Madonna Singles

Borderline - heartbreaking, striving, powerless yet still hopeful. And *that* keybd line. Keep pushing me, keep pushing me....
One of the ten best singles ever made.

Into The Groove is the greatest American pop single of the 1980s

Cherish - for years one of the few grossly saturated sunny day pop songs i not only tolerated but actually liked

Bedtime Story is the best collision of Madonna, Bjork, Nellee Hooper and Mark Romanek imaginable (and thats pretty damn good i reckon)

Like A Prayer - can't add much to hats already been said - classico

Deeper And Deeper - fuck it lets wear our moms clothes, drink cocktails and go to the rollerdisco

what about us pinksters?

"Dear Jessie" Concept pop classic.

1. "Angel" - smooth bouncy synthline, sly cooing vocals, I fall in love every time I hear it.
2. "Cherish" - perfectly executed dollop of confection, crisp & effervescent energy sustained all the way through.
3. "Into The Groove" - the original 12" version has so much more of the groove than the one on Immaculate Collection.

1)borderline
2)live to tell
3)lucky star
4)crazy for you
5)into the groove.

all of those are among the best pop songs of all time.

Always *H A T E D* "Crazy for You," as it sounded so cloyingly banal in the face of her other 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

my top 5 (in no order):
1)borderline
2)live to tell
3)lucky star
4)crazy for you
5)into the groove.

all of those are among the best pop songs of all time.

swap 'like a prayer' for 'crazy for you' and still ^^^

HOLIDAY!!!!

and also into the groove. But seriously, why so few mentions of holiday?

I have to go for "Dear Jessie", but out of the more well-known ones, "Holiday" is definitely a good call. Love "Lucky Star" too. And "Music" even though it isn't much of a song harmonically.

"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.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, martes 9 de diciembre de 2008 15:13 (Yesterday)

That's a very nice writeup Soto!

Thanks!

Alright I've been looking everywhere for this groovier - into the groove 12" - mentioned upthread and I still can't find it. ysi anyone?

have we not done a madonna singles poll?

like top 10 in rank order or something?

into the groove wins obv, but then--?

she probably has too many singles to fit into an ilx poll

POX is also impossible: ranking only her 10/10 flawless all-time classic singles gives me the following -

deeper and deeper
die another day
burning up
bad girl
open your heart
like a prayer
into the groove
everybody
vogue
music
frozen
take a bow
justify my love
hung up
ray of light
dress you up
oh father
live to tell
don't tell me
beautiful stranger
like a virgin
borderline
papa don't preach

i consider it a real mark of her greatness that my three favourite madonna singles come from three separate decades

look at those songs! even if she (likely) never releases anything truly great again she can still say she has the greatest catalogue in pop music.

there's going to be a tracks poll, but it's quite far down in the queue so it won't take place till 2013/14.

Today, coincidentally, I have to write an essay on Madonna and choose a Top 10 which mixes hits with a couple of surprises. The essay's easy, the list is hard.

there's still room for someone to sign up to do a proper Madonna ballot poll

what was your top 10 in the end DL? and indeed where is your essay?

My top fifteen postedhere. But here's ten:

Angel
Where's The Party (Dub Remix)
Burning Up
Crazy For You
Vogue
Deeper and Deeper
Live To Tell
Into the Groove
Like a Prayer
Open Your Heart

Cherish because even my dad loves it (I caught him humming it once. It was kinda weird.)
Borderline - first Madonna song I heard
Like a Prayer
Frozen
Oh Father
Bad Girl
Burning Up
Ray of Light

I hate Vogue. I can admit it's a decent song and I can understand people liking it, but it annoys the hell out of me.

Writing it for next issue of Q. I don't think of myself as a big Madonna fan but I loved writing it and found myself working from a shortlist of 30 brilliant songs - I love it when work forces me to re-engage with an artist and realise how much I like them. It's not quite my personal top 10 because that would be all singles and I was asked to pick out a couple of "deep cuts" to mix it up a bit but anyway it's this:

Borderline
Into the Groove
Live to Tell
Oh Father
Justify My Love
Deeper and Deeper
I Want You
Skin
Don't Tell Me
Hung Up (SDP Extended Vocal)

Regrettable omissions: Burning Up, Ray of Light, Music, Bad Girl, Express Yourself, Crazy For You, Everybody, Beautiful Stranger.

it's pretty much impossible not to put together a solid gold top 10, isn't it.

my fav two remixes are prob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL4NPftrcr0

immense synth line grinding itself into your face forever - mdna for REAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWNu3Un7_5Y

terrifying* and mental version of "justify my love" where she starts reciting the book of revelation like a possessed woman

*esp at 6am in an, er, altered state

deep cuts off the albums - she got way better at these in the '90s, i think (or maybe just picked the best songs as singles in the '80s)

secret garden
in this life
love tried to welcome me
to have and not to hold
sky fits heaven
impressive instant
inside of me
push
waiting
thief of hearts

If it's just limited to singles (and making an effort to spread it around chronologically, instead of just listing everything from 1989-1993):

Lucky Star
Live to Tell
Open Your Heart
Vogue
Erotica
Fever
I'll Remember
Nothing Really Matters
Don't Tell Me
Get Together

i love thief of hearts.

you'll do it, you'll take it, you'll screw it, you'll fake it, undo it, you'll break it, you're over, you can't take it

Someone joked to me once that song was about me and now I just can't even listen to it anymore.

