On December 5 1992, Madonna’s Deeper and Deeper single was the week’s Hot Shot Debut entry on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., bowing in at #38.
Pop radio had taken an immediate liking to Deeper and Deeper upon the album’s release, with some stations choosing to spin it in favor of the album’s darker lead single, well ahead of its official promotional launch. The support wasn’t unanimous, however, as Madonna was facing a severe public backlash following the release of her Sex book and the forthcoming release of the film Body Of Evidence.
The fact that Deeper and Deeper managed to climb to #7 on the Hot 100 amidst a tidal wave of contempt is a true testament to song’s irresistible appeal.
On October 20 1992, Madonna’s fifth studio album, Erotica was released by Maverick Records.
Music critic Sal Cinquemani commented on the album’s impact:
By 1992, Madonna was an icon—untouchable, literally and figuratively—and Erotica was the first time the artist’s music took on a decidedly combative, even threatening tone, and most people didn’t want to hear it. Erotica’s irrefutable un-sexiness probably says more about the sex=death mentality of the early ’90s than any other musical document of its time. This is not Madonna at her creative zenith. This is Madonna at her most important, at her most relevant. No one else in the mainstream at that time dared to talk about sex, love, and death with such frankness and fearlessness.
On September 18 1993, Madonna’s Rain peaked at #2 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles Chart, matching Deeper & Deeper as the highest charting single in Canada from the Erotica album.
On August 19 2022, Madonna released FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE to celebrate topping the Dance Club Songs chart for the 50th time, making her the first and only recording artist to have 50 #1 hits on any single Billboard chart.
To celebrate this historic milestone, Madonna curated two new collections: FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: 50 NUMBER ONES, a new 50-track collection that includes her favorite remixes of those chart-topping dance hits that have filled clubs worldwide for four decades, and an abridged 16-track version, simply titled FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE.
These new collections mark the first album releases to be part of the newly announced partnership between Madonna and Warner Music Group, which will feature an extensive series of catalog releases across her groundbreaking career.
50 NUMBER ONES spans her entire dance club chart reign with dozens of remixes by the world’s top producers. In addition to fan favorites, the collection also includes a selection of rare remix recordings, with more than 20 being officially released for the first time or making their commercial/digital debut. The collection is available digitally, along with a 3-CD version. Multiple double disc vinyl versions include black vinyl, clear vinyl, silver vinyl, red vinyl (there may be more exclusives released worldwide) and the sold-out limited edition, 6-LP version on red and black vinyl (exclusive to Madonna’s official store and Rhino.com). #Madonna#FinallyEnoughLove#FinallyEnoughLove50numberOnes@Madonna
The party’s right here… FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: 50 NUMBER ONES OUT NOW!!!
On May 4 2022, Warner Bros. issued the press release for Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones:
Madonna made history once again when she topped the Dance Club Songs chart for the 50th time, making her the first and only recording artist to have 50 #1 hits on any single Billboard chart.
To celebrate this historic milestone, Madonna curated two new collections: FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: 50 NUMBER ONES, a new 50-track collection that includes her favorite remixes of those chart-topping dance hits that have filled clubs worldwide for four decades, and an abridged 16-track version, simply titled FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE.
These new collections will mark the first album releases to be part of the newly announced partnership between Madonna and Warner Music Group, which will feature an extensive series of catalog releases across her groundbreaking career.
50 NUMBER ONES spans her entire dance club chart reign with dozens of remixes by the world’s top producers. In addition to fan favorites, the collection also includes a selection of rare remix recordings, with more than 20 being officially released for the first time or making their commercial/digital debut. The collection will be available digitally on August 19, along with a 3-CD ($29.98) version. A limited edition, 6-LP version on red and black vinyl ($149.98) will also be available, exclusively at Madonna’s official store and Rhino.com. Pre-order now.
The 16-track version, FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE, will be available for streaming on June 24, with 1-CD ($14.98) and 180-gram 2-LP ($34.98) versions coming on August 19. Pre-order and Pre-save now.
As a first listen to these collections, the “You Can Dance Remix Edit” of “Into The Groove” is available today digitally for the first time. Listen Now.
Boasting more than 220 minutes of remixes, FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: 50 NUMBER ONES flows in mostly chronological order, showcasing the many musical reinventions that made Madonna an international icon, from 1983’s “Holiday” to 2019’s “I Don’t Search I Find,” with remixes by some of the biggest and most influential DJs of all time including Shep Pettibone, William Orbit, Honey Dijon, and Avicii.
On several songs, Madonna is joined by other incredible artists, including Britney Spears (“Me Against The Music”); Justin Timberlake and Timbaland (“4 Minutes”); and Nicki Minaj (“Bitch I’m Madonna.”) Each remix was newly remastered for the collection by Mike Dean, who produced Madonna’s two most-recent studio albums, Rebel Heart (2015) and Madame X (2019).
