Today in Madonna History: March 19, 1989

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On March 19 1989, Madonna’s Like A Prayer stormed on to Australia’s ARIA Singles Chart, entering at #3. It would hit ARIA’s top spot the following week, nudging out The Fine Young Cannibal’s She Drives Me Crazy.

The two songs entered into an extended dance for the pole position, with Crazy reclaiming its spot for two weeks before handing it back again to Prayer. Then back to Crazy. Then Prayer.

Dizzy yet?

Our Aussie mates may be a tad indecisive with their hits – but they sure know how to pick ’em!

Today in Madonna History: March 18, 2015

On March 18 2015, Madonna’s Rebel Heart album debuted on Billboard’s Canadian Top Albums chart at #1.

All seven of Madonna’s studio albums released since Nielsen SoundScan began monitoring album sales in Canada in 1996 have entered the Canadian chart at #1, as did her 2009 hits collection, Celebration.

In contrast to Billboard’s Top 200 in the U.S., where Rebel Heart entered at #2 before falling to #21 the following week, sales remained relatively steady in Canada, with the album dipping only one position to #2 in its second week.

Interestingly, the album that blocked Rebel Heart from reaching the top spot in the U.S. (the Empire: Season 1 soundtrack) charted for only one week in Canada, peaking at #25.

Today in Madonna History: March 11, 2015

On March 11 2015, Madonna was interviewed by Howard Stern on SiriusXM.

Here are some tidbits we learned about Madonna during the interview, according to Rolling Stone magazine:

  • Her shocking VMA debut of “Like a Virgin” was an accident. “I had come down the wedding cake and my shoe fell off,” she said. “I was like ‘Oh shit, I can’t dance in one shoe!” The mishap prompted quick decision-making on Madonna’s end as to how to proceed with the performance and led to the controversial stage-humping that took place at the first Video Music Awards. “I didn’t know my skirt was up. I proceeded to sing the song laying down on the ground. I was just making the best of the situation.” She noted that her manager Freddy DeMann told her that her career would be over following the performance.
  • She craves normalcy every once in a while. “Every 3 days I crave it,” she said. “Every three days I go, ‘That’s it. I’m moving to a cabin and living in the forest and no one’s gonna fuck with me anymore.'” Stern probed as to why she thinks she could never give up her career and life in the spotlight. “Because I’m an artist and I’m tortured. I’m a masochist and I like to create. I don’t know. Maybe one day I will.”
  • Madonna’s first year in New York included multiple robberies, an assault and an unreported rape. “I needed money for the payphone and [a stranger] gave it to me,” she said. “He was a very friendly guy, and the phone was ringing. He was like, ‘Oh, I live right across the street if you’d like to make the phone call from my house.” The then 19-year-old Madonna agreed, blaming her “stupid friendliness” from her Midwestern roots. “I trusted everybody. The rest is not worth talking about.”
  • She doesn’t hate David Letterman. Stern acknowledged some early interviews between the pop star and talk show host, noting he could never tell if she liked him or was annoyed. “Oh, that’s how I flirt with people,” she revealed. “One time I was mad at him, when I said the ‘f-word’ a lot, but the rest of the time was good.”
  • She dated Tupac Shakur. The late rapper had actually been the reason Madonna was mad at Letterman. “I was dating Tupac Shakur at the time, and he had gotten me all riled up about life in general,” she said. “When I went on this show, I was feeling very gangster.” Stern revealed his surprise about the little-known past relationship. “I think people know, if you’re in the know,” said Madonna coyly.
  • The misunderstood meaning of “Material Girl” gets on her nerves. “The song that irritated me the most about being associated with me is ‘Material Girl,'” she said. “It was an ironic song because I’m certainly not a materialistic person.” The topic came up as Stern had her clear up a rumor that she detested the success of “Like a Virgin” because other people had written it. The singer declared the rumor false, asserting that she loves the song and appreciates its writers.
  • Upon making her first $1 million, she indulged in buying a Frida Kahlo painting. “That was always my goal,” she said on her art collection. “When I was married to Sean [Penn], I said ‘When I make my first million, I’m going to buy art.'” Madonna had been a huge fan of Frida Kahlo since she was young. “I bought a self-portrait of hers. At the time it was rather inexpensive because people didn’t know who she was.”
  • Jean-Michel Basquiat destroyed all the paintings he had given to her. Madonna and Basquiat had dated when the singer was very young, but his heroin addiction ended up pulling them apart. “He was an amazing man and deeply talented. I loved him,” she said. “When I broke up with him, he made me give all [his paintings] back to him. And then he painted over them black.” She regrets giving the art back, but felt pressured to do so since it was something he had created.
  • She wrote “Vogue” in a few hours. Madonna stands by the idea that her best songs are the ones she wrote in only a couple of hours, “Vogue” included. “I thought it was a very cool dance, very presentational and elegant and all about vanity,” she said about the dance of the same name. The song had been written for Dick Tracy, the film she made with ex-boyfriend Warren Beatty, and was inspired by all the classic movie stars. “[Warren] dated all of Hollywood, basically.” She would ask him questions about what the stars she admired — and he dated — were like, including Natalie Wood and Julie Christie. “I looked up to [these women] and admired them.”

