| Like a Virgin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Madonna | ||||
| Released | November 12, 1984 August 5, 1985 (Re-release) May 21, 2001 (Remastered) |
|||
| Recorded | April – September 1984, Power Station Studios, Manhattan, New York[1] | |||
| Genre | Dance-pop, pop rock, dance[2] | |||
| Length | 43:10 | |||
| Label | Sire, Warner Bros. Warner Bros. (2001) |
|||
| Producer | Nile Rodgers, Madonna, Stephen Bray | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
|
||||
| Madonna chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Like a Virgin | ||||
|
||||
Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 1984 by Sire Records. The album was re-released in 1985 world wide (not in North America) with the bonus track "Into the Groove". In 2001, Warner Bros. released a remastered version with two bonus remix tracks (this version did not include "Into the Groove"). The RIAA certified it Diamond on May 21, 1998,[4] recognizing ten million shipments in the United States. Worldwide, the album has sold over 21 million copies.[5]
Like A Virgin, is stylistically different from Madonna's debut album, it can be seen to incorporate more rock elements within each of the songs rather than just a Pop dance album as well as pay tribute to some of Madonna's own inspirations with a more retro or Motown influenced recordings.
Contents |
Nile Rodgers was chosen by Madonna as the producer of the album, mostly because of his work with David Bowie on his album Let's Dance[citation needed]. Like a Virgin built on the sound and image that Madonna had created in her debut album, which was very much disco and pop-oriented. Madonna infamously dedicated the album to "all the virgins of the world."
The album's title track was her first number one hit song. Madonna debuted the song at the first annual MTV Video Music Awards. In this performance, Madonna rolled on the floor in a white wedding dress, exposing her knickers and garter belt, all the while wearing a belt that read "Boy Toy". The album's second single, "Material Girl", earned Madonna the nickname of "material girl" from the media. The song "Into the Groove" was included in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan and due to its success - it hit #1 in various countries, becoming her first number one in the UK - was included in the re-release of the album. Dress You Up is highly regarded as a cult classic for her fanbase and was added onto the 2009 leg of Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour as well as making a comeback on her 2009 compilation album Celebration due to popular demand, this song also sparked controversy in its own right as being one of the songs that lead to the Parental Advisory stickers introduced to albums that contain suggestive material or explicit lyrics.
The album was a huge success on the charts, despite critics of her first album not being entirely convinced by Madonna's skills and described her as an "unimportant annoying one-hit-wonder" with a voice similar to "Minnie Mouse on helium." Like A Virgin began to reflect Madonna as a more versatile and artistic performer and vocals on this album being reflectively sharper in contrast to her early works in the music industry. The Grammy Award show unfortunately largely snubbed Like a Virgin due to the controversy behind the title track and title of the album, despite acclaim of strong material and more gravitas behind the lyrics of each song; although she did receive a few nominations at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards,despite losing each of them. Michael Paoletta from Billboard commented that the songs on the album sustain a "fevered dance-rock momentum."[3]
The iconic cover sleeve and images was by Steven Meisel who would become a regular collaborator. In 1992 he shot all the photographs for the infamous book Sex.
She later performed "Material Girl", "Angel", "Like a Virgin", "Over and Over", "Into the Groove" and "Dress You Up" on her 1985 Virgin Tour.
The version of "Stay" that appears on the album borrows its lyrics from two early Madonna demo tracks titled "Stay" and "Don't You Know". An early version of "Stay" appeared on the demo cassette that landed Madonna her record deal with Sire/Warner in 1982.
The title song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic in the song "Like a Surgeon" and was also covered by former Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators with his later band, Lords Of The New Church.
To promote the album Madonna embarked on her first tour throughout America in 1985 with The Virgin Tour and made her presence on live shows as well as her famous 1985 performance at the Live Aid charity concert where she performed previous hit song Holiday, current worldwide hit Into The Groove and then before she performed the then new song Love Makes The World Go Round (from the album True Blue which was released the following year)she made a reference to the controversy surrounding her appearance in the Playboy magazine in the late seventies before she released her debut album where she could earn money, where she famously declared in a humorous style "I'm not taking shit off today!, because the press may hold it against me ten years from now."
Material Girl, Like A Virgin, Dress You Up and Into The Groove have since made several appearances in her Drowned World, Reinvention, Confessions and Sticky & Sweet world tours. and sales of Like A Virgin have increased over time to 21 million copies issued worldwide.
