'Crazy for You' is Madonna's best song

It's fine, but not her best

'Live To Tell' & 'Angel' are also good.

Anyone read the novel of Vision Quest?

I read it contained gay sex that was cut for the movie. Modine was a babe.

Those are the two I always say are her best.

I'm with R2 here:

Best Madonna songs in decreasing order:

Angel

Dress You Up

Into the Groove

Rescue Me

Live to Tell

Which two, R4?

I always say "Live To Tell" is my favorite Madonna song.

Hot 'little' piece? Look at the scene where Modine is climbing the pegboard.

Sorry but I prefer later Madonna

Also like Bedtime Story, but that's more Bjork than Madonna.

"Secret" is beautiful.

A best song from this mess is the same as best shit, We don't want to look into her toilet nor hear her cauterwaul.

There wasn't any gay sex in the book. The closest it came was the part with the guy in the hotel he works at. It does say that Louden has a big cock.

"Like a Prayer" is her best song. I liked before I knew it was by her.

"Live To Tell" and "Crazy For You", R6.

Sanctuary from Bedtime Stories. No one ever talks about it but I love that song. And I am a Madge hater of a high order but there are a handful of songs that truly are classic.

"Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice,

him or her I shall follow,

like the water follows the moon,

silently,

on fluid steps,

around the globe,

you are my sanctuary.

"Bedtime Stories" is my favorite. I played the hell out of that CD back in the day. Every track is great, I think "Secret" is better than "Vogue." Unfortunately, the album didn't get the attention it deserved. And "Bad Girl" is the best video Madonna ever did.

I love many of her older songs but Live to tell is probably my favorite. It's a masterpiece. The instrumental version is breathtaking.

"Live to Tell" is the only Madonna song I own. I love it.

"Live To Tell" really is great, and I can't figure out why. I think about the inner workings of songs a lot.

People who can't sing should stick with uptempo ditties.

Not her best but I like it.

Those lyrics in Sanctuary are lifted from a poem. When I found that out, I was very disappointed because that song is so great but her contribution to it strictly vocals.

Also, I hate Crazy for You. I think it ruins every greatest hits collection. Can not stand it.

WHET the Vision Quest remake with Taylor Lautner?

I've posted this before but I'll post it again:

I pissed next to Matthew Modine at urinals with no wall between. Soft, he's still pretty big. More wide than round with a very big mushroom head.

[quote] WHET the Vision Quest remake with Taylor Lautner?

It's alpaca-ed away.

HOT, R23. I love him!

Escapade,y`all!

I vote for Justify My Love

FUCK no it's not her best song, not that she has any amazing songs anyway with her lack of talent. "Crazy For You" is 1 of her worst as her vocals are atrocious and struggling on it.

and the lyrics are corny too

Her vocals are awful in this song. Also, the lyrics really date the song ("I see you through the smoky air"). You can't smoke in clubs anymore.

I loved her till bedtime story. Then things went to shit.

I'm with r12, "Like A Prayer" is her best.

Promise to Try is my favorite song from her. The last line "Can't kiss her goodbye, but I promise to try" always breaks my heart.

Matthew Modine is straight, right?

Crazy for you and Borderline are my favorites from her old stuff and Ray of Light from her newer music.

I used to love Into The Groove and Gambler as a kid. Other great songs are Human Nature, Live To Tell, Frozen, Power of Goodbye and Confessions On A Dancefloor as one continuous song (which was the format I bought it).

There's no one best song with Madonna. She's got loads of them. Has to be said, though, that she or her music has never really been any kind of favorite of mine. I just enjoy it but don't think too much about it.

A MAN CAN TELL THOUSAND LIES IVE LEARNED MY LESSON WELL HOPE I LIVE TO TELL

Didn't know Sanctuary was from a poem r21 but I'm a Madonna hater for the most part and have never bought into her being anything more than the attractive packaging that sold the laundry detergent.

Most of you people only like her boring songs that have no real musical value. Why is that?

r12 & r32 however, have good taste.

"Live to Tell" is her best ballad. It was definitely a game changer for her career at the time. Truth be told, "Crazy For You" was her first big hit that was a ballad, but Live To Tell was a better song overall.

"Cherish" is her best outright pop song from that era, perfectly constructed with great 60's references. "Express Yourself" a close second, although that was more funk-influenced.

