Madonna Singles

What is it now, Doctor?

Only joking Alex! But you...you (sniffs loudly) dissed 'Crazy For You'!! How can you?

and whoever (i'm sorry i can't recall your name) said that neil hannon should cover "live to tell".... well, that's genius! let's tie him up and make him do it.

goldarn it, Killian just stole mah fire!

Long Fin Killie's is better. ;-)

To this day it's the only song that can recall that sort of giddiness in me.

Did I miss something? What Public Enemy "riff"?

Madonna's 90s/00s achievement - learning how to make GROWERS! "Frozen" grows on you like an iceberg on the horizon; "Music" just battered my defences down by repetition; "Die Another Day" only made sense when you tried to imagine dancing to it.

All the 80s singles are terrific, pretty much, but you knew that.

Bad Girl!

Madonna's best singles: "Human Nature", "Bedtime Story", "Take A Bow", "Into The Groove", "Live To Tell". These five are BARELY (like, microscopically) above "Burning Up", "Borderline", "Lucky Star", "Holiday", "Open Your Heart", "Papa Don't Preach", "La Isla Bonita", "Keep It Together", "Like A Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Ray Of Light", "Secret", "Drowned World/Substitute For Love", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like For A Girl", "Die Another Day", "I'll Remember" and "I Want You", to the point where any of the above could be in the top five (especially "Burning Up"; in fact, replace "Bedtime Story" with "Burning Up" right now!).

I've always thought the early trilogy (troika?) of Holiday/Borderline/Lucky Star were her best work, and the reason she became huge in the first place.

The video for Borderline is a great example of her early style - she wasn't the first to cross underground disco with bubblegum pop, but she did it the best. This seems like a memento from a more innocent time, like the best Motown and old school girl group songs. I like how it's the work of a fun loving hipster gal who loves fashion and breakdancing, not the grandiose artistic statements she made later on in her career. Also - Madonna used to be hot. She looks like a cute college girl here, wearing the cutting edge fashions that all the high school girls tried to emulate in the 80s.

i knew this revive would be about Borderline, it just gets better with time.

your whole post is kind of OTM, but i have to say i think Like A Virgin sustained a similar feeling in an awesome way.

This reminds me that i never really understood the plot for this video.

also, correction: Madonna used to be VERY hot.

She becomes a model and cheats on him with the photog, he sulks, she dumps the photog when he acts like an ass, then goes back to her old boyfriend.

Yeah I was going to say Like a Virgin was when she does her first 'morph' from this hipster street creature to a more glamorous and slutty version of said hipster street creature. It's of course classic, but it's the Big Star move and not so underground.

but it's so damn kooky too, the whole LAV album

i don't know what gets me more: the synths on Borderline or Like A Virgin

'Borderline' is about the only Madonna single I can honestly say I love, as opposed to quite liking. 'Into the Groove' almost pushes out of that other category, but not quite.

Borderline is my favourite too!

I like how none of the Rihannas and Britneys and Pinks have yet to match the understated timelessness of her early stuff. It's like every new song and video that comes out has to be louder and glitzier and more over the top.

"Crazy for You" has that remarkable moment where Madonna, never much of a singer, lowers her voice down from its chirpy default to a more seductive rumble. That's the point where she shifts from kids' stuff to something richer.

"Live to Tell," though, is an amazing song, not least for its ambiguity. I love its haunting use in "At Close Range." I also love the Bill Frisell cover.

Also thoroughly love "Into the Groove," "Open Your Heart," "Borderline," "Burning Up" and that Bjork song. "Bedtime Story?" Some of those lost years ballads are pretty good, too, like "Rain."

And Patrick Leonard=best writing partner? Oh, he also did "Who's That Girl!" Loved that one as a kid myself.

Shep Pettibone was her best writing partner.

Yes, I've always liked 'Live to Tell'.

I like how none of the Rihannas and Britneys and Pinks have yet to match the understated timelessness of her early stuff. It's like every new song and video that comes out has to be louder and glitzier and more over the top.

― redmond, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 9:53 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

was just thinking if only someone (if not madonna herself) would go back to this early sound.

"Crazy for You" has that remarkable moment where Madonna, never much of a singer, lowers her voice down from its chirpy default to a more seductive rumble. That's the point where she shifts from kids' stuff to something richer.