Both of these new collections also highlight You Can Dance, Madonna’s first ever remix collection. Celebrating 35 years this year, You Can Dance has sold more than five million copies worldwide and is still the second best-selling remix album of all time. The collection also pays homage to “Everybody,” Madonna’s first single, celebrating its 40th Anniversary on October 6. Madonna redesigned the album’s chronology by picking three edits from You Can Dance, including “Into The Groove”, “Everybody” and “Physical Attraction,” which reflects the underground club vibes that inspired her first recordings as a Sire artist.
Along with those rarities, these albums also introduce versions that are seeing their first ever official release, including the “Alternate Single Remix” of “Keep It Together,” the “Offer Nissim Promo Mix” of “Living For Love,” and more.
In advance of the debut of FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE in June, one of the 50 chart toppers – “Causing A Commotion” – was spotlighted early as an exclusive release for this year’s Record Store Day on April 23. Three remixes of the track appeared on the limited edition, five-track, red vinyl 12” EP Who’s That Girl Super Club Mix.
Expect more surprises to be revealed later this year around the celebration of Madonna’s 40 years in music.
FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE
16-Track Album
Streaming June 24
1-CD, 2-LP & Digital Download Versions Out August 19
Track Listing
1. “Everybody” (You Can Dance Remix Edit) +#
2. “Into The Groove” (You Can Dance Remix Edit) +#
3. “Like A Prayer” (Remix/Edit)
4. “Express Yourself” (Remix/Edit)
5. “Vogue” (Single Version) +
6. “Deeper And Deeper” (David’s Radio Edit) +#
7. “Secret” (Junior’s Luscious Single Mix)
8. “Frozen” (Extended Club Mix Edit)
9. “Music” (Deep Dish Dot Com Radio Edit)
10. “Hollywood” (Calderone & Quayle Edit) +#
11. “Hung Up” (SDP Extended Vocal Edit)
12. “Give It 2 Me” (Eddie Amador Club 5 Edit) °+
13. “Girl Gone Wild” (Avicii’s UMF Mix)
14. “Living For Love” (Offer Nissim Promo Mix) *+
15. “Medellín” (Offer Nissim Madame X In The Sphinx Mix) – Madonna and Maluma
16. “I Don’t Search I Find” (Honey Dijon Radio Mix)
FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE: 50 NUMBER ONES
50-Track Album
3-CD, 6-LP, Streaming & Digital Download Versions Out August 19
Track Listing
1. “Holiday” (7” Version) +
2. “Like A Virgin” (7” Version)
3. “Material Girl” (7” Version)
4. “Into The Groove” (You Can Dance Remix Edit) +#
5. “Open Your Heart” (Video Version) +
6. “Physical Attraction” (You Can Dance Remix Edit) +#
7. “Everybody” (You Can Dance Remix Edit) +#
8. “Like A Prayer” (Remix/Edit)
9. “Express Yourself” (Remix/Edit)
10. “Keep It Together” (Alternate Single Remix) *+
11. “Vogue” (Single Version) +
12. “Justify My Love” (Orbit Edit)
13. “Erotica” (Underground Club Mix)
14. “Deeper And Deeper” (David’s Radio Edit) +#
15. “Fever” (Radio Edit) +
16. “Secret” (Junior’s Luscious Single Mix)
17. “Bedtime Story” (Junior’s Single Mix)
18. “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” (Miami Mix Edit)
19. “Frozen” (Extended Club Mix Edit)
20. “Ray Of Light” (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix Edit) +#
21. “Nothing Really Matters” (Club 69 Radio Mix) +
22. “Beautiful Stranger” (Calderone Radio Mix)
23. “American Pie” (Richard ‘Humpty’ Vission Radio Mix)
24. “Music” (Deep Dish Dot Com Radio Edit)
25. “Don’t Tell Me” (Thunderpuss Video Remix) +#
26. “What It Feels Like For A Girl” (Above And Beyond Club Radio Edit)
27. “Impressive Instant” (Peter Rauhofer’s Universal Radio Mixshow Mix) +#
28. “Die Another Day” (Deepsky Radio Edit) +#
29. “American Life” (Felix Da Housecat’s Devin Dazzle Edit) *+
30. “Hollywood” (Calderone & Quayle Edit) +#
31. “Me Against The Music” (Peter Rauhofer Radio Mix) + – Britney Spears feat. Madonna
32. “Nothing Fails” (Tracy Young’s Underground Radio Edit) *+
33. “Love Profusion” (Ralphi Rosario House Vocal Edit) +#
34. “Hung Up” (SDP Extended Vocal Edit)
35. “Sorry” (PSB Maxi Mix Edit) +#
36. “Get Together” (Jacques Lu Cont Vocal Edit) +
37. “Jump” (Axwell Remix Edit)
38. “4 Minutes” (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Edit) + – feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
39. “Give It 2 Me” (Eddie Amador Club 5 Edit) +#
40. “Celebration” (Benny Benassi Remix Edit)
41. “Give Me All Your Luvin’” (Party Rock Remix) – feat. LMFAO & Nicki Minaj
42. “Girl Gone Wild” (Avicii’s UMF Mix)
43. “Turn Up The Radio” (Offer Nissim Remix Edit) *+#
44. “Living For Love” (Offer Nissim Promo Mix) *+
45. “Ghosttown” (Dirty Pop Intro Remix)
46. “Bitch I’m Madonna” (Sander Kleinenberg Video Edit) +# – feat. Nicki Minaj
47. “Medellín” (Offer Nissim Madame X In The Sphinx Mix) – Madonna and Maluma
48. “I Rise” (Tracy Young’s Pride Intro Radio Remix)
49. “Crave” (Tracy Young Dangerous Remix) – feat. Swae Lee
50. “I Don’t Search I Find” (Honey Dijon Radio Mix)
* previously unreleased
+available digitally for the first time
# available commercially for the first time
On January 30 2004, Madonna’s Official Fan Club (ICON) and Madonna.com published a fan club exclusive photo book titled, Nobody Knows Me. The 52-page soft cover photo book featured previously unreleased photos (spanning her career).