Bedtime Stories was definitely slept on. I still love the "Sanctuary/Bedtime Story" combo and thought that should've closed the album instead of "Take A Bow," which is a great Babyface ballad, but it would've made more sense in the middle of the album. I also liked "Inside of Me" and "I'd Rather Be your Lover" on that album too.

Madonna should've never stopped working with Patrick Leonard, they were an excellent team.

Say what you will about Madge's questionable vocals, but the bitch knew how to craft a catchy Pop during the first decade or so of her career. I'm not even a fan & I can respect her for this! What she lacked in actual singing talent, she made up for with fun, catchy music. 'Crazy For You' is just one of a hoard of good songs.

My personal favorites are 'Lucky Star', 'Borderline' & 'Angel', but she truly has too many good songs in her catalog to name them all. I think the decline started in the early 90's & just about everything's she's released since 2000 has been trash. But in her day she knew a hit when she heard one.

R41 - even in the 80's, I was like "this woman can't sing, but I like her music,". Madge knew how to craft a great pop hit. The imagery and controversial music videos certainly helped, but the catchiness of her music enabled her to back her shit up.

Rihanna is an awful singer, but she has the looks, charisma, and catchy pop tunes that have given her staying power for years, longer than I imagined her to be.

R41 "Lucky Star"? really? to match her weak vocals are pre-teenish, weak lyrics.

But what about me?

R42 , I completely agree. Rihanna is probably the closest thing to a Madonna that we have today. Shitty vocals (10x worse than Madonna's ever were), but somehow manages to shit out the frequent catchy tune. (For the people that can tolerate her bad singing & enjoy today's Pop.)

R43, yes 'Lucky Star'! It's a flawless piece of Early 80's R&B/Pop/Funk. Madonna composed a very catchy tune & Reggie Lucas outdid himself with a brilliant production/arrangement. The lyrics aren't saying anything special so Madonna's weak vocals were suitably. A more capable singer would've given too much vocally & taken away from that kick ass Funk groove that Reggie Lucas crafted. One of the best things Madonna ever did!

[quote] The lyrics aren't saying anything special so Madonna's weak vocals were suitably.

SUITABLE!

Rihanna is a weak singer but even she has more volume and a better "belt voice" than Vadge.

Another vote for "Live to Tell." I like a bunch of her other songs a lot but I actually havealways considered this a legitimately good ballad.

Vogue is great, too - I think it has held up incredibly well.

I like the original Get into the Groove a lot but I haven't heard it in years. I can't stand how they bastardized it in Immaculate Collection.

Angel takes me back because that was on the original Like a Virgin album and you rarely hear it (along with Over and Over), but I've always liked the song a lot.

Who the fuck wants to hear a nerve-gratingly irritating Billy Goat belt with or without volume?!!!!

Madonna at least was legitimately soulful on her early R&B-oriented material & could adopt a sweet tone occasionally. Vadge for the win! And please don't force me to defend her again. It's scaring me!

R49 you've got to be kidding. There was never anything "soulful" about Vadge's paper thin voice. Her first 2 albums display that she really had no idea how to "sing". Her vocals got marginally better after that but she has always been very limited.

"Like a Prayer" is Madonna's best song.

Other great songs of hers are "Dress You Up", "Live To Tell", "Open Your Heart", "La Isla Bonita" and "Frozen".

"Born This Way" is also a great Madonna song.

EROTIC, EROTIC... put your hands all over my body - is her BEST song. It encapsulates her persona entirely. WHORE.

R50 , I despise you for backing me into a corner and forcing me to defend Madonna's vocals like some sort of fanatic. But I stand by what I've said. I think that you may have a different definition of "soulful" than I. I'm not saying that her vocals were in any way, shape or form reminiscent of someone like an Aretha Franklin or Stephanie Mills. What I will say is that on that on her early R&B oriented material her vocals were heartfelt, free-flowing & completely "in the groove" (no pun). By that I mean that they were completely appropriate for the material she was singing & in no way stiff.

Her first 2 albums were actually her best 2 Pop albums! For you to suggest that "she had no idea how to sing", it's obvious that you have no knowledge of Reggie Lucas & Nile Rodgers, their background & what they were capable of as producers. They coaxed some great vocals out of Madge! If anything, once Madge dropped the R&B/Funk (almost everything post "True Blue") & went in a straight ahead Pop direction, her weak vocals became more obvious.