"Live to Tell," though, is an amazing song, not least for its ambiguity. I love its haunting use in "At Close Range." I also love the Bill Frisell cover.

OTM. I published an essay on these very qualities.

*discussing these very qualities.

Stating the obvious here, but what a fantastic run of singles. No duds at all until 'Express Yourself'

um, Express Yourself is so gooood

And even that's not bad, just kind of charmless

geez no way! charmless my foot

let's talk about Dress You Up for a second

the crispness of that vocal line, the way it cuts

ouch

"Angel"!

just listened to it!! so great

ALL OVER ALL OVER

i ~love~ 'dress you up'

the crispness of that vocal line, the way it cuts

yeah it just SLICES into the chorus

still love that B-more break mix of 'Angel' i got from palm out ages ago

think this 12" single from 1988 was more than worthy of a mention

Madonna - Spotlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSbgcr4fvk0

a bunch of writing on a bunch of Madonna singles (I chose "Live to Tell" and "Papa Don't Preach" but almost went for "Express Yourself")

a link would help http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=26058

Soto's first sentence regarding 'Bad Girl' is so fucking OTM. That's one of her best ever songs, IMO - the production still sounds gorgeous and I don't even want to begin imagining it being sung in her post-Evita voice, which I don't find anywhere near as pleasant to listen to as her voice beforehand.

Thank you.

We all did marvelous work, I must say.

I love reading reassessments of Madonna stuff, especially from different generational perspectives, and this is a good one. I should play her for my kids.

I suddenly have the urge to listen to Like a Prayer and Erotica back to back.

I decided to rank her closers.

Can’t argue with your top picks, but I’d definitely throw “Secret Garden” in among those three. One of her most purely haunting and seductive tracks.

"take a bow" too ffs

"Mer Girl" is glorious, FUIUD

Sounds good, looks fun:

Classroom Instruments: @Madonna, Jimmy, & @TheRoots perform “Music” 🎶 #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/7DRjRsABRJ

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) August 11, 2022

Well, that was cute.

Glad she didn't try to french anybody.

Yeah, it’s refreshing to see her do something cute.

Can’t believe I missed this thread after 16 years lurking on this board. Just wanted to say that aside from all of the obvious choices, and I appreciate it’s not a single, but Pretender from Like a Virgin is Madonna’s most overlooked song. “You lie, you lie, you lie, you lie, I know all about your kind” is the most peak Madonna line ever.

I've heard eight of her albums, and don't know if there's any non-single I'd really call a favourite. Maybe "Something to Remember".

I can think of several:

White Heat
Where’s the Party
Skin
Impressive Instant
Swim

For a few years in the 1980s, there was a UK publication called the Rock Yearbook which featured articles, pictures, snippets of reviews from the UK papers, etc. The section on True Blue featured nothing but various reviewers' scathing comments on "Where's the Party?" I thought it unfair to single out the worst song on the album, but I'm glad someone likes it.

Just bought the new triple disc cd on a total impulse and I'm pretty pleased with it. Feels like this is her best compilation? With the earlier classics theres a lot of "single versions" or mixes which dont fuck with the song too much but brilliantly remastered imo. Mid period stuff has a bunch of fun, cool, or interesting versions, and the 3rd disc is stuff I dont know and it's pretty much solid bangers.

I made my own Madonna compilation, thanks to a close friend who was a collector, and I boiled down god knows how many CD's into four packed and tidy CD-R's. Pretty much everything I really liked from Madonna was released as a single - in many cases, I would prefer a mix that was released on one of those single releases rather than the original album. The one big exception is "Secret Garden" from Erotica - from what I can tell, it's never been issued as a single, at least not in the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBtcD7qmpPw

Also re: two tracks from Music - "Impressive Instant" mentioned upthread and "Amazing" - the story is that the label wanted the latter to be the fourth single, Madonna wanted the former, and they wound up NOT releasing a fourth single, but actually both tracks HAVE been issued as promo-only singles. I do enjoy both regardless.

it’s quite remarkable madonna didn’t make it to either of the 2010s polls

is it? her output last decade is not well regarded by anyone really. madame x is endearingly weird but that's about it

yeah that’s what i meant

My jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCRaq3t7X_Q

More super album tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Vm72XDljI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpkOb6JRKHM

The best B-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8uCTFJbwUI

Should have been a single in the US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kLbsB1ynaE

"You're just jealous CUZ YOU CAN'T BE ME