Today in Madonna History: November 15, 2005

confessions album sheet music COADF Promo 550 coadf north american sell sheet

On November 15 2005, Madonna’s tenth studio album, Confessions On A Dance Floor, was released in North America by Warner Bros Records. The majority of the album was co-produced and co-written by Madonna & Stuart Price, with additional contributions by Mirwais, Bloodshy & Avant, Joe Henry and Anders Bagge & Peer Åström. It featured the singles Hung Up, Sorry, Get Together and Jump.

Madonna performed a small club show at Koko in London, UK on November 15th to celebrate the album’s release, with the set being streamed online to fans around the world. The live webcast was preceded by an exclusive mini-documentary titled Confessions…On A Promo Tour.

 

Today in Madonna History: November 14, 2004

On November 14 2004, Michael Colombier – the composer/arranger who produced the beautiful string arrangements for Madonna’s songs Die Another Day, Don’t Tell Me & Easy Ride, and composed the soundtrack for Swept Away (perhaps the film’s most memorable attribute) – passed away at age 65.

Colombier was one of the most prolific and versatile French musicians of his generation. Besides his career as a film composer scoring over 100 feature, cable and television films since the early 1960’s – Colombier was a prolific songwriter and arranger who worked with artists such as Joni Mitchell, Prince, Serge Gainsbourg, The Beach Boys, Herbie Hancock, Air, Barbra Streisand & Earth Wind And Fire.

michel-columbier-note

As a film composer, Michel Colombier scored many French and American films, including The Golden Child, Ruthless People, New Jack City, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and The Money Pit. His background in jazz was evident in the majority of his film scores, and his ability to compose original score music that merged seamlessly with pop songs made him the perfect composer for 1980’s films with song-heavy soundtracks, including White Nights, Against All Odds and Purple Rain (which won a Grammy Award as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Score).

Today in Madonna History: November 13, 1990

immaculate-promo-ad

On November 13 1990, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection, greatest hits CD and video collection were released in North America.

SoulBounce.com says this about the insanely successful collection:

That The Immaculate Collection is the biggest selling compilation album by a solo artist OF ALL TIME is no big surprise when you factor in the consummate icon that is Madonna Louise Ciccone. That even her greatest hits album would set the bar for all greatest hits albums to follow it is a no-brainer given the astronomical number of bars she’s raised. Let’s set the stage, though: 1990 was a huge year for The Material Girl even prior to The Immaculate Collection. The movie Dick Tracy, which Madonna starred in with then-paramour Warren Beatty, and the movie’s soundtrack, I’m Breathless, which includes the Academy Award winning Stephen Sondheim ballad Sooner Or Later and Vogue, one of the biggest hits of Madonna’s career, were both released mid-1990 to much fanfare and many accolades. Madonna also embarked on a huge concert tour in the spring of ’90, the Blond Ambition World Tour, while simultaneously shooting her concert documentary, Truth or Dare. She had already solidified her place as the most successful female artist of the ’80s with three number one albums and seven number one singles. So it’s only fitting that The Immaculate Collection, which served as a venerable summary of Madonna’s entire career up to that point, closed out her mammoth year.

immaculatecollection-album-cover-1

The CD included the following hits:

Holiday
Lucky Star
Borderline
Like A Virgin
Material Girl
Crazy For You
Into The Groove
Live To Tell
Papa Don’t Preach
Open Your Heart
La Isla Bonita
Like A Prayer
Express Yourself
Cherish
Vogue
Justify My Love
Rescue Me

immaculate-collection-vhs-1

The music video collection included the following clips:

Lucky Star
Borderline
Like A Virgin
Material Girl
Papa Don’t Preach
Open Your Heart
La Isla Bonita
Like A Prayer
Express Yourself
Cherish
Oh Father
Vogue
Vogue (live at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards)

If you could change The Immaculate Collection, what would you do?

Today in Madonna History: November 12, 1984

madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-1 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-2 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-3 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-4 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-5 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-6 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-7 madonna-like-a-virgin-november-12-8

On November 12 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin album was released by Sire Records.  The album was re-released worldwide in 1985, to include the bonus track, Into the Groove.

The original track listing for Madonna’s second album included:

Material Girl
Angel
Like A Virgin
Over & Over
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
Dress You Up
Shoo-Bee-Doo
Pretender
Stay

The cover sleeve and album insert images were shot by Steven Meisel. The first shot in this post was used for the album cover. The rest of the photos in this post are outtakes from the same photo shoot.

Today in Madonna History: November 11, 2005

On November 11 2005, Madonna gave a sparkling performance of Hung Up & Get Together on French reality television series Star Academy during the European promotional tour for her album Confessions On A Dance Floor.

Today in Madonna History: November 10, 1995

something-to-remember-japan-1 something-to-remember-japan-2 something-to-remember-japan-3 something-to-remember-japan-4 something-to-remember-japan-5

On November 10 1995, Madonna’s Something to Remember was released in Japan under the title Best of Madonna: Ballad Collection.

The Japanese release included Madonna’s 1986 hit La Isla Bonita as a bonus track.

La Isla Bonita was re-released three months prior to the compilation as a double A-side record with Human Nature, the final single from Bedtime Stories. Receiving gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the song was added to Something to Remember track listing in the hope of boosting the album sales in the Japanese region.

Today in Madonna History: November 2, 1987

wallpaper trueblue parker images 1920x1200 madonna eva+longoria

On November 2 1987, Madonna’s True Blue won International Album Of The Year at the 17th annual Juno Awards at the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto, Ontario.