Today in Madonna History: July 16, 1985

 On July 16 1985, Madonna’s hit single, Crazy For You, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of one million copies of the single in United States—the requirement for a gold single prior to 1989.

According to the book Risky Business: Rock In Film, the single has sold two million copies in the U.S., making it one of her biggest selling physical singles, behind Vogue and Like A Prayer. The lack of any further certification to verify this figure is plausible considering Crazy For You was released through Geffen Records; because Madonna was not a Geffen recording artist they would have had little incentive to invest in additional certifications once the initial promotional push for the soundtrack had ended.

Today in Madonna History: July 14, 1987

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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”.

Madonna – Stay (Rough Mix Edit)

Today in Madonna History: July 11, 1987

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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? 

Today in Madonna History: June 16, 1990

On June 16 1990, Vogue hit #1 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles chart by RPM magazine.

Vogue would top the chart for three weeks in Canada and would earn a platinum sales certification – a fairly unusual distinction in Canada, where singles are rarely certified.

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: February 22, 1991

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On February 22 1991, Madonna’s controversial Justify My Love music video single was certified 8x platinum for shipment of 400,000 units in the USA.

Despite MTV and other similar video channels around the world banning the Justify My Love music video, the financial advantages of the ban were not lost on Madonna:

“It may seem like it was a publicity stunt, and I was very lucky, I must say. But I did not plan on selling this video. The controversy just happened. It wasn’t planned. So lucky me.”

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Today in Madonna History: February 5, 1985

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On February 5 1985, Madonna’s Like A Virgin was certified 3x platinum (for sales of 3 million units) in the USA.