Today in Madonna History: November 17, 1987

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On November 17 1987, Madonna’s first remix collection, You Can Dance, was released by Sire Records.

The LP version included the following tracks:

Spotlight
Holiday
Everybody
Physical Attraction
Over and Over
Into the Groove
Where’s the Party

The CD release included the following bonus tracks:

Holiday (Dub Version)
Into the Groove (Dub Version)
Where’s the Party (Dub Version)

The cassette release included this track listing:

Spotlight
Holiday
Everybody
Physical Attraction
Spotlight (Dub Version)
Holiday (Dub Version)
Over and Over
Into the Groove
Where’s the Party
Over and Over (Dub Version)
Into the Groove (Dub Version)

Patrick Leonard had this to say about working on You Can Dance:

“Remixing is a form of secondary creativity. Dance music elevates the DJ and the mixer to being almost on a level with the musician. In my opinion this is false. Manipulation of pre-recorded sound sources may be creative in a secondary sense, and may be valid in its own field, but it is pseudo musicianship. That’s why we tried to have a fresh approach to the songs for You Can Dance, as if we were developing and composing them for the first time.”

Today in Madonna History: November 11, 1985

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On November 11 1985, Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour was released on home video in the U.K. and France. The concert was filmed on May 25th, 1985 at Cobo Arena in Madonna’s home town of Detroit, Michigan. The concert film was directed by Daniel Kleinman and the music was produced by Madonna & Patrick Leonard.

At the beginning of the video Madonna declares:

“I went to New York. I had a dream. I wanted to be a big star, I didn’t know anybody, I wanted to dance, I wanted to sing, I wanted to do all those things, I wanted to make people happy, I wanted to be famous, I wanted everybody to love me. I wanted to be a star. I worked really hard, and my dream came true.”

The live performances of Like A Virgin and Dress You Up were released as music videos on MTV to promote the live video release.  Both videos were nominated for Best Choreography at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

Though it was also released on laserdisc in some countries, to date it has sadly not been officially reissued on DVD.

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