Madonna - You Can Dance (1987)

As I'm fond of saying, "Ain't no Madonna like '80s Madonna" and here's further proof. Following in the footsteps of the Disco remix album from Pet Shop Boys, this is Madonna's first remix album and we're treated to over an hour of non-stop dance fun featuring tracks from her first three albums plus a new tune, Spotlight (which bears a strong resemblance to Lucky Star - not that there's anything wrong with that). Remixes provided by some of the biggest names in the business at the time. And, by design, released just in time for Christmas shopping in '87.

Now if you'll please excuse me, I'm going to bust out some old man dance moves for the next 70 minutes and pretend I'm 21 again. (In the privacy of my home. You're welcome.)

Press of the time:

• Robert Christgau (A-): "this time the songs don't surface, they reach out and grab you"
• Los Angeles Times (★★★): "Just about every remix in this seven-song collection is first-rate."
• Smash Hits (9 out of 10): "rather wonderful"
• Stereo Review: "a clever marketing idea that happens to work as a musical idea, too."
• Billboard: "The lady can't miss with this one"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #14
• Billboard Pop CD: #15
• CashBox Top CD: #15
• Rolling Stone: #13

Tracks: While it is designed to be played top-to-bottom and I do. For me, things really get cookin' in the middle of the CD (what was side 2 of the album) - Over And Over, Into The Groove, and Where's The Party.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. If this thing wasn't played at the parties I attended in my little college town, it certainly should have been. The timing of this release got me to thinking about Christmas '87 and I believe that was the Christmas I got a new aftermarket cassette deck for my Olds. That thing had both auto-reverse as well as a seek function and that made this guy very happy. But that really doesn't have much to do with this remix album other than coincidental timing, so never mind. As you were.

Previously revisited for the blog:
What It Feels Like For A Girl (2001)
Ray Of Light (1998)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (1996)
The Immaculate Collection (1990)
Vogue (1990)
Express Yourself (1989)
True Blue (1986)
Like A Virgin (1984)

Madonna - True Blue (1986)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.

Ain't no Madonna like '80s Madonna. Back in '86, I might have called this unabashed synth-dance-pop album a guilty pleasure, but now I'm (much) older and (slightly) wiser and what's it to you if I listen to this? It's my second favorite Madonna album after the Nile Rodgers-produced Like A Virgin. Five of the albums' nine tracks were released as singles and to say they all did quite well would be an understatement:

U.S. charted singles:	Pop	Dance	AC
Live To Tell	1		1
Papa Don't Preach	1	4	16
True Blue	3	6
Open Your Heart	1	1	12
La Isla Bonita	4		1

While it may be my second favorite Madonna album, it's the leader of the pack when it comes to cover design - that lovely Herb Ritts photo sure can't be beat. My cassette copy got plenty of playing time on the Sanyo deck in my car at the time, a remarkably unreliable '85 Oldsmobile:

1985 Firenza pictured in its natural habitat

The album's opener, Papa Don't Preach, was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, eventually losing to Barbra Streisand's Broadway Album. The first single, Live To Tell, was featured in At Close Range (a film I have yet to see), starring then-husband Sean Penn. The album is dedicated to Penn, "the coolest guy in the universe." I like the album and was happy to see a cheap copy pop up in a used CD bin so I could enjoy a trip down memory lane.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "reliable sleek dance-floor contenders"
• Rolling Stone: "Singing better than ever, Madonna stakes her claim as the pop poet of lower-middle-class America."
• Smash Hits (7½ out of 10): "Definitely enough to keep her fans in the short term, but I doubt it will do her long term reputation much good at all."
• Stereo Review: "more melodic, less cluttered, and plain just more fun to listen to."
• Robert Christgau (B): "Critics flock to her uneven product the way liberal arts magnas flock to investment banking"
• Musician: "Her best records do what all great pop records do: they transcend."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• Billboard Pop CD: #2
• Billboard R&B: #47
• CashBox: #1
• CashBox CD: #2
• Rolling Stone: #1

Tracks: 9 tracks, 40 minutes. I dig all the singles, but if I had to pick a top choice, I'd go with Open Your Heart. I also like Where's The Party but usually skip Jimmy Jimmy (the dichotomy of '60s girl group writing with '80s synth bass/drum programming arrangement just doesn't do it for me).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I picked this one up through one of several encounters I had over the years with Columbia House. I'm not sure how many cassettes I got on that initial order (had to be a dozen, right?), but I only remember 3: True Blue, a Stevie Wonder compilation which I wore out playing I Was Made To Love Her over and over and over, and the epic Volume 6 of Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947-1974.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Into The Hollywood Groove (2003)
What It Feels Like For A Girl (2001)
Ray Of Light (1998)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (1996)
The Immaculate Collection (1990)
Vogue (1990)
Express Yourself (1989)
Like A Virgin (1984)

Madonna - What It Feels Like For A Girl (2001)

CD Single

Madonna's third single release from the Music album. My wife requested this disc, but I'll admit to liking several of the dance mixes.

