On March 3 1998, Madonna’s seventh studio album, Ray Of Light, was released in North America. Happy 25th Anniversary!
Spawning five singles and winning four Grammy awards, it garnered near-universal acclaim upon its release and it is often cited as a high watermark in Madonna’s career as a recording artist.
Ray Of Light was produced by Madonna & William Orbit with additional production by Patrick Leonard & Marius De Vries.
On March 1 1998, Madonna’s Ray Of Light album was featured in an episode MTV’s Ultrasound.
Kurt Loder visited Madonna in the studio during the recording of the Ray Of Light album in late 1997 for an exclusive chat and behind-the-scenes look into her recording process. He later joined her on the set of the Frozen video to conduct an additional interview for the episode. Madonna chatted about motherhood, her recent spiritual awakening, and the inspiration behind the album. Kurt also conducted interviews with collaborator William Ørbit, Guy Oseary and the director of the Frozen video, Chris Cunningham.
On February 21 1998, the lead single from Madonna’s Ray Of Light album, Frozen, was reviewed by Larry Flick for Billboard magazine.
On February 16 1998, Madonna’s Frozen music video premiered on MTV.
The video was delivered to select music video outlets (such as MTV and MuchMusic) in a block of dry ice. Leading up to the video premiere, the VJs had to melt or chip away at the block to get to the video inside.
Select radio stations also received a promotional ice chest, which included a 3-track CD and a flyer promoting the lead single from Ray Of Light. The CD included the following tracks:
On November 20 1998, the U.K.’s Channel 4 aired a Madonna interview conducted by Johnny Vaughan. The special was titled Johnny Meets Madonna and was part of Madonna’s European promotional campaign for The Power Of Good-Bye and the Ray Of Light album.
On November 15 1998, Madonna performed The Power Of Good-Bye and was interviewed by Luuk TV in Stockholm, Sweden.
Though the song was mimed, Madonna gave viewers an eye-full in a transparent top. a see-through in a performance that was both distinctly European – and distinctly Madonna!
On November 7 1998, The Power of Good-Bye advanced one position to #13 in what would be its final bulleted week on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The single would nonetheless manage to sneak its way up to #11 on November 28th, sans bullet. It is worth noting that one of the most significant changes to eligibility rules in the Hot 100’s history at the time took effect during the single’s initially rapid ascent, causing an immediate rush of non-commercially released radio hits to storm the chart and seemingly disrupt the ballad’s momentum.
A decision by Warner Bros. to withhold a maxi-single release for The Power Of Good-Bye in the U.S., compounded by the lack of any non-album content on the standard single despite earlier reports, suggests that the changes to the Hot 100 may have created a larger ripple than Warner had anticipated. Including the Oprah performance of Little Star, as previously reported in Billboard, or even the Dallas Austin remix of The Power Of Good-Bye on the b-side certainly would have given fans more incentive to pick up the 2-track single in the U.S.
It’s difficult to fully frown on Warner Bros.’s seemingly uncontainable enthusiasm for the brilliant remixes of Ray Of Light‘s fourth single, Nothing Really Matters, despite the highly unconventional timing of servicing them to clubs six months ahead of their commercial release.
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