R53 you think she sounded good on "Like A Virgin" and "Material Girl"? Those 2 songs are incredibly irritating. The post-disco dance beats on her first album were great and distract from her vocals. Take the beats off her first 2 albums, isolate the vocals and you'll want to go deaf. She has always been a very poor singer.

I've always loved CRAZY FOR YOU, juvenile as it may be. TAKE A BOW is another. But Madonna herself? Kurveh!!

R54, you basically just said the same thing I did. The bulk of the songs on her first 2 albums were soulful/funky enough that they distracted from her vocals. But I do think that Lucas & Rodgers did a good job of coaxing vocals out of her that were appropriate for her material. Not great singing but harmless enough to hide behind some great material. IMO her shitty vocals became more obvious when she dropped the Funk ("True Blue" on forward). But she'd still frequently record songs that were so catchy that you were willing to overlook her singing.

With that said, there is absolutely NOTHING pleasant about Rihanna's singing! She's even more offensive than Madge. Madge at least could adopt a sweet tone with her voice & knew her vocals limitations (at least she did early on). Rihanna has a SHITTY GRUFF TONE & has the audacity to occasionally attempt things like belts & runs. She's horrible!

I forgot about "Open Your Heart." That was an awesome video. Really off-beat and strange. I liked it a lot.

"Live to Tell."

"Take A Bow" was such an elegant video, save for Madonna's writhing all over the bed.

I think it was during her Latino-love phase, where she dated Carlos Leon, filmed "Evita," and made this video in Spain.

She really played the part of Spanish aristocrat very well.

I like these from her more recent efforts:

Power of Goodbye

Give Me the Beat

Forbidden Love

Gang Bang

I'm a Sinner

American Life is her best. JK

"Burning Up" still sounds great, too. That song was SCANDALOUS back in the day! People really were uptight about the raunchy lyrics.

What was so raunchy about "Burning Up"? I don't remember ever reading anything about it. It's a good song.

[quote]"Take A Bow" was such an elegant video, save for Madonna's writhing all over the bed. I think it was during her Latino-love phase, where she dated Carlos Leon, filmed "Evita," and made this video in Spain.

This was prior to her getting the part of Evita. She actually filmed this video as a calling card to Alan Parker to show him that she could play and look the part of Evita.

Another song I like from her that I don't think was mentioned was the follow up to "Take a Bow," "I'll Remember." Also another gorgeous video.

I know everyone says Madonna has a weak voice, etc. but she really should record more ballads. She's had quite a number of huge, successful ballads in her catalog.

I always thought "Crazy For You" was a horrid vocal. Pitch problems and strained singing.

My picks for "best Madonna songs" in terms of sound, (limiting it to actual hits) are Like A Prayer, Rain, Take a Bow, Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Miami Mix), and What It Feels Like For a Girl.

It'd be interesting to hear Taylor Dayne or Lisa Stansfield or some other pop diva who can actually sing record Crazy for You. Madonna's version rots.

[quote]Another song I like from her that I don't think was mentioned was the follow up to "Take a Bow," "I'll Remember." Also another gorgeous video.

Sorry, not, "I'll Remember," I mean't, "You'll See."

"Live to Tell" was a great song, her first "mature" song. I remember ROLLING STONE magazine called it her version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now". And I also recall Patrick Leonard talking about the recording of the song: He wrote the music and played it for Madonna; she went into a room and wrote the lyrics in a short amount of time. The song was then recorded without issue. I think alot of the song has to do with her mother and how the pain of loss has become entangled in the pain of betrayal or rejection by a lover. Madonna could write a good song when she allowed herself to see beyond herself and in her herself.

Fun fact: "Crazy For You" knocked "We Are the World" off of the #1 spot on the Hot 100, and stayed there for several weeks. If must have felt good for Madonna, who wanted to be part of "We Are the World" but was told in no uncertain terms that she was not invited because they considered her a novelty dance artist and a flash-in-the-pan who would be gone in a year and they were all "serious artists." Hahaha!

R68, re "Live To Tell" -- I could be wrong but I saw a clip about the song -- Madonna was married to Sean Penn at the time, and her intent here was to write a song from the POV of his character in a movie he was starring in at the time. He was portraying a man who finds the courage to testify against his own organized-crime family including his father, and in making that huge decision, he might not survive long enough to give his testimony, i.e., "live to tell."

Without that info it is easy to wonder what personal pain Madonna was writing about... but in that instance she was writing for a character in a movie. She did a great job with that one, I agree.

[quote]Madonna could write a good song when she allowed herself to see beyond herself and in her herself.