"Material Girl" incorporated New wave music and consists of synth arrangements with a deeper voice range repeating the hook. The lyrics identify with materialism, with Madonna asking for a rich and affluent life, rather than romance and relationships. Contemporary and old critics have frequently noted "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin" as the songs that made Madonna an icon, also the songs have lead to many to speculate the true meanings of each song leading to much speculation.The song has achieved much acclaim and critical appreciation.
Musically "Angel" consists of three chord ascending hook, which serves for the verse and chorus. It has vocal harmonies beneath the main chorus and the lyrics repeat the angel-like image of Madonna's Saviour.The song has since received much praise from contemporary critics. Musically "Like a Virgin" is a dance-oriented song, composed of two hooks. Madonna's voice is heard in a high register while a continuous arrangement of drums are heard along the bassline. The lyrics of the song is ambiguous and consists of hidden innuendo. In sexual terms, the lyrics can be interpreted in different ways for different people.Along with "Material Girl" the song is one of Madonna's signature songs.
Lyrically, "Over and Over" deals with ambition and the drive to succeed. Instead of giving up when faced with defeat, Madonna proclaims that "I get up again, over and over" – a quality that has held constant throughout the star's twenty-six-year career.it contains a heavy drum beat and use of synths throughout and the continuous hook has achieved success. "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" is a pop ballad song, it has achieved much appreciation amongst some critics and really boasts the depths and range of Madonna's vocal techniques providing a haunting atmosphere amongst the strums of an electronic guitar and use of synths to create a mysterious and deep listening experience and backing vocals by a choir.
"Dress You Up" has been complimented and achieved strong critical success by old and contemporary critics and reviewers and also complimented the heavy dance nature of the song and the incorporation of rock and synths. It has since grown further appreciation in cult groups and fan bases."Dress You Up" was added to the "Filthy Fifteen" list of the Parents Music Resource Center, as they believed it to promote unabashed sexual imagery."Dress You Up" is a characteristic drum machine driven dance track and consists of a two-chord verse. The chorus is supported by the vocals from a choir, a four-chord progression and a single guitar note, played by Rodgers.Madonna's vocals in the song were critically acclaimed through the use of a far richer and deeper tone.
"Shoo-Bee-Doo" is a song that contains homaging to Madonna's inspiration of Motown music and is styled in the form of a ballad and again was a song that reflected Madonna's lyrical depth which will be shown in later recordings such as Like A Prayer and is again a highly appreciated ballad by both fans and critics alike.
"Pretender" is a synthesized dance song with use of heavy electronic production and softer melodies, while "Stay" can be noted for being a Madonna song written from back in her Emmy and Breakfast Club days that was initially scrapped from her debut album, but was reworked and finalized for this album instead an, again, is a song that reached certain acclaim amongst critics and fan groups through the use of the heavier percussion as well as the inclusion of a more rock themed mood as well as being a rather dance orientated song.
"Like A Virgin" can be seen as being an early bold testament of the mid eighties, it showed that a video doesn't just have to support a song but also you can take it to further extents and,basically, create an artform that can cause much debate. This video had since been part of much criticism as well as worldwide acclaim, many view it as an early Madonna classic, it was directed by Mary Lambert (who would be a future collaborator on later Madonna works)it was shot in Venice, Italy and partly in New York City in July 1984.a critic complemented the video as launching Madonna as a surefire Mega-Star and critics stated "Madonna's days as a cheap and cheerful video star were over. She was moving into serious spectacle."
"Material Girl" paid tribute to Marilyn Monroe's performance of the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The mimicked scenes are interspersed with scenes of a Hollywood director trying to win the heart of an actress, played by Madonna herself. Discovering that, contrary to her song, the young woman was not impressed by money and expensive gifts, he pretended to be penniless and succeeded in taking her out on a date. Scholars noted the symbology of the video and deduced it as a medium for promoting Madonna's image. She has performed the song in four of her world tours, most of them being mimicry of the song and the video. It was in the video of "Material Girl" that Madonna began to accept and utilize herself being compared to Monroe. However, she established a safe distance from those comparisons and developed inside the same pastiche. Details like the usage of different gloves or different fans in the video, brought forth the connections between these women, however Madonna alluded herself in subtle ways. Madonna's fan, which appeared at the end of the video, signified that Madonna – while paying her tribute to Monroe – was signaling that she had no intention of being a victim like her, and that she was on the path of becoming a feminist post-modern myth.Author Nicholas Cook commented that the video promoted Madonna's identity as the song suggested, with the purpose of shifting "Madonna's image from that of a disco-bimbo to authentic star." "Material Girl" was nominated for best female video at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards.