Because it makes me sad that he was only joking.

deep cuts off the albums - she got way better at these in the '90s

Cuz she recorded better albums-as-albums.

"Skin" is such a great great GREAT song, I wish she'd done a full Underworld pastiche album

"thief of hearts" matches up really well to something i remember reading in some gossip rag that sandra bernhard had said about madonna, that "she'll steal all your friends." i like to imagine that song as madonna's song about herself from the pov of haters.

Nice pairing with "Bad Girl," then.

"thief of hearts" is totally her gayest song imo

Nice pairing with "Bad Girl," then.

― dead-trius (Eric H.), Friday, February 24, 2012 11:58 AM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally! that fucking album, so great.

It's an album to aspire to in its entirety.

It's like "the examined life" in 80 minutes.

"what happens now, i know i don't deserve you / i wonder how i'm ever gonna hurt you" is such an amazing lyric

"Words"!

Only one mention of "Human Nature" in this thread, and it's part of a long list!

i love "human nature" but i get the impression it's a little too on the nose to be an ilx fave, or something

I love "Human Nature" too

tbh the adoration of Erotica baffles me

You know what's a lovely little thing? "Love Tried to Welcome Me."

tbh the adoration of Erotica baffles me

Really? Straight men not getting it doesn't baffle me in the slightest.

I have to add "The Power of Goodbye" to my list. Lovely.

One day I was looking at the liner notes for Bedtime Stories that I saw that Dallas Austin produced/co-wrote "Human Nature". He also did "Motownphilly," and there's some similarity in the doo-wop-ish background vocals in the "Human Nature" chorus.

and TLC!

I don't think anyone is surprised that Dallas Austin did songs for TLC

"love tried to welcome me" is some dark dark bleakness wrapped up in soft seductive sade-soul

"human nature" is amazing, yes - that bassline

Yeah, he was one of the hottest R&B producers in the mid nineties.

although I am surprised that apparently Dallas Austin worked with Fishbone?????

erotica is probably her most consistent album no?

her most consistent album is either True Blue or Ray of Light

Yes, Erotica is her most consistent album. That's for better for some and for worse for others.

Erotica is her most consistently disappointing album

BOOM

Words spoken out of hate.

they cut like a knife
cut into my life

lol i like the way that song sounds, at least

Please take them all back

"love tried to welcome me" is some dark dark bleakness wrapped up in soft seductive sade-soul

^^^^^^^^^

Erotica is def. her most consistent album. I barely ever listen to Ray of Light anymore so maybe i'm being a bit unfair on it but in my head it seems so washed-out and anxious to please by comparison.

POXXV:

Deeper & Deeper
Bad Girl
Lucky Star
Into The Groove
Take A Bow
Vogue
Like A Prayer
Open Your Heart
Justify My Love
Burning Up
Get Together
Like A Virgin
Waiting
Everybody
Live To Tell
Die Another Day
Love Tried To Welcome Me
Papa Don't Preach
Hung Up
Something To Remember
Frozen
Borderline
Hung Up
Erotica
Secret

I listened to ROL last Tuesday and had trouble accepting her pompous singing this time 'round.

Yeah that too.

ROL gets either overrated or underrated i find - when i'm in the mood for it it's really very satisfying, particularly the aqueous jacuzzi ballads like "to have and not to hold" (where her smoother vocal timbre really works) or the ones with massive banging beats like "skin" or "sky fits heaven" which overpower how pompous she is.

yeah i wouldn't say it's her BEST album b/c the high points are, in general, quite as high as on some other albums. but it is consistently engrossing.

i think it sold really poorly compared to her prior records right?

and yeah once she really started enunciating i find her records harder to take.

xpost

i was talking about erotica.

lots of xposts.

I have a soft spot for many Madonna tracks, but I'd definitely say that 'Like A Prayer' was my favourite of hers. It's that fucking bassline, man!

i think it sold really poorly compared to her prior records right?

ROL? It's her best-selling US album post-LAP.

It did everything she wanted, and it happened to coincide with the golden age of Soundscan sales: not only is it her best-selling album of the last twenty years but it's now regarded as an aesthetic touchstone.

'Ray Of Light' was a massive success here in the UK too, and if I remember it marked the point where a lot of indie kids started taking her seriously, because of the link with William Orbit.

if I remember it marked the point where a lot of indie kids started taking her seriously

I was in grad school, and it was the first Madonna studio album (to be fair they owned the two comps) my friends bought and regarded as a Serious Recording.

how young are you people?

young enough to have digested every Billboard of the last sixty years.

Wasn't it also the first (and last?) Madonna album to get a Grammy nod?

The vocals w/added harmonies in the last chorus of "into the groove" are strangely powerful. creates a more sensual tone.

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