Peak on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart: #23

Tracks:

I prefer the Oakenfold, Tracy Young Club Mix, and the Tracy Young Cool Out Radio Mix. Skip the last cut. Like any CD with 56 minutes of the same song, it gets redundant rather quickly, but I don't think the label expects you to listen to the thing from start to finish much. At least I hope they didn't.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Dance music in a crappy minivan driving kids around town to school and soccer practice. That's how we rolled in 2001.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Into The Hollywood Groove (2003)
Ray Of Light (1998)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (1996)
The Immaculate Collection (1990)
Vogue (1990)
Express Yourself (1989)
Like A Virgin (1984)

Madonna & Missy Elliott - Into The Hollywood Groove (2003)

CD Single

In 2003, Madonna and Missy Elliott ran this ad for The Gap:

This was the promo CD tie-in with the ad campaign.

Tracks: 2 tracks, 8½ minutes. The first track is the audio used in the above ad, a clever mash-up of Into The Groove and Madonna's current single Hollywood, with a guest appearance by Missy Elliott. The second track is the 7 minute "Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duck Mix" of Hollywood. I don't remember ever hearing Hollywood other than on this single, so I obviously wasn't hitting the clubs in 2003 as it was a #1 dance single on the Billboard charts.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: You know the drill: buy a pair of jeans at the Gap and get a free Madonna CD single. Evidently we did that. My youngest son's nickname at the time was Hollywood, so he loved it.

Previously revisited for the blog:

Ray Of Light (1998)	Vogue (1990)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)	Express Yourself (1989)
Evita Soundtrack (1996)	Like A Virgin (1984)
The Immaculate Collection (1990)

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection (1990)

By request! (In this particular case, "by request" means that a reader actually sent me a CD. Thanks!)

I just finished reading the 2013 book Big Life by manager Jazz Summers. Near the end, Summers laments the changing landscape of the music industry. In particular, these few sentences caught my eye:

Blimey. No more Greatest Hits? I'm having trouble wrapping this old head around that concept. I've got plenty of greatest hits CDs on the shelves and will probably continue to buy them out of habit even though it makes more sense to create my own compilations through downloads. Anyhoo, what's that got to do with today's CD with the witty title? This is one of the landmark "best of" compilations. Mojo magazine reportedly wrote that this release is "truly the best of best of's." This magazine has obviously overlooked the Beatles red and blue compilations, but I see where they are coming from: considering there are 17 tracks and I only skip one, I get Mojo's hyperbolic point.

Billboard 11/24/90

CashBox 11/24/90

Historically, this is the first album released to use an audio technology called Q-sound. While I like the fact that attention is paid to a true stereo mix (instead of piling up everything in the middle of the two channels), it's a little strange to listen to, particularly on headphones. It's also very uneven. For example, the vocals on Material Girl sound like an afterthought because the mix is so bad, but Vogue sounds fantastic. In any case, that makes all these tracks remixes. Stephen Thomas Erlewine over at allmusic.com puts it best:

The songs that are included are frequently altered. Everything on the collection is remastered in Q-sound, which gives an exaggerated sense of stereo separation that often distorts the original intent of the recordings. Furthermore, several songs are faster than their original versions and some are faded out earlier than either their single or album versions, while others are segued together. In other words, while all the hits are present, they're simply not in their correct versions.

I agree. I'm not a big fan of the Q-sound which faded away rather quickly, which suggests to me I'm not alone in my thinking.

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked The Immaculate Collection at #138.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #2
• Billboard R&B: #81

Tracks:  In chronological order, which, as longtime readers know, is my preferred sequencing for such compilations.

Song	Year	Hot 100	R&B	Dance	AC
Holiday	1983	16	25	3
Lucky Star	1983	4		1	19
Borderline	1984	10		4	23
Like a Virgin	1984	1	9	1	29
Material Girl	1984	2		1	38
Crazy for You	1985	1			2
Into the Groove	1985	*	19	1
Live to Tell	1986	1			1
Papa Don't Preach	1986	1		4	16
Open Your Heart	1986	1		1	12
La Isla Bonita	1987	4			1
Like a Prayer	1989	1	20	1	3
Express Yourself	1989	2		1	12
Cherish	1989	2			1
Vogue	1990	1	16	1	23
Justify My Love	1990	1		1
Rescue Me	1990	9		6

*Into the Groove was never released as the a-side of a 7" single, making it ineligible for the Hot 100 chart.