And probably also showed she could write a good song when she wasn't allowed time to over think.

Why do people love "Live To Tell" so much? It's an okay song but I wouldn't listen to it nonstop the way I do "Into the Groove" or even "Lucky Star." I am curious to know what Live to Tell is about though. I've heard varying theories--sexual abuse, etc.

r63, you are not putting yourself in the mindset of early mainstream 80s sensibility. "Burning Up" was about a woman celebrating all her naked raw passion in all its masochistic pleasure; she was willing to get "down on her knees" and beg for her lover's acceptance if that's what it took to get him; the blatant twisted sexuality played up woman's submissive role while still giving her all the power - just admitting all her wanton lust was empowering, a mind-fuck that challenged the standard sensibility of gender roles. Today that's nothing - Madonna's predecessors have parodied and played up that kind of sexual female empowerment so much that it is superficial and vapid. Back in the early 80s, that sexual presentation was waaay over alot of people's heads.

Ditto for "Like A Virgin". It's nothing to us now, but we tend to forget (or for those who was after its time, not know) that that song riled alot of people up. For all its sugary popiness, it was a blatant political song that thumbed its nose at a centuries long tradition of parochialism and Catholicism. The Vatican was offended, the parents were aghast (and strangely titillated), right and left wings were debating and spewing their venoms and wagging their fingers, and teenagers were seduced.

A couple of decades later when Britney sang "I'll be a Slave 4 U" while playing up her naughty middle-class Lolita-ness, that kind of genuine culture shock caused by a pop song was long over and had entered the cynical expectations of the mainstream.

[quote] It'd be interesting to hear Taylor Dayne or Lisa Stansfield or some other pop diva who can actually sing record Crazy for You.

Dayne and Stansfield could sing circles around Madonna and then some, yet they never achieved half of Madonna's fame and glory, unfortunately.

I don't get it.

I am convinced that becoming a mother ruined what was once an intriguing and limitless artist.

[quote]"We Are the World" but was told in no uncertain terms that she was not invited because they considered her a novelty dance artist and a flash-in-the-pan who would be gone in a year and they were all "serious artists."

And it's amazing to think that out of those that were involved.... are ANY of them still around?

[quote]It'd be interesting to hear Taylor Dayne or Lisa Stansfield or some other pop diva who can actually sing record Crazy for You.

I wouldn't. I think Madonna's vocals on the track lend to giving the song its raw and aching feel.

Madonna's career as a Hot 100 charting artist and her cultural relevance outlasted everybody from "We Are the World" by many years.

R74, Madonna did two things right, video and touring:

(1) she recognized that in the 80s, MTV/music video was *the* medium. And she got damn good at it. Madonna gave awesome video. She proved to be a pathetically limited cinematic actress, but within the limited frame of music video, OMG, Madonna could emote/lipsync a song to new life like nobody else could.

(2) she also recognized that fans wanted real spectacle in seeing a pop singer, especially in a large arena or stadium. She and Janet Jackson were the two first female solo artists to truly deliver on that, in terms of a huge tour with huge theatrics and production values.

I adored Lisa Stansfield but she was never going to be much more than a studio crooner. And Taylor Dayne was too brassy/loud, both in sound and looks. There was no place for her in pop music once Whitney and then Mariah came on the scene.

r72/r70, the magic of the song is that it can be open to many interpretations. It is a deeply personal song. One can argue that looking through the POV of a movie character, a writer will inevitably transpose their own issues/experiences onto that character; in order to understand what the character was going through, she would have had to relate to it on some emotional level. She did that brilliantly with this song. Knowing what we know about her own emotional issues and how her mother's death defined most of her career, one can perhaps interpret the "beauty" she speaks of seeing once and knowing "the warmth it gives" as the lost maternal. She knew the ultimate love, perhaps part of the secret that will "burn inside" of her.

Another characteristic of the song is eternalizing the feminine, that behind the dark veil lies the truth that sees and knows all.

When I first saw Taylor Dayne, I honest to god thought she was transsexual or a transvestite. No shit.

I also loved Lisa Stansfield, she started off with a bang but faded pretty fast.

[quote]And it's amazing to think that out of those that were involved (in We Are The World).... are ANY of them still around?

Well, to be fair, that was 30 long years ago.

But even if you ask, who among them still had a big career in pop music just 10 years after WATW, in the mid 1990s? Pretty much none of them. Well, OK, Springsteen and Dylan were still turning out critically acclaimed albums. But in terms of Top 40 single action? Nobody.

