.
Knight and Chapman reunited for “Love Is a Battlefield,” a Top Five single for Benatar in 1983. The next year Turner’s version of “Better Be Good to Me” succeeded, and Benatar took Knight’s “Invincible” to number ten in 1985. Also in 1985 the Knight–Nick Gilder composition “The Warrior” reached number seven for Patty Smyth’s Scandal, and the Knight–Michael Des Barres song “Obsession” peaked at number six for Animotion. Having become one of the era’s foremost creators of anthemic empowerment tracks, Knight formed the short-lived trio Device in 1985 with singer Paul Engemann and guitarist Gene Black. The group joined Turner on her recording of Knight’s “One of the Living,” another Top 20 hit from the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack, before Device’s lone album, 22B3, yielded the number-35 single “Hanging on a Heart Attack” in 1986.
Holly Knight appeared on Columbia in 1988 and featured the songwriter’s own reading of “Love Is a Battlefield.” That year she contributed to Aerosmith’s Top 20 hit “Rag Doll,” and the Knight–Chapman ballad “The Best” surfaced on Bonnie Tyler’s Hide Your Heart before Turner carried it to number 15 in the United States and number nine in the United Kingdom in 1989.
Although Knight’s signature style grew less dominant in the 1990s, she maintained an active catalog by working again with Tyler and with Aaron Neville, Dusty Springfield, Heart, and Kiss. Her theme for Angel, which ran from 1999 to 2004, debuted in October 1999 and overlapped with the 2002–2006 CBS run of Still Standing, whose theme she wrote and produced with Will Hoge. In the 2000s and 2010s she produced albums for jazz singer Antonia Bennett and supplied tracks for Fefe Dobson, Otep, and the Donnas. The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted her in 2013.
When Tina: The Tina Turner Musical opened in London’s West End in April 2018 and transferred to Broadway in November 2019, the production incorporated three of Knight’s songs, among them “The Best,” which accompanied Biden’s victory speech the following November.
Born in New York City, Knight began classical-piano lessons at four and later attended the Mannes School of Music at the New School. She founded the band Spider in 1977 alongside lead singer Amanda Blue Leigh, guitarist Keith Lentin, bassist Jimmy Lowell, and drummer Anton Fig, who would later join David Letterman’s house band; Knight herself played keyboards and supplied backing vocals. Dreamland Records released the group’s debut album, Spider, in 1980; it climbed to number 130 on the Billboard 200, propelled by “New Romance (It’s a Mystery),” which Knight and Fig wrote and which peaked at number 39 on the Hot 100. From the follow-up LP Between the Lines (1981) the Knight-penned “It Didn’t Take Long” stopped at number 43, while another of her compositions, “Change,” became a 1982 hit for John Waite. The same album also contained “Better Be Good to Me,” co-written by Knight, Nicky Chinn, and Dreamland president Michael Chapman; after Turner scored a Top Five success with the track, Chapman urged Knight to relocate to Los Angeles to concentrate on songwriting.
Knight and Chapman reunited for “Love Is a Battlefield,” a Top Five single for Benatar in 1983. The next year Turner’s version of “Better Be Good to Me” succeeded, and Benatar took Knight’s “Invincible” to number ten in 1985. Also in 1985 the Knight–Nick Gilder composition “The Warrior” reached number seven for Patty Smyth’s Scandal, and the Knight–Michael Des Barres song “Obsession” peaked at number six for Animotion. Having become one of the era’s foremost creators of anthemic empowerment tracks, Knight formed the short-lived trio Device in 1985 with singer Paul Engemann and guitarist Gene Black. The group joined Turner on her recording of Knight’s “One of the Living,” another Top 20 hit from the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack, before Device’s lone album, 22B3, yielded the number-35 single “Hanging on a Heart Attack” in 1986.
Holly Knight appeared on Columbia in 1988 and featured the songwriter’s own reading of “Love Is a Battlefield.” That year she contributed to Aerosmith’s Top 20 hit “Rag Doll,” and the Knight–Chapman ballad “The Best” surfaced on Bonnie Tyler’s Hide Your Heart before Turner carried it to number 15 in the United States and number nine in the United Kingdom in 1989.
Although Knight’s signature style grew less dominant in the 1990s, she maintained an active catalog by working again with Tyler and with Aaron Neville, Dusty Springfield, Heart, and Kiss. Her theme for Angel, which ran from 1999 to 2004, debuted in October 1999 and overlapped with the 2002–2006 CBS run of Still Standing, whose theme she wrote and produced with Will Hoge. In the 2000s and 2010s she produced albums for jazz singer Antonia Bennett and supplied tracks for Fefe Dobson, Otep, and the Donnas. The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted her in 2013.
When Tina: The Tina Turner Musical opened in London’s West End in April 2018 and transferred to Broadway in November 2019, the production incorporated three of Knight’s songs, among them “The Best,” which accompanied Biden’s victory speech the following November.
Albums
