On July 22 1985, Like A Virgin was certified 5x Platinum in the US – the first solo album by a female artist to be certified for shipment of 5-million copies. The album remained a consistently strong catalogue seller well into the next decade, eventually earning a Diamond certification (the RIAA’s highest certification award) in 1998 for shipment of over 10 million copies in the US.
On July 16 1985, the Penthouse magazine issue of nude Madonna photos was released.
On June 29 1985, Madonna’s Angel/Into the Groove single hit #5 in the USA.
On June 24 1985, Madonna and Sean Penn announced that they would marry on August 16, 1985.
On June 15 1985, Madonna’s Angel peaked at #5 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles Chart (RPM magazine).
Angel was written by Madonna and Stephen Bray and produced by Nile Rodgers for the Like A Virgin album.
On May 23 1985, Madonna performed her Virgin Tour concert in front of a sold-out crowd of 16,000 fans at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. The show generated $238,264 in ticket sales.
Here’s a great photo of the Beastie Boys hanging outside Maple Leaf Gardens before the show (on Church Street just north of Carlton):
Maple Leaf Gardens was primarily a hockey and concert venue from 1931 until 2001. The building sat dormant until November 2011, when it reopened as a Loblaws grocery store. To celebrate the history of the building, Loblaws kept centre ice, created art out of some of the seats and commemorated important dates on some of the supporting columns. Here is one of those columns:
Jay’s note: I’d like to say that I made a special trip to Loblaws just to take this photo, but it’s the long-weekend here in Canada — and I really wanted one of their amazing chocolate dip donuts!
On April 18 1985, Desperately Seeking Susan hit number-five at the U.S. box office, bringing its total U.S. gross to $8,488,528 to date at the time (it would eventually earn over $27,000,000 at the box office). The film had screened in 760 theaters across the country for the week ending April 18th.
Today In Madonna History 