R73 "Burning Up" and "Like A Virgin" have nothing on Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" which was not allowed to be played on pop radio until a few years after it came out.

R75 = another person who fell for Vadge's act. How was she intriguing and limitless? Her vocals have always been VERY limited and her "intrigue" comes down to her just wanting to "shock" and "outrage" conservative people. Her "artistry" consisted of ripping off everyone's work, whether they were famous or obscure.

r83, you're reaching. Vanity was fringe, not mainstream. Nearly everyone in the world heard of Madonna during her rise to pop stardom. You'd have to tell ALOT of people who Vanity6 was, much less the fucking Pope.

I was surprised to learn that Madonna wrote the lyrics to "La Isla Bonita" too. I always thought that someone else wrote the lyrics, but the composer Gardner Cole (who offered it to Michael Jackson first and was happy Jackson turned it down because Cole was creeped out by him) has stated that he and Patrick Leonard offered the music to Madonna, who then applied some lyrics she wrote while on location in Hong Kong for "Shangai Surprise". I am sure that Patrick Leonard had a hand in helping to mold alot of Madonna's lyrics to fit the melody of his music, but she could write some beautiful lyrics when she wanted too. Leonard helped to define her distinctive musical stamp more than anybody she ever worked with. They were magic together. It's too bad they don't try again. He seemed to know what worked for her.

I haven't thought of Madonna as a songwriter/lyricist in years, so it's weird to read these accounts of her writing the lyrics to two of her best songs ("La Isla Bonita" and "Live To Tell"). I was under the impression that Patrick Leonard wrote much of the lyrics as well. What did he have to say about her putting her name on his compositions? Link, anyone?

To the poster who prefers "Lucky Star" and "Into The Groove" over "Live To Tell" and wonders what's so great about "Live To Tell" -- is it possible that you're just an airhead? I don't mean to be rude; I'm just going by your stated preferences.

I personally DESPISE 'La Isla Bonita' & 'Cherish'. I'm shocked that anyone would even dare mention them in a "Best Of Madonna" thread. At this rate, it won't be long now before some idiot proclaims that Madge artistically peaked with 'Dear Jessie' & 'Me Against The Music'.

Most of the artists on We Are the World already had ten to twenty years of major career success when they sang on that track. Ridiculous to compare Madonna's two years in the game to them. Or to somehow say that none of them have had the enduring success that she has had. Typical Madonna fangurl stuff.

Like Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Tina Turner were all flashes in the pan. Give me a break. A few of the artists were already legends when they did WATW. They had nothing to prove at that point.

R85, it seems like a lot of people prefer Madonna's collaborations with Patrick Leonard but I've always thought she worked best with Stephen Bray. I love the soul/funk pop sound he gave her on her early demos and first album.

I think Madonna was more ideas when it came to lyrics rather than crafting the actual words. It makes sense when one considers some of the awful lyrics since the MUSIC album, the most egregious examples of which I've no doubt she wrote herself

I really liked Papa Don't Preach.

[quote]I really liked Papa Don't Preach

Which is another song that is funny to think about in terms of how controversial it was at the time.

Like a Prayer is her best song and production.

[quote]I think Madonna was more ideas when it came to lyrics rather than crafting the actual words.

I like to singy singy singy. Like a bird on a wingy wingy wingy.

When I heard Crazy for You, I noticed that her lower register is nice sounding, rich. Her pitch is all over the place on that song, as it was on all her early records. Madonna's voice and her singing skills improved leaps and bounds over her career. When I first heard Ray of Light, I said "Wow! She can sing!"

[quote] I like to singy singy singy. Like a bird on a wingy wingy wingy.

Indeed. She probably describes that lyric as "faux naive, n'est pas, Mirwais?"

Yet, her voice is usually pretty effective in the 80s (after a lot of cutting together different takes, no doubt).

The Erotica/Movie Soundtrack era was the nadir for her vocals ("Bad Girl", "Rain").

Her vocals were technically better on Ray of Light, but rather cold. And she's only gotten colder. She had passion in the 80s.

Btw, people bicker over Madonna & Janets vocals in their prime (and in terms of live performances, they're well justified) but Paula Abdul is really the nadir of the dance pop divas. I don't think there was anyone with her levels of commercial success and piss poor vocals.

