In 1980, Knight's first big break came when she played keyboards (uncredited) on Kiss'
Unmasked album. In the early 1980s, she helped form
Spider (featuring
Anton Fig of
Late Show with David Letterman). Managed by
Bill Aucoin (
Kiss and
Billy Idol), they signed a
recording contract with Dreamland Records, an RSO-distributed label. They released two albums:
Spider (self-titled; 1980) and
Between the Lines (1981). Knight was already planning to leave Spider, when Dreamland president, songwriter and
record producer Mike Chapman urged her to move to
Los Angeles to pursue her songwriting career. She signed a publishing deal with his company, eventually signing to
EMI Publishing. Knight and Chapman worked together on the top 5 U.S. hit "
Better Be Good to Me" (1984) by
Tina Turner and "
Love Is a Battlefield" (1983) by
Pat Benatar, each of which won a
Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Knight was replaced on keyboards in Spider, later renamed Shanghai for its eponymous and final album, before her former band folded in 1984. Knight has written hits for some of the most successful artists in music, both on her own and in collaboration with others. For Pat Benatar, in addition to "Love Is a Battlefield", she wrote "
Invincible". "
The Best"—first recorded by
Bonnie Tyler—became an international No. 1 single for
Tina Turner. Knight wrote songs with
Heart,
Aerosmith,
Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, and many more. Tina Turner has recorded nine of her tunes, including "The Best", "Better Be Good to Me", and "
In Your Wildest Dreams" (1996). Holly Knight was voted the Best Songwriter in
Rolling Stone magazine's 11th annual poll, along with
Phil Collins,
Paul Simon,
Billy Joel, and
Bruce Springsteen. In the mid-1980s, Knight had a second band called
Device, that had a hit single "
Hanging on a Heart Attack" from their one album
22B3 (1986). Although Spider and Device both had
Top 40 hits, only Device received heavy-rotation on
MTV for four consecutive months. In 1988, Holly released a self-titled solo album that featured her own rendition of "Love Is a Battlefield", as well "Heart Don't Fail Me Now", a single with background vocals by
Daryl Hall. Holly Knight's songs have been featured on film soundtracks for
Weird Science (1985),
Vision Quest (1985),
Legend of Billie Jean (1985),
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985),
Legal Eagles (1986),
The Secret of My Success (1987),
Thelma & Louise (1991),
Stuart Little 2 (2002),
13 Going on 30 (2004),
What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004),
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010),
Anchorman 2 (2013),
Dallas Buyers Club (2013),
The Other Woman (2014), ''
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021), 80 For Brady (2023), and Cocaine Bear (2023); and hit television shows such as American Idol, The Voice, Nip/Tuck, The Singing Bee, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Simpsons, Family Guy, 30 Rock, South Park, Glee, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Necessary Roughness, the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, and the finale episode of The Voice'' (2011), in which
Cee Lo Green performed a
duet of "Love Is a Battlefield" with one of the final contestants. Most recently, Knight's songs have been featured on the Netflix show
GLOW ("The Warrior"- theme song),
Stranger Things,
Mixed-ish,
The Masked Singer, and ''
Schitt's Creek. She wrote and produced the theme song for the popular TV shows Angel (1999–2004) and Still Standing'' (2002–2006). In 1988, Knight was listed in the "Best Songwriter Category/Readers Poll" of
Rolling Stone along with Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins, Paul Simon, and Billy Joel. In the 21st century, Knight has also been active as a record producer. In 2009, she produced a
jazz EP called
Natural for
Antonia Bennett, daughter of
Tony Bennett, and in 2012, an alternative pop record of original songs for her, titled
Ordinary Girl. In 2014, she produced a second full-length jazz record for Antonia Bennett of songs from the
Great American Songbook called
Embrace Me, on
Perseverance records. She has also produced tracks for
Otep,
Fefe Dobson,
The Donnas, the Australian band Porcelain, and 2014 Tony Award winner
Lena Hall. Knight has been mentioned in several autobiographies, including
I, Tina by Tina Turner (1986),
Between a Heart and a Rock Place by Pat Benatar (2010), and
Kicking and Screaming by
Ann and
Nancy Wilson of Heart (2013), ''
I'm with the Band by Pamela Des Barres (2005), My Love Story
by Tina Turner (2018), and All I Ever Wanted'' by
Kathy Valentine (2020). Knight contributed her story to the 2017 book
Because I Was a Girl: True Stories for Girls of All Ages, published by Henry Holt and Company. Her song, "The Best" has appeared in three episodes of the Emmy award-winning Netflix show ''Schitt's Creek''. Season 4, Episode 1 "The Olive Branch": David lip-syncs to the original Tina Turner recording. Season 4, Episode 6 "Open Mic": Patrick performs an acoustic version of the song (arranged by actor
Noah Reid). Season 6, Episode 13 (the series finale): the
Jazzagals sing a capella at David and Patrick's wedding, causing "The Best" to become a popular wedding song in the LGBTQ community. Three of Knight's songs, "The Best", "Better Be Good to Me", and "Be Tender with Me Baby," are featured in
The Tina Turner Musical, which began previews at the
Aldwych Theatre, in The West End in London, on March 21, 2018, and officially opened on April 17. In November 2019, the musical made its Broadway debut at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York. Tina Turner herself attended both premieres. In March 2019, the show opened at the Stage Operettenhaus in
Hamburg, and on February 9, 2020 at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In 2020, the musical received eleven
Tony Award nominations. "The Best" was featured at the end of
Joe Biden's victory speech following his election to the presidency of the United States in 2021. In November 2022, Knight released her memoir entitled,
I Am The Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties. It was offered in a hardcover edition by Permuted Press, a Kindle edition, and an Audible audio book, which she narrated. The latter contains original demos of some of her biggest hits, including, "The Best", "Love Is a Battlefield" and "The Warrior". The book was listed on both Amazon and Audible as the #1 Hot New Release in Popular Music. In 2023, during the
Super Bowl, "The Best" also appeared in a Pringles commercial In her spare time, Knight also does fine art photography. ==Personal life==