Today in Madonna History: October 2, 1990

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On October 2 1990, Madonna attended the opening night of Martha Graham’s 180th ballet Maple Leaf Rag at the City Centre in New York.

Madonna sat with Martha Graham, Kathleen Turner, Eartha Kitt and Calvin Klein.

Today in Madonna History: September 25, 1990

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On September 25 1990, the photo shoot for the cover of the Justify My Love single was photographed by Patrick Demarchelier.

Today in Madonna History: September 19, 1990

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On September 19 1990, Madonna’s Hanky Panky was certified gold (for shipment of 500,000 units) in the USA.

During an interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna talked about getting a good “spanky”:

The spanking thing started because I believed that my character in Dick Tracy liked to get smacked around and that’s why she hung around with people like Al Pacino’s character. Warren Beatty asked me to write some songs, one of them, the Hanky Panky song, was about that. I say in the song ‘Nothing like a good spanky’, and in the middle I say, ‘Ooh, my bottom hurts just thinking about it’. When it came out everybody started asking, ‘Do you like to get spanked?’ and I said: ‘Yeah. Yeah, I do’.

Today in Madonna History: September 7, 1990

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On September 7 1990, Madonna was honored with the Commitment To Life Award and performed Vogue at the Commitment To Life IV benefit for AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

Today in Madonna History: September 1, 1990

On September 1 1990, Madonna’s Vogue spent its final week on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart at #40. The massive hit was present on the U.S. sales chart for a total of twenty weeks, including two weeks at #1 in May of 1990.

Vogue has been certified double-platinum by the RIAA for physical sales of over two million units. In terms of physical sales alone, it remains Madonna’s best-selling single in the U.S.

Today in Madonna History: July 30, 1990

On July 30 1990, Madonna’s I’m Breathless album was certified double platinum (for shipment of two million units) in the USA.

In a 1994 interview with Q magazine, Madonna professed a particular fondness for the album:

“I would have to say the favourite record that I’ve made is the soundtrack to Dick Tracy. I love every one of those songs.”

 

Today in Madonna History: July 28, 1990

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On July 28 1990, Hanky Panky hit its peak position of number-ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.

The rarely seen official video for Hanky Panky was recorded at the May 27th 1990 concert in Toronto, Canada. Rather than use live audio from the tour, Warner opted to overdub the live performance with the album version. The video was broadcast for a few weeks and then withdrawn from rotation in most countries. Although no official reason was given, it is assumed that due to the low-budget nature of the video, it was only ever intended to serve as an initial promotional push for the song, with its subsequent withdrawal from rotation being part of the plan.