On August 30 2005, the Madonna.com splash page was updated with the release dates for Madonna’s forthcoming studio album, Confessions On A Dance Floor.
The word Confess appeared in several languages.
The page promoted November 15th for the USA release and November 14 for the rest of the world.
A clock ticking in a continuous loop played in the background.
On April 11 2006, Confessions Remixed, a triple 12″ vinyl set compiling Confessions On A Dance Floor remixes by Stuart Price was released by Warner Bros. Records. The limited edition set was issued in the U.S. and in Europe with a reported run of 3,000 copies pressed.
Considering the fact that many record shops still carry new copies of the set, we wouldn’t be surprised if the actual run was 3,000 in the U.S. and another 3,000 in Europe. Or perhaps its lack of any previously unreleased remixes and roughly fifty-dollar price tag simply stirred limited interest.
On February 28 2006, the maxi-single for Sorry, the second single from Confessions on a Dance Floor, was released.
Sorry was one of the first tracks developed for Confessions on a Dance Floor. The songs were developed with a remixed perspective in mind. Madonna commented:
“Whenever I make records, I often like the remixes better than the original ones. So I thought, screw that. I’m going to start from that perspective”.
On February 8 2006, Madonna with Gorillaz and De La Soul performed Feel Good Inc. and Hung Up at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The beginning of the performance was a hologram installation.
On December 3 2005, Confessions On A Dance Floor entered the Billboard 200 album chart at number-one with sales of of over 350,000. It was her third consecutive studio album to reach the top and her sixth chart-topping album overall in the US.
Internationally the album hit number-one in 40 countries, including Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Brazil and Australia.
On November 28 2006, Jump peaked at #20 on the Austrian Ultratop 40 singles chart. The song was the fourth international single from Confessions On A Dance Floor.
The maxi-single featured remixes by Stuart Price (under the pseudonym Jacques Lu Cont), Axwell and Junior Sanchez; an Extended Album Version and Radio Edit (the US vinyl edition also added the “unmixed” Album Version); and a previously unreleased b-side, History, written and produced by Madonna & Stuart Price.
Recorded during the Confessions On A Dance Floor sessions, the released version of History was in actuality an uncredited Stuart Price remix of the otherwise shelved original production. An alternate version of the Price remix streamed on Madonna’s official website for a brief period but has yet to surface in quality above streaming grade. More of the song’s history came to light when an incomplete clip of the final non-remixed version, as well as several complete demo takes (featuring nixed chorus lyric “I thought that we were related” instead of “Defined by our greed and hatred”), leaked online in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
While the remix of History is a sparse and stripped-down slice of electro-house that recalls some of Stuart Price’s earlier solo work as Les Rythmes Digitales, the pulsating urgency of the original production with its heedfully hopeful bridge make it the more definitive rendering of the song.