Don't go for second best, baby. Put your ILM ARTIST POLL #31: MADONNA to the test.

The rushed transition from verse to chorus kills "oh father" for me

yeah she did xp

(which is what promise to try is about)

Oh Father is what justifies Dear Jessie's existence. Don't think I could handle the immediate transition from Cherish to Oh Father. The warped cheerfulness of DJ eases the flow.

yeah her mom died of cancer when she was really little, like 4 or 5 iirc. She was super close to her dad. He remarried (housekeeper? or family friend or something) and she had a pretty severe falling out with him as a teenager, dunno that it ever resolved?

yeah mother died when she was very young, five or six

xpost

recap

50. "WORDS" from Erotica (1992) [7 votes, 136 points]
49. "I'LL REMEMBER" from the motion picture soundtrack With Honors (1994) [6 votes, 142 points]
48. "THE POWER OF GOOD-BYE" from Ray of Light (1998) [8 votes, 144 points]
47. "KEEP IT TOGETHER" from Like a Prayer (1989) [9 votes, 148 points]
46. "DIE ANOTHER DAY" from the motion picture soundtrack Die Another Day (2002) [7 votes, 149 points]
(TIE) 44. "WHITE HEAT" from True Blue (1986) [7 votes, 161 points]
(TIE) 44. "SECRET GARDEN" from Erotica (1992) [7 votes, 161 points]
43. "WAITING" from Erotica (1992) [8 votes, 189 points]
42. "WHO'S THAT GIRL" from the motion picture soundtrack Who's That Girl (1987) [11 votes, 194 points]
41. "PHYSICAL ATTRACTION" from Madonna (1983) [10 votes, 195 points]
40. "CAUSING A COMMOTION" from the motion picture soundtrack Who's That Girl (1987) [11 votes, 201 points]
39. "RAIN" from Erotica (1992) [11 votes, 217 points]
38. "BEDTIME STORY" from Bedtime Stories (1994) [13 votes, 238 points]
37. "TRUE BLUE" from True Blue (1986) [12 votes, 240 points, 1 first place vote]
36. "GET TOGETHER" from Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) [11 votes, 246 points, 1 first place vote]

35. "EROTICA" from Erotica (1992) [12 votes, 263 points]
34. "DON'T TELL ME" from Music (2000) [15 votes, 284 points]
33. "MATERIAL GIRL" from Like a Virgin (1984) [14 votes, 307 points, 1 first place vote]
32. "MUSIC" from Music (2000) [16 votes, 309 points]
31. "LIKE A VIRGIN" from Like a Virgin (1984) [17 votes, 334 points, 1 first place vote]
30. "TILL DEATH DO US PART" from Like a Prayer (1989) [16 votes, 337 points]
29. "EVERYBODY" from Everybody 12"/Madonna (1982,83) [15 votes, 344 points]
28. "SECRET" from Bedtime Stories (1994) [16 votes, 349 points]
27. "LA ISLA BONITA" from True Blue (1986) [18 votes, 367 points, 1 first place vote]
26. "WHAT IT FEELS LIKE FOR A GIRL" from Music (2000) [19 votes, 378 points]
25. "FROZEN" from Ray of Light (1998) [18 votes, 381 points]
24. "TAKE A BOW" from Bedtime Stories (1994) [20 votes, 403 points]
23. "ANGEL" from Like a Virgin (1984) [18 votes, 409 points]
22. "BAD GIRL" from Erotica (1992) [17 votes, 415 points]
21. "OH FATHER" from Like a Prayer (1989) [18 votes, 424 points, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Beu8yyzuSJ4

So: "Beautiful Stranger" and "Rescue Me" - coming up or shut out?

I would not be upset if be former was shut out

There's 20 spots left and probably about 35-40 tracks that could be in them. <3 Madonna.

at this point thinking at least one, at most two tracks from my ballot won't make it

haha i was wondering about "beautiful stranger" but i'm sure enough ppl here outright hate it to shut it out

me i love the dun-na-na part so much

so...biggest surprises so far?

Mine: Get Together, Til Death Do Us Part, Power of Goodbye

'beautiful stranger' is a possibility, can't imagine 'rescue me' at this point

Just listening to Oh Father again now. 4.18 into it is my favourite moment in a Madonna song ever. When she sings "I never felt so good about myself" for the last time when she really goes for it and those bent guitar strings (to quote Alfred) come in again. It's just a really special moment.

Think I should have made this my number one.

beautiful stranger will get ppl dancing

Leonard's piano is front and center and clear too.