R62 doesn't know what the fuck she's on about. I don't remember reading one article at the time shrieking about the scandalous "Burning Up". Stop making shit up, willya?

Yeah Bedtime Stories only produced her biggest hit ever.

[quote]Yet, her voice is usually pretty effective in the 80s (after a lot of cutting together different takes, no doubt).

[quote]Her vocals were technically better on Ray of Light, but rather cold. And she's only gotten colder. She had passion in the 80s.

Thank you, Jody (R97). I was trying to explain this at R49 & R53, but you expressed it much better than I.

Rain

[quote]Btw, people bicker over Madonna & Janets vocals in their prime (and in terms of live performances, they're well justified) but Paula Abdul is really the nadir of the dance pop divas. I don't think there was anyone with her levels of commercial success and piss poor vocals.

As horrible as Paula was, I think that Britney Spears, Katy Perry & Rihanna have even surpassed her where shitty vocals are concerened.

Take A Bow is my favorite

I totally agree with Ms Watley at R97 and with R53. Madonna's voice has had three editions:

(1) earnest, heartfelt, but poorly trained ('83 to '89)

(2) trained, careful, technically much improved, yet relatively heartless ('90 to '03)

(3) digitized and overprocessed ('06 to present)

And I actually liked the earnestness and imperfection of her 80s voice the best. "Open Your Heart", "Papa Don't Preach", "Express Yourself" and "Oh Father" were great in that way.

I loved her singing on "Secret" and "Take A Bow." Those R&B producers were able to get some of her best work as a singer on many of those cuts. Too bad she ditched the R&B/Funk Pop sound that made her famous in the 80s and early to mid 90s and became more Euro with electronica. (Yet I think her cold and unemotive singing actually suits that sound very well, so maybe that was an artistic choice on her part. If nothing else, Madonna is and will always be calculating.)

[quote]Most of the artists on We Are the World already had ten to twenty years of major career success when they sang on that track. Ridiculous to compare Madonna's two years in the game to them. Or to somehow say that none of them have had the enduring success that she has had. Typical Madonna fangurl stuff.

R88=Dan Ackroyd

R84 if by fringe you mean white people who only listened to white music didn't know of Vanity/Vanity 6, then fine. Anyone who went to a club in late '82 throughout '83 and/or who listened to an r&b station or even just watched MTV knew "Nasty Girl". The song hit #1 on the dance chart, #7 on the r&b chart and just missed the hot 100 only due to being banned on pop radio. It made much more of an impact than "Burning Up" which stalled at #3 on the dance chart. Most people didn't even start knowing about Vadge until "Holiday" came out. Hell, that Shitney song "Slave 4 U" is set to the "Nasty Girl" backing track. So many pop and r&b singers have performed or sampled the song in the last 30 years. Even Vadge got her lingerie idea from Vanity. Vadge was still a bit out-of-shape in the early 80s. There was a buzz among the young entertainers about how wild and raunchy Vanity was, including her Vanity 6 set during Prince's 1999 tour in 1983.

The suggestive lyric and dance moves trend didn't originate with Vadge, she just gets credit for it as usual.

[quote]Most of the artists on We Are the World already had ten to twenty years of major career success when they sang on that track. Ridiculous to compare Madonna's two years in the game to them. Or to somehow say that none of them have had the enduring success that she has had. Typical Madonna fangurl stuff.

Really?

One word... La Toya.

And Cyndi Lauper was just as new as Madonna was.

[quote[]As horrible as Paula was, I think that Britney Spears, Katy Perry & Rihanna have even surpassed her where shitty vocals are concerened.

I'd disagree on that. I think Britney's vocals are actually better than Paula's. Yes, Britney's recordings are heavily mixed and synthesized, but her actual singing voice (not the fake, affected, higher voice she uses to record) but her actual, natural, singing voice, isn't terrible and in my opinion, better than Paula's. Britney's actual voice is passable.

r107, yes I did mean that those who didn't go to a club. I don't want to get into a debate about the quality or merit of Madonna's talent, but you cannot deny she went outside the club scene to build her fame. Most musicians target their peers; she went multi-generational and targeted children, teenagers, parents, grandparents. Girls and boys bought her records, but Moms and Dads knew who Madonna was. I remember my grandfather's interest being piqued by Madonna's platinum blonde kittenish look in the Papa Don't Preach video because it called to mind the sex symbols of his own day. Crafting her public persona around old Hollywood was a master stroke of mainstream media manipulation. When she capitolized on the Marilyn comparisons, for instance, it was introducing a whole new generation to their parents' and their grandparents' era. I remember being in a diner one time with a friend and we were laughing at an old couple getting into the melody of Vogue while it played on the radio. This was the secret to her fame: she didn't exclude anyone from it: blacks, gays, women, multi-generations. Prince and his cronies, for example, excluded people to the point of making music only accessible to a subculture; Madonna didn't.