And the CD doesn't even include all the hits from that time period. Missing are Top 40 hits Angel (#5), Dress You Up (#5), True Blue (#3), Who's That Girl (#1), Causing A Commotion (#2), Spotlight (#32), Oh Father (#20), Keep It Together (#8), Hanky Panky (#10). The fact that this compilation could have been even better boggles the mind.

So which track do I skip? I disliked Like A Prayer from the get-go. I distinctly remember hearing it on the radio for the first time while I was driving on I-10 out to UTSA for a graduate class and being very disappointed. It tries to be a pop tune, dance tune, and gospel tune and, to me, fails on all counts. And the sedate remix on this CD ain't helpin' the cause any.

Today's picks for favorites are Borderline, Crazy For You, Open Your Heart, Express Yourself, Cherish, and Vogue.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  This collection reminds me of my high school friends Jack, Scott, and Eleanor and a cross-country trip they took around the time this CD was released. I was married and couldn't join them on their excursion, but I've seen the video evidence.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Ray Of Light (1998)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (1996)
Vogue (1990)
Express Yourself (1989)
Like A Virgin (1984)

Madonna - Like A Virgin (1984)

NUMBER ONE ALBUMS WEEK (MAY 5-11, 2014)

No sophomore slump here. Madonna brought in Nile Rodgers to produce, found a great bunch of dance tunes, put a sexy "Boy Toy" picture on the cover, and gave the whole package an ambiguous, suggestive, slightly controversial (at the time) title. With this album, Madonna moved from pop singer to pop icon. And she and Nile got the hits they wanted:

U.S. Billboard chart peaks:	Pop	Dance	AC
Like A Virgin	1	1	29
Material Girl	2	1	38
Angel	5	1	5
Dress You Up	5	3	32

That's a lotta single digits in the above chart. Plus, Joel Whitburn over at Record Research lists the title track, Like A Virgin, as the top single of 1984 even though it was released very late in the year: November 6. I didn't own this album simply because I didn't need it - I could either hear the music for free on the radio/MTV or my friends were playing their copy. I certainly know the latter is true as I recognize all the songs on the album even though I haven't heard them in almost 30 years. (Note: I just did a little digging and found the Sony cassette my wife owned back in '85. This album was popular as we began dating, so that explains why I know these songs.) I didn't own a Madonna album until I picked up the soft rock goodness of True Blue on cassette a few years later.

Madonna doesn't have a great voice, but she knows how to put together a package (e.g., the backing band for much of the album is freakin' Chic for chrissakes) and, with a few missteps, this album transcended the existing concepts of dance-pop and set the stage for dance music in the late '80s.

Press of the time:

• CashBox: "a healthy dose of disco-rock"
• Billboard: "This second album brings considerable muscle"
• High Fidelity: "Madonna pulls off the neat trick of outstripping her own fast start."
• Rolling Stone (★★★½): "Rodgers wisely supplies the kind of muscle Madonna's sassy lyrics demand."
• Smash Hits (8 out of 10): "a good all-American dance album"
• Stereo Review: "sounds thin to me - not terrible, but predictably commercial"
• Robert Christgau: B 

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• Billboard Pop CD: #4
• Billboard R&B: #10
• CashBox: #1
• CashBox CD: #1
• Rolling Stone: #1

Tracks: The album leads off with three top 5 singles. Where can it possible go from there? Well, it gets a little uneven - I like the bouncy New Wave of Over And Over, but then comes the unnecessary cover of Rose Royce's Love Don't Live Here Anymore. Plus, the closing tracks of Pretender and Stay are below-par, if not danceable, filler. Bottom line, skip the ends of what were sides one and two and you've got a fun album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: By the fall of 1985, I had become somewhat smitten with Madonna. I wasn't so infatuated that I needed a restraining order, but I had her poster up in my dorm room and had purchased her somewhat disappointing nude spread in Penthouse (my first adult magazine purchase). It had less to do with music and more to do with image. I think Madonna would like that.


