On February 22 1991, Madonna’s Justify My Love VHS single was certified 4x platinum (400,000 units) in the USA.
Tag Archives: The Immaculate Collection
Today in Madonna History: February 6, 1991
On February 6, 1991, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection video collection was certified multi-platinum for sales of 150,000 units in the USA.
Today in Madonna History: January 28, 1984
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: December 7, 1990
On December 7 1990, Madonna’s Justify My Love was released as the first-ever video single, priced at $9.98.
The music video was considered too sexually explicit for MTV and was banned from the network. Madonna responded to the banning: “Why is it that people are willing to go and watch a movie about someone getting blown to bits for no reason at all, and nobody wants to see two girls kissing and two men snuggling?”
On December 3, 1990, ABC’s Nightline played the video in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video’s sexual content and censorship. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on MTV, she appeared impatient and answered, “Yeah, so? Lucky me.” She also expressed during the interview that she did not understand why the video was banned, while videos containing violence and degradation to women continued to receive regular airplay. The video was then released on VHS, and became a bestselling “video single” of all time.
Do you still have your VHS copy of Justify My Love?
Today in Madonna History: October 11, 2001
On October 11 2001, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection was certified 10x platinum (10 million units) in the USA – the best-selling greatest hits album by a female artist.
Today in Madonna History: September 5, 1991
On September 5 1991, Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection won Best Long-Form Video at the 8th annual MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California.
Today in Madonna History: May 31, 1986
On May 31 1986, Madonna’s Live To Tell hit #1 for 3 weeks on US Hot Adult Contemporary singles chart.
The song was Madonna’s third number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and her first number-one on the Adult Contemporary chart.
In an interview about the song, Madonna said, “I thought about my relationship with my parents and the lying that went on. The song is about being strong, and questioning whether you can be that strong but ultimately surviving.”
In a review of the album True Blue, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic called it a “tremendous ballad that rewrites the rules of adult contemporary crossover”.
Jim Farber from Entertainment Weekly called the song “her best ballad to date”.
In a review of her compilation album The Immaculate Collection, David Browne from Entertainment Weekly magazine called it “one of her few successful shots at being a balladeer”.
Alfred Soto from Stylus Magazine felt that “the song’s set of lyrics remain her best” and that the vocals “seethes with a lifetime’s worth of hurts which she nevertheless refuses to share”.
Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine called the song “striking” adding that it “rewrote the rules of what a pop song was supposed to sound like”.
Edna Gundersen from USA Today called the song “a moody heart-tugger, may be her best song ever.”
Today In Madonna History 