Today in Madonna History: August 21, 1989

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On August 21 1989, the music video for Cherish premiered on MTV in the U.S.  The video was the directed by Madonna’s frequent collaborator and friend, photographer Herb Ritts.

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While the single from the Like A Prayer album went on to become another hit single, it’s interesting to note that Madonna had previously written an entirely different song using the title Cherish. Her handwritten lyrics for the unreleased track – along with several others that have yet to surface in musical form – turned up at an auction in 2011.

Today in Madonna History: August 7, 2012

 

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On August 7 2012, Turn up the Radio was released in North America.

Written by Madonna, Martin Solveig, Michael Tordjman and Jade Williams, and produced by Madonna and Solveig, the song was released as the third and final international single from the MDNA album.

Today in Madonna History: July 28, 1990

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On July 28 1990, Hanky Panky hit its peak position of number-ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.

The rarely seen official video for Hanky Panky was recorded at the May 27th 1990 concert in Toronto, Canada. Rather than use live audio from the tour, Warner opted to overdub the live performance with the album version. The video was broadcast for a few weeks and then withdrawn from rotation in most countries. Although no official reason was given, it is assumed that due to the low-budget nature of the video, it was only ever intended to serve as an initial promotional push for the song, with its subsequent withdrawal from rotation being part of the plan.

Today in Madonna History: June 16, 2007

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On June 16 2007, the Live Earth website premiered a video for Madonna’s charity song, Hey You. It featured a series of images from all over the world, related to energy consumption and global warming, with natural catastrophes and world leaders.

Recorded during early sessions for Madonna’s Hard Candy album and co-produced by Madonna and Pharrell Williams, Hey You is registered in both the Warner/Chappell and ASCAP publishing databases with Madonna as its sole songwriter, making it the first entirely self-written song Madonna had released since 1985’s Gambler (with the exception of The Funny Song – an interlude from the Drowned World Tour DVD, which is credited to Madonna alone). The demo version of I Love New York (as featured in the I’m Going To Tell You A Secret documentary and CD) is credited solely to Madonna in the release’s liner notes – however, in separate entries from the Confessions on a Dance Floor version, the ASCAP and Warner/Chappell databases both credit the “movie version” to Madonna and Stuart Price.

Madonna adapted some of the lyrics for Hey You from two unreleased (at the time) tracks, Keep The Trance and It’s So Cool (the latter was later officially released as a bonus track for Celebration, although both songs had previously leaked in demo form).

Today in Madonna History: May 19, 1995

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On May 19 1995, the music video for Human Nature premiered on MTV.

Madonna had initially planned to have friend and collaborator Alek Keshishian direct the video for Human Nature. Keshishian had even been named as the director in ICON Magazine, but for unknown reasons this shoot was cancelled during pre-production. Madonna later called in another recurring collaborator – Jean-Baptiste Mondino – to direct the clip instead.

The video marked Madonna’s first collaboration with Jamie King, who can be spotted as a dancer in the video.

Today in Madonna History: May 11, 1985

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On May 11 1985, Crazy For You hit number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. for one week. The track had spent the two previous weeks in the runner-up position behind the all-star single, We Are The World. In Canada, Crazy For You took a few weeks longer but also managed to displace USA For Africa’s charity track to become the county’s number-one single on May 25th.

The song was Madonna’s second chart-topping hit, and her first ballad to be released as a single.

Today in Madonna History: May 9, 1991

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On May 9 1991, a new music video for Like A Virgin featuring live and behind-the-scenes footage was released exclusively to MTV in the U.S. to promote the film Truth Or Dare. Outside the U.S., video channels were instead serviced with a live video for Holiday (which was eventually issued within the U.S. as well).

The Truth Or Dare clip for Like A Virgin was nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards in 1991: Best Choreography and Best Female Video. It marked the third time that a video for Like A Virgin had been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography. The original video received three nominations in 1985 including a nod for best Choreography, and another live clip (which was also released exclusively to MTV) to promote the home video release of The Virgin Tour was also nominated in the category in 1986. Despite the numerous nominations, none of the three videos for Like A Virgin garnered any trophies from MTV.