Previously revisited for the blog:
Ray Of Light (1998)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (1996)
Vogue (1990)
Express Yourself (1989)

Evita: The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack (1996)

Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Tim Rice

I like movies and I like musicals, but in general, I don't like movies based on stage musicals.  I'm guessing because movie producers like to take something simple and "Hollywood-ize" it.  This 1996 movie based on the '70s stage musical, wonderfully directed by Alan Parker, is the exception that proves the rule.  Although Big Hollywood stuff, I still liked it, bought this 2 CD soundtrack, bought the VHS. 

Jonathan Pryce nails his role and Antonio Banderas did better than I thought he would.  Madonna's performance was better than her usual acting efforts, but even her earnest efforts can't overcome her thin voice.  But then, she's always been more of an entertainer than musician.  The show's narrative is truly heart-wrenching and the actors bring out the best aspects of the genre. As far as the songwriting goes, [shrug] it sounds like Lloyd Webber.  It's not as good as Cats but it isn't as bad as Phantom Of The Opera.  It succeeds by the surprisingly low standard set by the American musical theater: it has a few tunes the audience might hum as they leave the theater.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #2

Tracks:  As with most musicals, there's about 5 or 6 solid melodies that appear with different lyrics throughout the work.  My favorites are Another Suitcase In Another Hall, The Lady's Got Potential, and I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You as well as all the later songs that share those melodies. There's also more recitative-type speak song that exist to move the story forward.  Those are fine in the context of the movie, but a chore to listen to on the soundtrack.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I've never seen the stage musical.  If memory serves, I saw this movie with my lovely mother.  Loved the movie and this soundtrack when they first came out, but that feeling passed quickly.  I probably haven't listened to this CD set in 15 years.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Madonna - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)

Madonna - Vogue (1990)

CD Single.

Madonna has become an easy target for ridicule, but I have to confess to doing some seat dancing while listening to this. It's a great dance tune, a cross between '70s disco and '90s house music. I could do without the campy namechecking section, but whatev.

Tracks: 4 tracks over 28 minutes. We're treated to the following four mixes:

• Single Version
• 12" Version
• Bette Davis Dub
• Strike-A-Pose Dub

Of these four, the single version is the best, with the Bette Davis Dub running a close second. The Strike-A-Pose dub isn't worth your time.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This song reminds me of the 1993 Junior Service League Charity Ball. I haven't attended that ball in about 8 years, but I feel safe in assuming that it still involves drunken community leaders embarrassing themselves as they try to recapture their youth. Good times.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Ray Of Light (1998)
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Express Yourself (1989)

Madonna - Ray of Light (1998)

CD Single. UK Import.

Madonna's last good single, it's an electronic techno Eurodance tune. In typical Madonna fashion, the song was sonically progressive and one of the first songs of this type to hit the charts with any relevance. Madonna may still be making music on the cutting edge, but I doubt it and I've lost interest anyway. I guess you can still hear her music on Glee. Ain't no Madonna like '80s Madonna.

Peak on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart: #5

Tracks: 4 tracks - the album version and 3 remixes. Of the remixes, the best is the Calderone Club Mix, but the album version is actually the better track here.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: More CD dance single madness from '97-98. I loved me some remix, maybe because I grew up in the era of 12" singles.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)
Express Yourself (1989)

Madonna - Express Yourself (1989)

CD Single. German Import.

A great dance tune.

Tracks: Only two mixes, a Non-Stop Express Mix and Stop+Go Dubs. I prefer the former.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Back when Madonna and videos mattered, the video for this song was awesome.

Madonna - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (1997)

CD Single

Madonna wasn't terrible in the movie version of Evita, but did the world really need a CD single with 6 dance mixes of Don't Cry For Me Argentina? And what on earth would drive me to buy it? Go figure. For a dance track, it's not too bad, but the lyrics aren't well-suited to a thumping dance beat. Ah well, it's fun to get out a dusty, old CD single and laugh at yourself every now and then. I wish they would have at least made these interesting by throwing in some James Brown or Kool & the Gang samples.

Billboard, January 18, 1997, p. 73

Peak on the Billboard Hot 100: #8
Peak on the Billboard Dance chart: #1

Tracks: All the mixes are titled Miami Mix, so, as you can imagine, they all sound pretty much the same. There's an instrumental version and two versions are Spanglish mixes ("No llores por mí"). These Spanglish mixes are laughable and are made more so because Madonna sings them with such earnestness. The instrumental version is a welcome relief from Madonna's voice.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I will admit to liking the movie version of Evita and was very surprised by Antonio Banderas as Che. I've noticed that a lot of the CD dance singles on my shelves were released in the year 1997. I must have had some disposable income and and a weakness for dance remixes around that time.