(on OF)

think like a prayer and the debut are gonna tie for most tracks but the debut will have the highest average ranking

one of those madonna cases too where oh father video kinda makes it all so perfect. the song + imagery thing.

for me anyway. that video kills me so hard.

Why Secret is a big thing for me:

- got into music 1991, lived the nme indie orthodoxy for a couple of years
- which is not a terrible way in as such because there's a lot of music to discover, but it becomes a dead end quite quickly
- but there are just enough loose ends in it pointing to ways out, Cypress Hill and TLC placing on end-of-years, respect for a more multichrome music history
- and The Face magazine, which doesn't give a toss about orthodoxy, or at least has a wider idea of what that is
- hinting that somewhere, this kid has contemporaries who live for music, only there Nirvana are only one of the brightest stars in the sky, there's Kylie and Jamiroquai and Mary J Blige too
- plus I've got a wonderful lending library nearby and I can start to fill in the gaps myself

- I leave school and my old friends in summer 1994, having played grunge and the like all year
- and in that lonely summer I'm drifting into say Duran Duran, because why not?
- come september Secret appears on the radio
- I've borrowed the Immaculate Collection, I'm into it
- and I pick up the cassingle in what must be my first week at university
- Secret is great

- but my contemporaries turn out not to be the music lovers who I sort of knew were out there
- except the metal dudes
- they're kids who're just finding the indie orthodoxy I've tired of
- so I'm back with my cassette, and my library copy of Thank You
- and hey, britpop's arriving and it's a decent time to be a student with student music
- but me and Secret and The Bomb, we never found our omnivores

Where were you when I needed you, ILX?

think like a prayer and the debut are gonna tie for most tracks but the debut will have the highest average ranking

Erotica already has 6 entries on the poll and there are only 8 tracks total on the s/t (and who's voting "I Know It" or "Think Of Me"?)

also in what cracked-out psychotic universe do ppl live in where they thought "Beautiful Stranger" even had a chance of placing on this poll

don't look at me, "secret" was in my top 10

xpost

"Beautiful Stranger" is beloved!

#4 Pazz and Jop that year

I thought it was fun and pretty novel for a 60s throwback number, with the sitar and go-go girl combo.

"Beautiful Stranger" is beloved!

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 8, 2013 4:32 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#4 Pazz and Jop that year

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 8, 2013 4:32 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well that's just embarrassing for everyone involved

should we also be expecting a top 10 showing for "American Pie" while we're at it?

haha

That makes no sense. "American Pie" has no constituency except for residents of bedlam.

I don't have the spreadsheet in front of me, but I feel confident in saying that American Pie (rightfully) got ZERO votes.

Did you get my ballot?

lol

to know you
is to be part OF you

Ha! You trickster. You made me go back and check.

Pretty sure ILM's love for Creedence Clearwater Revival will smuggle "Beautiful Stranger" into the top 20.

Alfred did you swallow that balloon already

which balloon?

Listening again, I think I had one reservation about "Oh Father" at the time: what I perceived to be 'little girl' vocals in the chorus (the multiple higher pitch tracks in unison) seemed kind of hackneyed to me. But I now suspect it was simply that it vaguely recalled Martika's "Toy Soldiers" from a year earlier!

xpost the ~balloon~ for smuggling beautiful stranger into the top 20

You can't hurrrt me now
I got away from you
I never thought I would
(WON'T YA COME OUT AND PLAY WITH ME)

Erotica already has 6 entries on the poll and there are only 8 tracks total on the s/t (and who's voting "I Know It" or "Think Of Me"?)

I voted 'Think of Me'! Not expecting it to place though.

'Swim' isn't going to make it, is it? :(

If "Swim" does make it, I will be super shocked and happy

Pretty sure ILM's love for Creedence Clearwater Revival will smuggle "Beautiful Stranger" into the top 20.

As a CCR fan, I find the comparison offensive.

I also voted for Think of Me, I could have put everything from the first album on my list. It's easily my favourite album of hers.

I'm v happy Take A Bow got in nice and high - I went back and forth on it and had to cut it in the end. I love the slight asian nod with the strings/percussion. Gentle and lovely.

not here for "swim", too much eye-roll worthy didatic moralising students rape their teachers new age stuff in the verses

when i listen to ray of light i have to skip the first four tracks which are the worst and start with SKIN which is great.

not here for "swim", too much eye-roll worthy didatic moralising students rape their teachers new age stuff in the verses

you're thinking of "Give Me All Your Luvin'"