Today in Madonna History: March 10, 1984

On March 10 1984, Madonna’s self-titled debut album, Madonna (aka The First Album) debuted at #87 on the Canadian Top 100 Albums Chart. Canada LOVES Madonna!

Today in Madonna History: March 9, 1983

On March 9 1983, Madonna’s second single, the classic double A-side Burning Up/Physical Attraction, was released on 12″ vinyl.

The sleeve of the single featured a series of sketches of Madonna created by her close friend, Martin Burgoyne.

 

Today in Madonna History: March 8, 2012

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On March 8 2012, British singer-songwriter Mika tweeted his reaction to hearing Madonna’s recording of Gang Bang, which was based on a song he co-wrote, titled Bang Bang:

“Weird as fuck, underground and lyrically cool; it’s amazing and bizarre. I love it, she sounds so good singing words so harsh.”

Madonna had originally recorded a demo that was faithful to Mika’s original vision for the song but later gave it a drastic overhaul, stripping it down to a pulsating beat with panning sound effects and violent ad libbed vocals – although its original core lyrics remained intact.

Gang Bang was produced by Madonna, William Orbit and Demolition Crew and appeared on the 2012 album, MDNA. Due to its violent overtones, the track was excluded from the “clean” version of the album.

Today in Madonna History: March 7, 1996

On March 7 1996, Madonna’s One More Chance was released as the third single in the UK and several other European countries, and the second single in Australia and Japan, from her ballads collection, Something to Remember.

The song received positive response from music critics overall, who praised its musical simplicity and Madonna’s nuanced and emotive vocal delivery.  Since Madonna was busy filming the Evita, the song received little promotion and no original music video was produced to accompany the release.

The Spanish version of You’ll See, titled Verás, appeared as the B-side of the single release.

In a January 1996 interview with Spin magazine, Madonna said of the song: “Often in my songwriting, I take things people say to me and turn them around, and put it in the first person. So it’s actually something that was said to me.”

One More Chance was written and produced by Madonna and David Foster. Foster initially did not expect Madonna would collaborate with him, as he believed that his music was not “really hip enough for her.” Madonna and Foster worked on the song during the writing and recording session for Something to Remember, in the third weekend of September 1995. They wrote and recorded three songs for the project, but only You’ll See and One More Chance made the final cut.

Their third track from the sessions, titled I Can’t Forget, was later offered by Madonna’s songwriting publisher to the to the UK electronic/dance group, Tilt, to record. Their version, retitled Come Closer, was released on their 2006 rarities collection, Vaults. Several years after Tilt’s version was issued, Madonna and Foster’s original demo recording of I Can’t Forget surfaced on the internet.