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

"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.

gimme a break

haha wow, didn't think this would place so high

Every poll involving artists I love with large catalogues have two or three high placements that baffle me. It it would be even more baffling if that didn't happen.

my number one

and i'm not sorry

DJP working overtime to hurt my feelings this morning.

xps: I'm not your bitch don't hang your balls on me.

That's the one with the animals getting whipped, right?

best bits of "human nature"

1) that fucking bassline
2) "would it sound better if i were a man?" - simultaneously scorning the world and coming on to it in the queerest possible way

xp Ha, DJP's constant hatred for Beautiful Stranger on the nominations thread made me protectively nudge it further up my ballot. I like faux-psych. Great production job. Don't remember the video.

"Human Nature" beating "Cherish", "Beautiful Stranger", "Material Girl" and "Like A Virgin" = hi dere, welcome to ILX

C'mon. "Like a Virgin" is really an ungood song.

that was not a criticism! didn't I just spend 90 minutes talking about how BS has the most apt iniitals?

don't repress yourself

for contrast: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/readers-poll-the-best-madonna-songs-of-all-time-20120404

10. Holiday
9. Into the Groove
8. Like A Virgin
7. Express Yourself
6. Frozen
5. Live To Tell
4. Borderline
3. Ray of Light
2. Vogue
1. Like a Prayer

lol two of those have the exact same placement in our poll.

"Human Nature" feels like the Dita version of "Express Yourself."

guessing 'vogue' at 2 and either 'holiday' or 'borderline' for the other

that rolling stone top 10 is kind of boring and obvious though

Bet there's a split between those who most love the quintessential Madonna songs most and those who most love her songs that step outside her usual conventions ("Beautiful Stranger" and "Human Nature", say).

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

16. "DRESS YOU UP" from Like a Virgin (1984) [24 votes, 553 points, 1 first place vote]

aw yeah

TOO LOW

That one sort of surprises me...didn't vote for it, but I like it.

<3 "dress you up", second best song on like a virgin imo

agreed ("Angel" being the first best)

I was the #1 for Cherish: not to get all Geir over here, but I find lots of the main chorus hooks in the songs from her imperial period have kind of worn away their appeal to me, but one thing I've come to realize even more lately is how good she is at verses; Like a Virgin had zero chance to make my ballot until I listened to it again and realized that the best hook was right before the chorus--the "you make me feel shiny and new" part, I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know--anyways, I think "Cherish" is p much a master class in verse-writing, the way that Madonna switches up the emphases in each subsequent bar to signal that sort of gradual build which then topples over with "don't underestimate my point of view" strikes me as really melodically inventive. If that song really was an idiotic toss-off then perhaps I still have yet to give her enough credit.

and she doesn't trip over "don't underestimate" either

^yeah otm

also I agree with Eric H. about being relieved to see Human Nature, not so much about LAV being ungood

I think I've voted for every one of the last five

I will say this, though, many of my earliest memories of MTV involve Madonna sloshing around in high tide, so that may have something to do with Cherish topping my ballot

i've still never gotten how 'dress you up' made the pmrc list, maybe it was just the current madonna hit and they wanted it to be known they weren't crazy about this chick either but there were other tracks at the time (and obv very much so after) that would've made a little more sense.

Bet there's a split between those who most love the quintessential Madonna songs most and those who most love her songs that step outside her usual conventions ("Beautiful Stranger" and "Human Nature", say).

I doubt it's that binary, I mean here are the songs that have placed so far that I have voted for:

The Power of Goodbye
White Heat
La Isla Bonita
What It Feels Like For A Girl
Frozen
Angel
Express Yourself
Human Nature
Dress You Up

I'm pretty sure that's not THAT far removed from the way most people picked their ballots aside from the ppl who put the entirety of Erotica on theirs

appalled at the low placing for "Express Yourself," what the hell people

the secret best Madonna/William Orbit song is "Amazing" off Music imo

http://i.imgur.com/osD7X7V.jpg

15. "JUSTIFY MY LOVE" from The Immaculate Collection (1990) [26 votes, 567 points]

gosh

weak song, fake prince by lenny kravitz, who the fuck needs it

Going to be an awful lot of sugar and not much vinegar in the top 10.

No.15 is a disgrace, what is wrong with you people?

Agreed

i just hope the beast within mix places in the remixes poll

madonna's sugar >>>>>>>>>>>>> her vinegar