On May 12 1984, Madonna’s Borderline peaked at #4 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart (then known as the Dance/Disco chart).
The hit song was written and produced by Reggie Lucas.
Category Archives: 1984
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: January 27, 1984
On January 27 1984, Madonna performed Burning Up and Holiday on the UK television program, The Tube. The show was broadcast live from The Hacienda club in Manchester.
Malcolm Gerrie, executive producer of The Tube, has been quoted as saying that the show paid for Madonna to travel to Manchester because Warner Bros. didn’t yet consider her a “priority artist” and were unwilling to cover her travel costs.
Today in Madonna History: December 22, 1984
On December 22 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin single hit #1 in the USA. It was her first number one single in the USA, and it remained at number one for six weeks.
In 2000, Like A Virgin, was honored by Rolling Stone and MTV, as the fourth song on their list of the 100 Greatest Pop Songs. It was voted ten on VH1’s 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years. The song was listed at ninety-five on Billboard’s Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna Singles of All-Time, by Q magazine. Like A Virgin was allocated the fifth spot on the list.
Today in Madonna History: November 13, 1984
On November 13 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin video premiered on MTV.
Mary Lambert, the director of the video had this to say:
“For Like A Virgin I said ‘Lets do it in Venice!’ The idea of Madonna singing in a gondola was the most outrageous thing I could think of. And Madonna dug it, because she has the whole thing with the Catholic Church and her Italian heritage. It turned into a huge party.”
Madonna had this to say about shooting with the lion:
“The lion didn’t do anything he was supposed to do, and I ended up leaning against this pillar with his head in my crotch… I thought he was going to take a bite out of me so I lifted the veil I was wearing and had a stare-down with him and he opened his mouth and let out this huge roar. I got so frightened my heart fell in my shoe. When he finally walked away, the director yelled ‘Cut’ and I had to take a long breather. But I could really relate to the lion. I feel like in a past life I was a lion or a cat or something.”
Today in Madonna History: November 6, 1984
On November 6 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin was released as the lead single from the album of the same name. The b-side for Like A Virgin was Stay.
Billy Steinberg reflected on the recording process and commented that:
“When Madonna recorded it, even as our demo faded out, on the fade you could hear Tom (Kelly) saying, “When your heart beats, and you hold me, and you love me…” That was the last thing you heard as our demo faded. Madonna must have listened to it very, very carefully because her record ends with the exact same little ad-libs that our demo did. That rarely happens that someone studies your demo so carefully that they use all that stuff. We were sort of flattered how carefully she followed our demo on that.“
Today in Madonna History: October 10, 1984
On October 10 1984, Madonna’s first EP, Like A Virgin & Other Big Hits!, was released in Japan through Sire Records.
Although three of the include singles (Holiday, Lucky Star and Borderline) had been released before, Like A Virgin would not be released as a single until November 6 1984.
The EP included the following tracks:
- Like a Virgin (Extended Dance Remix)
- Holiday (Album Version)
- Lucky Star (Extended Dance Remix)
- Borderline (Extended Dance Remix)
Like A Virgin & Other Big Hits! was re-released in 2016 as part of Record Store Day releases. The Record Store Day version was printed on pink vinyl. 
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