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

I loved every second of this, both the sublime and the ridiculous:

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

fucking love ray of light. its the first madonna song that i remember being out and being a thing. like i remember human nature weirdly, and i knew who madonna was, people dressed up as her with the pointy boobs at costume parties in tv programs and i didn't really recognise her in that black leather cat suit, but ray of light was when i first understood her as something that was in the charts and someone who made music and it didn't vibe with what i knew of her, flailing around in strobe lights, the idea that there was parties people went to as well. weirdly exciting. it still gets me in that way.

i think the term i was looking for earlier re PDP was 'outro'. it's one of my favourite outros ever.

to be honest, the thing I have always loved about "Ray of Light" is the phrasing, particularly leading into that last "oh-oh-oh" section

it's totally Voice Lessons 101 ("let's use this vocalization to work on breath support, okay now apply that to this section of your song, oh look you just sang an eight-bar phrase in one breath") but it's so great

I'm surprised you'd love "Ray of Light" and feel such revulsion for "Beautiful Stranger." I know they're not exactly the same song, but they seem to be in the same neighborhood to my ears.

listen to the drums and you will find they are absolutely nothing alike

One is a driving, propulsive aural expression of euphoria and the other is a limp fart in wet underwear

One man, one vote: that's how this country works.

otm xp

Well..."driving, propulsive aural expression of euphoria" describes both quite well for me.

http://i.imgur.com/Ewc5xNP.jpg

11. "CRAZY FOR YOU" from the motion picture soundtrack Vision Quest (1985) [31 votes, 670 points, 1 first place vote]

this is such a fucking gorgeous song

one of my top five most performed at karaoke madonna tracks

The only early Madonna song I choose to code as gay.

looks like eight eighties tracks in the top ten

as it should be

pretty much

That 'Ray of Light' clip is brilliant. I remember watching her on Live Earth, or whatever it was called, slack jawed in amazement. I wish she'd done a 'rock' album instead of her half assed attempt at r&b, think it could have been something quite extraordinary.

interesting that ray of light placed high. for me it was more a moment than a song to remember

there are other songs on ROL I like more ("Skin", "The Power of Goodbye", "Sky Fits Heaven", "Little Star", "Frozen", "Drowned World/Substitute For Love") but the title track does an excellent job of standing as a representative of the album as a whole; it wasn't on my ballot but I am very happy it did this well

I really like "Crazy For You". Madonna's ballads are really underrated, she's actually one of the best pop ballads artists of all time.

i feel like "ray of light" is about as much of an outlier as you get on that album - it's no sore thumb obv, but it's the only song where she really lets herself go, surrenders to ecstasy, rather than does her poised and controlled thing

I really like "Crazy For You". Madonna's ballads are really underrated, she's actually one of the best pop ballads artists of all time.

I think "Live To Tell" and "Crazy For Your" are amazing, amazing songs but I don't know if I'd go quite that far; there are too many artists our there who made most of their careers in that lane and are just astonishing (though in fairness many of them would/could be called R&B; I was thinking specifically of Anita Baker)

Top 10, anyone?

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

10. "VOGUE" from I'm Breathless (1990) [29 votes, 697 points, 2 first place votes]

I dunno. The production smothers her voice. Live, though, the song takes off.

Re ROL.

Was secretly hoping "Crazy For You" would miss the top 50 entirely. It's probably the only big single she's had that I don't care for (which is darn impressive). The verses are not bad, but the chorus is a letdown for me.

xp Vogue barely made the top ten??

holy shit at 'vogue' that low though i guess it's all heavy hitters at this point

figured 'vogue' was the track on every ballot early going though maybe that's still to come

I would have voted for "Vogue" if we'd had 30 spots on our ballots rather than 20

Vogue barely made the top ten??

Vogue is seriously undervalued, perhaps because of overexposure. It's one of those songs now like Let's Get It On or whatever that's so engrained in pop culture that it's easy to forget it's a song.

I had to check to see if I have I'm Breathless (I do)--I thought the whole album was Dick Tracy music, and that "Vogue" was just a stray single. Anyway, holds up great, I think.

is it true (i know it's meant to be) that Vogue was a B side until someone at the record label had a word and suggested it be a single?

absolutely love this song, both the vocals (perhaps a bit simple in the verse but what a chorus) and the backing track as well as the interplay between them. Whenever she's not singing something seems to POP in the background. I even like the preachiness. It probably helps not having grown up when it was popular and only discovering it through video countdowns 4 or 5 years later.

i didn't put "vogue" on my ballot because i thought it might be a shoe-in for #1????

anyway UNDENIABLE TUNE

yeah 'vogue' was originally b-side to 'keep it together' i think until someone went 'um, guys?'.

Jesus Christ, people!

Like Madonna said, "You f***ed it up."

speaking of Dick Tracy i guess I'm Going Bananas ain't showing up in the Top 10 then :/

one of my college's a capella groups did a version of "I'm Going Bananas" which was basically as terrible as you are imagining

not sure if it's possible to overdose on Vogue (or Let's Get It On for that matter)* so yeah, it deserved better.

*of course you won't play either too often anymore but everyone should always be able to recognize them as this huge huge thing

If this means Take A Bow has placed above Vogue...wow

Take a Bow was #24.

has there been a marvin poll yet?

Listening to this bundle of cinematic references, house beats, monologues, and gay argot was astounding when I was fifteen.

xp a Motown poll is soon to come I believe

oh okay, good, thanks.

woah a Motown poll, i'm up for that.

Interesting tho that "Deeper and Deeper," presumably, scored higher than "Vogue."