On July 14 1987, Madonna’s second studio album, Like a Virgin was certified 7x platinum (7 million units) in the USA.
According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, “Every important artist has at least one album in his or her career whose critical and commercial success becomes the artist’s magic moment; for Madonna, Like a Virgin was just such a defining moment”.
On July 11 1987, Madonna’s True Blue album was certified 5x platinum (5 million units) in the USA. The album went on to sell an estimated 19 million units worldwide.
How many copies of True Blue do you own? Cassette? 8-Track? LP? CD?
On July 6 1987, Madonna performed the first of two sold-out Who’s That Girl concerts at the Montreal Forum. Madonna performed in front of 32,985 fans during the two dates (July 6 and 7).
On July 4 1987, Madonna performed her Who’s That Girl show to a sold out crowd of 50,000 fans at the CNE Stadium in Toronto, Ontario.
Peter Goddard from the Toronto Star reviewed the concert and said:
“Madonna proved that she may be a lost girl in the roads of life, like her film, but she ain’t lost when she is singing. Especially during songs like ‘Papa Don’t Preach‘, her vocal prowess was substantially notable.”
On May 30th 1987, Breakfast Club scored their biggest hit as Right On Track peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Madonna became a member of Breakfast Club in late 1979, first as a drummer before branching out to keyboards and guitar, all the while sharing vocal duties (and living quarters) with her boyfriend, Dan Gilroy, and his brother Ed.
Bassist Gary Burke left Breakfast Club with Madonna and Mike Monahan to form Emmy with Stephen Bray in early 1981.
As Madonna was achieving success as a solo artist, Burke and Bray rejoined the Gilroy brothers for Breakfast Club’s 1984 single, Rico Mambo, on ZE Records, followed by a self-titled LP for MCA Records in 1987.
In yet another Madonna connection, Re-Invention Tour back-up singer/dancer Siedah Garrett makes an appearance in the video for Right On Track and also provided backing vocals for the song.
On May 2 1987, La Isla Bonita, the fifth and final single from Madonna’s True Blue album hit #4 in the USA.
An instrumental demo of the song was first offered to Michael Jackson by co-writer Patrick Leonard before Madonna both accepted it and wrote its lyrics and melody.
La Isla Bonita is noted for being the first Madonna song to have a Latino influence in it, with arrangements of Cuban drums and Spanish guitar, maracas, harmonicas and a mix of synthesized and real drumming.
Clearly a personal favorite of Madonna’s, it has been one of her most frequently performed 80’s hits, appearing in the standard set list of seven of her concert tours. Like A Virgin has also appeared as a set list regular in seven tours, while Holiday leads with regular appearances in eight. A case could perhaps be made, however, that Holiday and La Isla Bonita are tied, given that Holiday was only added as a set list regular for the shorter 2009 leg of the Sticky & Sweet Tour, while La Isla Bonita was featured in both the 2008 & 2009 incarnations of the show.
On April 4 1987, open dance auditions were held for Madonna’s Who’s That Girl World Tour at the Debbie Reynolds Studio on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, California.
The call ad sought dancers that were:
“Good in rock, free-style, jazz and latin.”
Audition times:
Did you attend the Who’s That Girl World Tour? Which city? How did this tour compare to future tours?
Today In Madonna History 