Category Archives: 1987

Today in Madonna History: May 30, 1987

May 30, 2019 By in 1987, May Tags: , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

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.

 

Today in Madonna History: May 23, 1987

May 23, 2019 By in 1987, May Tags: , , , , 3 Comments

On May 23 1987, La Isla Bonita hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot Adult Contemporary chart where it ruled for a single week.

It was Madonna’s second Hot AC chart topper after Live To Tell‘s three-week stint at #1 the previous year.

Both releases achieved similar longevity on AC radio playlists, with La Isla‘s seventeen-week Hot AC chart run nearly living up to Tell‘s eighteen weeks.

Today in Madonna History: March 28, 1987

March 28, 2019 By in 1987, March Tags: , , , 1 Comment

On March 28 1987, the final single from Madonna’s True Blue album, La Isla Bonita, was briefly reviewed in Billboard magazine.

The now-classic song was Madonna’s first sonic exploration into her love of Latin music and culture which would become a recurring inspiration in her body of work.

While Madonna has said that La Isla Bonita took inspiration from “the beauty and mystery of Latin American people,” she has remained more elusive about the song’s geographical references. Years later, she teasingly commented in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine:

“I don’t know where San Pedro is. At that point, I wasn’t a person who went on holidays to beautiful islands. I may have been on the way to the studio and seen an exit ramp for San Pedro.”

Today In Madonna History: March 4, 1987

March 4, 2019 By in 1987, March Tags: , , , 1 Comment

 

Shanghai-surprise-cover

On March 4 1987, Shanghai Surprise was released on home video.

The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film a 1 star rating:

“Shanghai Surprise is so dismally scripted and directed that no one could redeem it… an atmospheric, handsomely shot and, sadly, utterly empty piece of work.”

Today in Madonna History: February 3, 1987

February 3, 2019 By in 1987, February Tags: , , , 1 Comment

On February 3 1987, Madonna’s True Blue album was certified 4x platinum, for sales of 4 million units in the USA.

Today in Madonna History: January 10, 1987

January 10, 2019 By in 1987, January Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

papa-dont-preach-video-madonna-january

On January 10 1987, Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach was honoured as America’s Most Popular Video and the World’s Favourite Video at the 1st annual World Music Video Awards, produced by Canada’s MuchMusic and Europe’s Sky Channel.

Jay’s Note: Oops! I posted for the wrong day yesterday. This one is appearing twice, sorry about that!

Today in Madonna History: December 30, 1987

December 30, 2018 By in 1987, December Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

smash-hits-mickey-mouse-1987-december-1 smash-hits-mickey-mouse-1987-december-2 smash-hits-mickey-mouse-1987-december-3 smash-hits-mickey-mouse-1987-december-4

On December 30 1987, Madonna was featured on the cover of Smash Hits magazine. Before the Pet Shop Boys became famous, Neil Tennant interviewed Madonna for Smash Hits:

Neil Tennant: Where are you from?

Madonna: I come from a big Italian family. I have eight brothers and sisters. I was born in Detroit and then moved to Pontiac and then moved to another city just north of Detroit. Those are all car factory cities so everybody’s families worked in the car factories. I went to three different Catholic schools – uniforms and nuns hitting you over the head with staplers, very strict and regimented. To my superiors I seemed like a very good girl. I was very good at getting into these situations where I was the hall monitor and I reported people who weren’t behaving. And I used to torture people but in the end it came back to me.