She was a member of the 1980s pop rock groups Spider and Device, and wrote or co-wrote several hit singles for other artists, such as "Rag Doll", "Obsession", "Love Is a Battlefield", "The Best", "Invincible", "Better Be Good to Me", "The Warrior", and "Change".

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.

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 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.

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.

She has also produced tracks for Otep, Fefe Dobson, The Donnas, the Australian band Porcelain,[4] and 2014 Tony Award winner Lena Hall.

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.

[citation needed] In November 2022, Knight released her memoir entitled, "I Am The Warrior: My Crazy Life Writing the Hits and Rocking the MTV Eighties."