I loved all of Madonna's music, until after Ray of Light...then, I became disenchanted with her.

Loved "Angel" and "Dress You Up".

r83, I am curious to know how old you are. During the course of Madonna's zenith of fame, there was no internet and no social media. You are talking like someone who has received his perspective on things through the internet. I was a boy in the 80s and a teenager in the 90s. Madonna had the media by its balls. For the mainstream middle class, she was an Event, an phenomenon and in many ways she could do no wrong. She was It. I remember hating her with all the Like A Virgin stuff because all the girls wanted to be her and all the boys wanted to fuck her. But Papa Don't Preach turned me around. She was officially a gay icon with that video. She was blonde, brash and retro and she was moaning and grunting and telling her father that she was doing it her way. It was Pop Art made accessible for everyone. Then she was playing a stripper in a sexually ambivalent peep show, a Latino seductress, a 50s girl group singer, an androgynous street urchin, a religious martyr, a modern industrial captain of industry, a California girl on the beach, a daughter surviving patriarchal abuse, a Hollywood screen goddess ... nobody was doing any of that at all. She was the ultimate star of the 80s and 90s. It did appear limitless. Her music was defining a generation as well as multi-decades. I know the social media generation thinks they have a grasp on what is real and what is not, but most of the time, it ignores what happened just for the sake of being contrary, cynical and disillusioned.

r92, Madonna's "Billie Jean". Great song and iconic video.

She was magnificent at PR. Artistry, not so much.

Though it's quite something that she's nearly 60 years old and still manages to remain in the public eye.

R110 your explanation is all over the place. We were talking only about "Burning Up" vs. "Nasty Girl", not Madonna's entire career. Of these 2 singles, "Nasty Girl" had and continues to have a much more profound impact. The idea that a mixed woman who looked like a supermodel was out there in lingerie with nothing but a men's jacket to cover it up (until she took it off) while dancing provocatively to lyrics like "I need 7 inches or more" and having sex on a limousine floor was much more "shocking" and exciting than Madonna. Madonna, by contrast, was a white girl of average looks who looked dirty and desperate rolling around on the pavement with lyrics like "I'm not the others-I'll do anything, I'm not the same, I have no shame".

Vanity 6 also performed "Nasty Girl" on Soul Train and Solid Gold at the end of 1982 which gave them a big audience. No one was really talking about Madonna's "Burning Up" and she couldn't get on shows like American Bandstand until "Holiday" came out a year later. "Nasty Girl" would have been a pop smash if it hadn't been banned from pop radio until a few years later due to the explicit lyrics. "Burning Up" simply didn't get out of the clubs because no one thought much of it.

Both "Nasty Girl" and "Burning Up" were made to appeal to people under 30, not older generations. At the start of Madonna's career she wasn't ripping off old hollywood style; she was just ripping off the "cool" people in NYC of the club scene.

I don't think you and I are on the same page at all, r116. We are not talking about the same thing I guess.

I think rip-offs and plagiarism are common in the music industry, which consists of always looking for a new sound, a catchy beat. Someone like Brian Elliot rip-offs the chorus from a lesser-known song from a lesser-known artist like Sam Harris and turns it into Papa Don't Preach, but does Madonna or anyone at her music company know when they accept the song? And does Brian Elliot know he's doing it? He could have heard the song once and it earwormed its way into his subconscious? Who knows. The music industry is full of rock stars who have been accused of plagiarism and stealing from other artists: Johnny Cash, Rod Stewart, the Beatles, Coldplay ... the list goes on. It's difficult to pinpoint when something like this begins - is it premeditated or is it purely by accident?

I don't know about Brian Elliot, but Stefani G....

'Crazy for You' by Groove Armada

That's a rather shambolic cover, very demoish. No surprise it was put out on a charity album.

It’s a lovely song and starts off beautifully and then Madonna’s hideous voice starts “swaying move as the music starts” ugh !! Luckily the chorus is catchy and the backup singers sound amazing!

It would have been an all time best ballad if someone with a nice voice sang it!