Today in Madonna History: February 27, 1991

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On February 27 1991, Madonna’s first greatest hits video collection, The Immaculate Collection video was certified double platinum (for sales of 200,000 units).

Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMusic) had this to say about the video collection:

If any artist exploited MTV and music video to its full extent, it was Madonna. Duran Duran may have been the first video stars, but Madonna was savvy enough to redefine her image with each video, not just each album. All of her major videos between 1983 and 1990 (with the exception of her first, Burning Up, and Justify My Love, which was one of the new tracks on the greatest-hits The Immaculate Collection) are included on the video edition of Immaculate. Images from the videos — the gondolas of Like a Virgin, the Marilyn Monroe homage of Material Girl, the faux-Blade Runner Express Yourself, the taboo-shattering Like a Prayer, the sleek, stylish Vogue — have not only become part of pop music history, but of pop culture, and that becomes apparent after watching this collection. It’s truly astounding to watch the videos back to back, as it confirms that Madonna always knew where she was going, visually and musically. The singles were benchmarks of pop music in the ’80s, and if anything, the videos are even more important. This is what mainstream pop was all about in the ’80s.

Today in Madonna History: January 28, 1991

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On January 28, Madonna’s Vogue won Favorite Dance Single at the 18th annual American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.

Today in Madonna History: January 18, 1991

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On January 18 1991, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection was certified double platinum for sales of 2 million units in the USA.

Today in Madonna History: November 4, 1991

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On November 4 1991, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection was certified triple platinum (for shipment of 3 million units) in the USA.

Here’s a quick review of The Immaculate Collection by Rolling Stone magazine:

A perfect Madonna CD: You get timeless pop such as Holiday, provocations like Papa Don’t Preach, dance classics like Into the Groove and a then-new Lenny Kravitz-produced sex jam, Justify My Love, which samples Public Enemy.

Today in Madonna History: September 5, 1991

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On September 5 1991, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection won Best Long-Form Video at the 8th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California.

Today in Madonna History: June 13, 1991

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On June 13 1991, Madonna was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.  The feature included a photo spread shot by Steven Meisel.

Madonna has no equal at getting attention. She often seems to behave like someone who has been under severe restraint and can now say and do whatever she likes without fear of reprisal. She delights in being challenged, in telling more than she had planned, in going further than she had intended. And judging from her new film Truth or Dare, there is no “too far” for Madonna.

Today in Madonna History: June 8, 1991

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On June 8 1991, Madonna’s Holiday debuted at #12 in the UK.  It was the third time that Holiday was released in the UK, this time to promote The Holiday Collection.

The first time the song was released in the UK it peaked at 6. The second time it was released it peaked at number 2, only to be kept away from number 1 by her own Into the Groove.  The 1991 released peaked at number 5 during the week of June 15.