Here’s what Liz Rosenberg had to say when asked to comment on a highlight she witnessed in Madonna’s career:
“Highlights? There’s just too many.
It’s a highlight for me just to dance around the living room to Deeper and Deeper. And also when we played Vogue at a club for the first time.
The list goes on and on and I’m thrilled to have had a front row seat to most of it.”
On November 26 1992, Rolling Stone magazine published their review of Madonna’s Erotica album, written by Arion Berger:
It took Madonna ten years, but she finally made the record everyone has accused her of making all along. Chilly, deliberate, relentlessly posturing. Erotica is a post-AIDS album about romance — it doesn’t so much evoke sex as provide a fetishistic abstraction of it. She may have intended to rattle America with hot talk about oral gratification and role switching, but sensuality is the last thing on the album’s mind. Moving claustrophobically within the schematic confines of dominance and submission, Erotica plays out its fantasies with astringent aloofness, unhumid and uninviting. The production choices suggest not a celebration of the physical but a critique of commercial representations of sex — whether Paul Verhoeven’s, Bruce Weber’s or Madonna’s — that by definition should not be mistaken for the real thing. It succeeds in a way the innocent post-punk diva of Madonna and the thoughtful songwriter of Like a Prayer could not have imagined. Its cold, remote sound systematically undoes every one of the singer’s intimate promises.
Clinical enough on its own terms when compared with the lushness and romanticism of Madonna’s past grooves, Erotica is stunningly reined in; even when it achieves disco greatness, it’s never heady. Madonna, along with co-producers Andre Betts and Shep Pettibone, tamps down every opportunity to let loose — moments ripe for a crescendo, a soaring instrumental break, a chance for the listener to dance along, are over the instant they are heard. Erotica is Madonna’s show (the music leaves no room for audience participation), and her production teases and then denies with the grim control of a dominatrix.
Against maraca beats and a shimmying horn riff, Erotica introduces Madonna as “Mistress Dita,” whose husky invocations of “do as I say” promise a smorgasbord of sexual experimentation, like the one portrayed in the video for Justify My Love. But the sensibility of Erotica is miles removed from the warm come-ons of Justify My Love, which got its heat from privacy and romance — the singer’s exhortations to “tell me your dreams.” The Madonna of Erotica is in no way interested in your dreams; she’s after compliance, and not merely physical compliance either. The song demands the passivity of a listener, not a sexual partner. It’s insistently self-absorbed — Vogue with a dirty mouth, where all the real action’s on the dance floor.
Look (or listen) but don’t touch sexuality isn’t the only peep-show aspect of this album; Erotica strives for anonymity the way True Blue strove for intimacy. With the exception of the riveting Bad Girl, in which the singer teases out shades of ambiguity in the mind of a girl who’d rather mess herself up than end a relationship she’s too neurotic to handle, the characters remain faceless. It’s as if Madonna recognizes the discomfort we feel when sensing the human character of a woman whose function is purely sexual. A sex symbol herself, she coolly removes the threat of her own personality.
Pure disco moments like the whirligig Deeper and Deeper don’t need emotional resonance to make them race. But the record sustains its icy tone throughout the yearning ballads (Rain, Waiting) and confessional moods (Secret Garden). Relieved of Madonna’s celebrity baggage, they’re abstract nearly to the point of nonexistence — ideas of love songs posing as the real thing. Even when Madonna draws from her own life, she’s all reaction, no feeling: The snippy Thief of Hearts takes swipes at a man stealer but not out of love or loyalty toward the purloined boyfriend, who isn’t even mentioned.
By depersonalizing herself to a mocking extreme, the Madonna of Erotica is sexy in only the most objectified terms, just as the album is only in the most literal sense what it claims to be. Like erotica, Erotica is a tool rather than an experience. Its stridency at once refutes and justifies what her detractors have always said: Every persona is a fake, the self-actualized amazon of Express Yourself no less than the breathless baby doll of Material Girl. Erotica continually subverts this posing to expose its function as pop playacting. The narrator of Bye Bye Baby ostensibly dumps the creep who’s been mistreating her, but Madonna’s infantile vocal and flat delivery are anything but assertive — she could be a drag queen toying with a pop hit of the past. Erotica is everything Madonna has been denounced for being — meticulous, calculated, domineering and artificial. It accepts those charges and answers with a brilliant record to prove them.
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