Today in Madonna History: February 24, 1991

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On February 24 1991, Madonna’s Crazy For You was re-released to promote The Immaculate Collection in the UK.

The song was originally released in the United Kingdom on June 8, 1985, it debuted at number 25 and peaked at number two. The re-release again reached a peak of number two.

The CD single included remixed versions of Crazy For You, Keep It Together and Into The Groove.

Today in Madonna History: January 28, 1984

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On January 28 1984, Madonna’s single, Holiday hit #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.

Holiday was released on September 7, 1983, and became Madonna’s first hit single and remained on the charts from Thanksgiving to Christmas in 1983. It was Madonna’s first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, at 88 on the issue dated October 29, 1983 and reached a peak of 16 on January 28, 1984 and was on the chart for 21-weeks. The song debuted at eight on the Hot Dance Club Play chart on the issue dated November 2, 1983 and was Madonna’s first number one single on the Hot Dance Club Play chart remaining at the top for five weeks.

In the United Kingdom, Holiday has been released three times as a single; in January 1984, reaching number six, and in August 1985 reaching number 2 (only being kept from number one by her own Into the Groove single). Its third release in 1991 included new artwork to promote The Immaculate Collection with a limited edition EP titled The Holiday Collection, which contained tracks omitted from the compilation; this version peaked at number five.

The photos for this post are from Madonna’s Solid Gold performance of Holiday.

Today in Madonna History: November 12, 1984

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On November 12 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin album was released by Sire Records.  The album was re-released worldwide in 1985, to include the bonus track, Into the Groove.

The original track listing for Madonna’s second album included:

Material Girl
Angel
Like A Virgin
Over & Over
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
Dress You Up
Shoo-Bee-Doo
Pretender
Stay

The cover sleeve and album insert images were shot by Steven Meisel. The first shot in this post was used for the album cover. The rest of the photos in this post are outtakes from the same photo shoot.

Today in Madonna History: August 10, 1985

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On August 10 1985, Into The Groove spent the first of four weeks in the number-one position on the UK Singles Chart. It was Madonna’s first chart-topping single in the UK, where she has collected a total of thirteen number-one hits to date.

As an added validation, Into the Groove was Madonna’s first attempt at co-producing a song. While artists co-producing their own work is common today, it was relatively unusual at the time, particularly for female artists. The immense success of the single undoubtedly helped convince the powers at Sire/Warner to grant Madonna the artistic freedom to co-produce her next album, True Blue, together with her collaborators Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard.

Today in Madonna History: August 3, 1985

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On August 3 1985, Madonna’s Into The Groove hit #1 in the UK and Holiday hit #2 in the UK – Madonna was the only female artist ever to occupy the top 2 positions simultaneously on the UK charts.

Today in Madonna History: July 30, 2003

On July 30 2003, GAP premiered its latest commercial starring Madonna and Missy Elliot. The commercial, featured a mash-up of Madonna’s Into The Groove + Hollywood = Into The Hollywood Groove, featuring Missy Elliot.

Watch the short version here:

Please let us know if you have a link to a better version of this video (either version), thanks!

Today in Madonna History: July 13, 1985

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On July 13 1985, Bette Midler introduced Madonna at Live Aid’s charity concert in Philadelphia:

“I want you to know I have no idea why I was asked to introduce this next act — because you all know, I am the soul of good taste and decorum.  However we are thrilled to be able to introduce to you today a woman whose name has been on everyone’s lips for the last six months. A woman who pulled herself up by her bra straps and has been known to let them down occasionally.”

Madonna was happy to tell the global audience of 1.9 billion viewers: “I ain’t taking off shit today.”