Both music video's have continued to achieve success and are still regarded as two of the greatest videos ever made in the music industry and paved the way for how far Madonna could push creative boundaries and incorporate statements in not only her music but also in her videos.
many songs from Like A Virgin have been performed across all of Madonna's worldwide tours. "Like A Virgin" has been incorporated several times into different versions musically across each tour which includes a very Eastern influenced performance on her Blonde Ambition World Tour which was deemed highly controversial at the time, and a electronic disco influenced moving pole dance choreography in the Confessions Tour in 2006 which has been acclaimed worldwide.
"Material Girl" saw a welcome return in the 2004 Re-Invention Tour amongst others with a more rock influenced sound as well as her infamous Mid-Western accent and retro appearance in the Blonde Ambition World Tour in 1990 which saw a parody of the song as well as scenery influenced by the Dick Tracey motion picture she was promoting at the time.
due to popular demand, "Dress You Up" saw a return with a rock influenced sound on her Sticky and Sweet World Tour on her 2009 leg of the tour, the song was to be performed on the Re-Invention world tour but couldn't be performed as Madonna then in 2004 hadn't learnt all the chords of the guitar but now as a more experienced guitarist she managed to perform with great success a rendition of "Dress You Up" as part of the Old School segment of the tour.
Like a Virgin has been certified Diamond for selling more than 10 million copies in the U.S. alone, and has sold over 21 million copies worldwide.[6][7] The album entered the Billboard 200 at #3 in December 1984 and stayed within the top ten before hitting #1 in February 1985, where it stayed for 3 weeks.
The album also was the first to top the UK charts and has since been certified 5x platinum with sales currently exceeding 1,500,000 copies of the album shipped. Like A Virgin is her first album to get to the top position in the majority of the music markets across the globe and in each country at least in the top 5 positions on the charts, this started the trend for forthcoming albums of Madonna's which each set new records by entering more at the top positions of the charts, Like A Virgin topped the charts in the majority of the leading music markets and in each country has at least got platinum sales which was seen as a new record in the early 80's in music and has since been maintained by Madonna who still holds that record.
| # | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Material Girl" | Peter Brown, Robert Rans | Nile Rodgers | 4:01 |
| 2. | "Angel" | Madonna, Stephen Bray | Nile Rodgers | 3:55 |
| 3. | "Like a Virgin" | Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg | Nile Rodgers | 3:39 |
| 4. | "Over and Over" | Madonna, S. Bray | Nile Rodgers | 4:12 |
| 5. | "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" | Miles Gregory | Nile Rodgers | 4:50 |
| 6. | "Into the Groove" (Only on 1985 Re-issue) | Madonna, S. Bray | Madonna, Stephen Bray | 4:43 |
| 7. | "Dress You Up" | Andrea LaRusso, Peggy Stanziale | Nile Rodgers | 4:01 |
| 8. | "Shoo-Bee-Doo" | Madonna | Nile Rodgers | 5:17 |
| 9. | "Pretender" | Madonna, S. Bray | Nile Rodgers | 4:30 |
| 10. | "Stay" | Madonna, S. Bray | Nile Rodgers | 4:06 |
1985 Re-issue bonus track
| # | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Into the Groove" | Madonna, S. Bray | Madonna, Stephen Bray | 4:43 |
2001 Remastered version bonus tracks
| # | Title | Writer(s) | Remixer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10. | "Like a Virgin" (Extended Dance Remix) | T. Kelly, B. Steinberg | John "Jellybean" Benitez | 6:08 |
| 11. | "Material Girl" (Extended Dance Remix) | P. Brown, R. Rans | John "Jellybean" Benitez | 6:07 |
Additional notes
| Problems listening to these files? See media help. |
Charts
|
Sales and certifications
|
| Preceded by Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen |
Billboard 200 number-one album February 9 – March 1, 1985 |
Succeeded by Make It Big by Wham! |
| Preceded by Now That's What I Call Music 5 by Various Artists Hounds of Love by Kate Bush |
UK number one album September 21, 1985 – September 27, 1985 October 12, 1985 – October 18, 1985 |
Succeeded by Hounds of Love by Kate Bush Hounds of Love by Kate Bush |
   | link - allmusic ((( Like a Virgin > Overview ))) |
| | link - CD Reviews : Rolling Stone |
| | link - Robert Christgau: CG: madonna |
| | CRIA - Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA): Certification Results |
| | ARIA - ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2000 Albums |
| | IFPI Switzerland - The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community |
| | link - Like A Virgin - Mad-Eyes - Madonna album with Nile Rodgers |
| | link - allmusic ((( Like a Virgin > Review ))) |
| | link - allmusic ((( True Blue > Review ))) |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
