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

I mean, someone voted this song #1 above EVERY OTHER SONG in Madonna's catalog

That would be me, yes.

lol at facepalm, very good

can you send me your address so I know where to direct the medical bills from all of the headdesking this is causing me

I do applaud facepalm.gif tho

Martin Scorsese called. He prefers "Thief of Hearts."

Honestly, I don't get your hate for it...and it did very well in Pazz & Jop, if I'm remembering correctly--loving it is hardly an aberration.

it's a super sappy, unnatural-sounding dripfest in its own right but what really cemented my hatred was the fucking video

Sappy? Ballads are sappy--I thought you'd say corny attempt at psychedelia or something.

between 'cherish' and 'dear jessie' and the various rol thru american life stuff i wonder if you could make a comp of madonna doing the late 60s sunshine pop and hippie rock she clearly grew up on or listens to when she does yoga.

http://i.imgur.com/uJdMGAk.jpg

19. "EXPRESS YOURSELF" from Like a Prayer (1989) [21 votes, 457 points]

So.happy I didn't have MTV then!

(by "unnatural-sounding" I mean this is really the advent of disconnected robot Madonna for me)

Actually, summer '99 was among the happiest times of my life, and the songs puts me in mind of it, so on that completely solipsistic level, good on that song.

An authenticity argument on behalf of Madonna...you're messing with my mind here.

Never liked Express Yourself. I was going to posit that songs in the imperative never work, but NWA immediately expose that theory as bollocks.

"Express Yourself" is great, especially that bridge

;_; @ Express Yourself being this low. I picked it as a dark horse candidate for No. 1

between 'cherish' and 'dear jessie' and the various rol thru american life stuff i wonder if you could make a comp of madonna doing the late 60s sunshine pop and hippie rock she clearly grew up on or listens to when she does yoga.

I am pretty sure I hate about 80% of this side of Madonna's output

Despite some conversation about which version of EY was better in the voting thread, I used the single mix in the Spotify playlist. Its reach as a single is far more pervasive than as an album cut.

which is odd cuz that same era is ground zero for like 80% of the cure

I also hate "Mint Car" and "Push"

I found an image of Robot Madonna and Child, just for DJP (too large to post).

also the way she sings the Rs in "stranger" and "heard" is one of my biggest pet peeves (see also "Linger" by the Cranberries)

lol i voted for "beautiful stranger," now tinged with some regret if it's so far ahead of "secret," "bad girl," etc.

but you know great spiraling ecstatic track that inspires a kind of impressive ire in dan

Even as somebody who only voted for singles in this, I'm surprised "Beautiful Stranger" is so high. I even like it -- or I remember liking it, haven't heard it in years -- but I had to cut so many better songs than that one from my ballot that its placement surprises me.

Stranger is the apogee of M's britsnobbery.

Also, "Express Yourself" is my favorite iteration of that late-'80s empowerment pop thing (see also "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves," "New Sensation," I feel like there was a lot of shiny positivity on the charts there for a bit).

Did she ever express any affection for, or even interest in, Blighty when she was in her pomp?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf-cOavfchs

http://i.imgur.com/oEEoWms.jpg

18. "CHERISH" from Like a Prayer (1989) [22 votes, 463 points, 1 first place vote]

and here I was thinking I would have my furysplosion over the placement of "Cherish"

can't wait for "dear jessie"'s placement and dan's immolation

first herb ritts video right?

just gonna assume you are asking that of "Dear Jessie" because lol

In 2009, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna confessed that she had never been able to predict if her songs would be successful, irrespective of her personal opinion of them. As an example, she cited "Cherish" as one of the most "retarded" songs she had written, but noted it became a commercial success.[6]

(I love it, fwiw.)

Cherish is v much not "retarded"

"beautiful stranger" is likeable and really, really catchy, i don't know why the surprise? i seem to recall it being pretty popular on release, it's this light-hearted bubblegummy straight-up pop song released in the middle of an otherwise quite seriousfaced/experimental/electronic period

I figured that once Goldmember came out and people started turning on the Austin Powers franchise, people went back to "Beautiful Stranger" and realized it is fucking terrible

"express yourself" is alright but i don't think it's that special - like "cherish" (which is v much proto "beautiful stranger") and "beautiful stranger" aren't nec highest-tier madge singles for me, but at times they're just what you want. "express yourself" is like the 30th best madonna song in all situations, never the best

oh i fucking hate everything about austin powers but it bizarrely gave us three pretty great pop songs that all stand up over a decade on

"The Look of Love" was written in 1967.

Getting swept away by the Austin Powers franchise wasn't really a factor in my feelings about "Beautiful Stranger" (though I do love that video, and wish it had finished second in the video poll).

Even when I reduce Madonna's singles catalog down the to the 40-41 songs I believe most people could name off the tops of their heads or recognize from radio play, I find it mind-boggling that people couldn't find 20 better songs than "Beautiful Stranger"

IMO you could limit the list to every single she did in the 80s and still EASILY find 20 better songs, and I don't even like all of those singles (and have zero recollection of "Gambler")

lol okay 30 seconds in and I can confidently say that "Beautiful Stranger" is better than "Gambler"

haha

strange that every actual measurement of that sort - the charts, this poll - counters yr argument

http://i.imgur.com/X0Gjs73.jpg

17. "HUMAN NATURE" from Bedtime Stories (1994) [21 votes, 465 points, 1 first place vote]

Nice. Was getting worried about that one not placing. By far my favorite single from BS.