Her first ever single is, strangely, how she closes her debut, but it’s rare for the final track on an album to see her in party mode. Much has been made of Madonna’s ability to make an entrance, her career a series of first impressions with each so-called reinvention, but she’s pretty adept at a decent exit too. The contenders: Everybody Stay Love Makes the World Go Round Act of Contrition Vogue Rescue Me Secret Garden Take a Bow I Want You (orchestra version) Lament Mer Girl Gone American Pie* Easy Ride Like it Or Not Voices Celebration Falling Free Wash All Over Me I Rise.īEST: Madonna’s closers make a pretty impressive collection too. LEAST LOVED: Despite perhaps one of the finest long spoken and dramatic intros of Madonna’s career, harking back to the height of her Eighties Catholic mania, I’m afraid as a song, Girl Gone Wild is the worst thing she has ever recorded. We weren’t just living in a material world, this was Madonna’s world. You had to wait another year or so before Into the Groove gave us Madonna singing ‘now I know you’re mine’ but we knew it was true way before that, right here, on the best non-Chic song Nile Rodgers ever got involved with. No prisoners taken, no wallet left unchecked, no heart left unbroken. Its parent album, Like A Virgin, would be Madonna’s first LP release as a bona fide star, and Material Girl’s assured swagger is the perfect statement of intent. For me, nothing tops that pushy, confident bash of the drums of Material Girl, the ultimate love letter to Eighties excess and self-preservation. The cosmic shower of Lucky Star, the urgent, passionate strings of Papa Don’t Preach, Music’s spoken opener in electrically assisted Madge baritone, counting us in before Medellin kicks off, the scratched record on Erotica, Hung Up’s ticking timebomb, Substitute For Love’s new age underwater dreamscape. The contenders: Lucky Star Material Girl Papa Don’t Preach Who’s That Girl Spotlight Like a Prayer He’s a Man Erotica Survivor I Want You Substitute For Love Music American Life Hung Up Candy Shop Girl Gone Wild Living For Love MedellinīEST: With a couple of exceptions, Madonna albums open up STRONG there are some classic tracks in this line up, with intros that set the tone for what’s to come. To celebrate her forty years in music, movies, the tabloids, and my headphones, I’ve selected a few categories, some quirky, some clichéd, and picked out her best of the best, some honourable mentions, and, because I believe glowing reviews lack credibility and relentless positivity is almost as toxic as negativity, pointing out a few stinkers along the way. Previously, as far as Madonna was concerned, I suspect, her legacy was for others to pore over – she was very busy with the business of making history, not studying it. Her body may have aged, she may have become a mother, and an inspiration to the pop girls and guys who followed, but she’s not a museum piece, she has (until recently) shown little interest in retreading her biggest hits.īut post-60, with a movie of her life supposedly on the cards, and following a series of injuries that stymied her Madame X theatre tour – itself a much more intimate set of gigs than the extravaganzas she was more accustomed to staging – there’s a sense she’s taking stock, reappraising her legacy, and spending at least some of her time with one eye on the past. To her, it’s simple: it’s what’s she’s always done. She’s often questioned on why she still creates pop music, using modern sounds and working with the biggest producers du jour. She sees herself as a contemporary pop star, in a constant state of evolution. No ‘Songs from the Great American Songbook’ for Madonna – and I’m praying she never goes orchestral. She’s resisted the slide into heritage act that’s befallen many of her peers. She’s always prided herself on advancing, not regressing, despite the best efforts of the media (and her fans let’s be honest) to rake back over her many, many achievements. It’s only recently Madonna has started looking back at her career with any depth. Madonna is celebrating forty years in the business – well, she’s not actually doing that much other than post a couple of Instagram Stories, but the fact remains her first single Everybody was released forty years ago this week.
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