"Christmas in America," Pat Benatar (Gold Circle)

The first new music from Pat in some time, this 2001 release is a ballad tempo tune that joins Christmas to the Sept. 11 attacks. It's the only one of its type I've encountered so far; the other attack-inspired songs didn't tie into the holiday. Artistically it's OK but no better, the lyrics pretty much going where you expect them to go. But in this age of divas, it's refreshing to hear a female singer who's willing to do just enough singing to serve the song, even though she has the chops to overdo it, unlike a lot of other people I could name. This single includes an instrumental version of the song plus Pat's other Christmas performance, the Charles Brown song "Please Come Home For Christmas," just in case you don't have it. It's out of print, though the Amazon link will take you to folks who have copies. "Please Come Home," which is from the 1980s as far as I know, turns up frequently on rock-based holiday collections, of course.