"Like a Virgin" by Madonna

#1 Alert!

Gold Record Alert!

Rated 10 Alert!

Song#:  2132
Date:  11/17/1984
Debut:  48
Peak:  1 (6 weeks)
Weeks:  19
Genre:  Synthpop, Dance-Pop



Pop Bits:  Madonna's self-titled debut was a major success that spawned two Top 10 singles. Not wanting to miss out the momentum built by the album and its associated videos, Madonna got in the studio in the spring of '84 to record a follow-up. She really didn't have the best of luck with producers on her first album, so she intended to do this one herself. However, the label was not keen on that and pushed her into getting an established producer for the album. She chose Chic's Nile Rodgers, who had recently done David Bowie's successful Let's Dance LP. Madonna would supply five songs (one written by her, the other four written by her and Stephen Bray) while the balance of the album would consist three tunes by other writers and one cover. One of the songs that came her way was this title-track written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg. Madonna liked the song right off the bat, but Rodgers did not and tried to talk her out of doing it. However, he later relented and the pair worked up the tune. It would serve as the first single from the album and after a debut in the top half of the Pop chart, the song took off and headed to #1. It would be the first of Madonna's twelve chart toppers and would firmly establish her as a star. It also reached #1 at Dance and would become her first and only R&B Top 10 hitting #9. The iconic song would later be placed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The song spent six weeks at #1, which would be her best showing until 1994 when "Take a Bow" held on for seven weeks.

ReduxReview:  This song was so great at the time and I still enjoy it. Madonna broke through with her first album and for her second one, she was determined to stamp her foot down and say "here I am bitches - and I'm here to stay!" She certainly did with this song. It was pure bubblegum pop wrapped in a wink-wink sexy coating and it was perfect for her. What always stood out to me was the production. It was absolutely crisp and clean with a massive snare sound that just made the song snap. I've always loved the little snare fills too. Rodgers produced this within an inch of its life and it just worked. I've hated all the remix versions of the song. The original album version remains the best. I loved the album too and thought it was a definite step forward for Madonna. She would go on to have better albums, but this is the one that gave her the confidence (and clout) to keep moving forward in her own way.

ReduxRating:  10/10

Trivia:  When some folks think of this song, the image that comes to mind is from an iconic performance that Madonna did at the very first MTV Music Video Awards show in September of '84. Although this song was not yet released, Madonna performed it on the show. She started the song atop a wedding cake dressed in a wedding gown that was adorned with a "boy toy" belt buckle. By the end of the song she was at the front of the stage writhing around the floor, sometimes in a suggestive manner. Her performance was a sensation and courted its share of controversy (as did the song itself). It set a standard for the awards show in its inaugural year and many artists since then have tried to raise the bar with their own performances on the show.

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"You're the Inspiration" by Chicago

Top 10 Alert!

Song#:  2131
Date:  11/17/1984
Debut:  61
Peak:  3
Weeks:  22
Genre:  Pop, Adult Contemporary



Pop Bits:  The band's Chicago 17 LP started out slow, but gained momentum when its second single, "Hard Habit to Break" took off and reached #3 at both Pop and AC. Keeping along those same big-ballad lines, this track was selected as the follow-up single. It did even better at AC reaching the top of the chart. It also did well at Pop hitting the same #3 position as "Habit" did, both for two weeks at that spot. Chart-wise at Pop, "Habit" ended up finishing slightly better hanging around on the chart for three more weeks.

ReduxReview:  This was one of those songs that I got sick of because it was so overplayed. After awhile, it just became annoying. However, it really is a well-done tune and a solid follow-up to the superior "Hard Habit." Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the two hits got the band tagged as a supplier of big pop ballads and that dogged them for years after. In fact, all of the band's future Top 10's (there would be five of them ahead) were all in this exact same vein. It worked for them, so I guess they just went with it for as long as they could. Their days of being a horn-led rock/jazz-rock band were certainly over. I remember seeing them the summer of '83 and folks in the audience held up signs asking them to play stuff like "Colour My World." I'm not sure if it was Peter Cetera or one of the other guys who saw the signs and said "yeah, we don't play that stuff anymore." I thought that was a crappy thing to say. It just seemed the whole band didn't want to be there and had an attitude about it. They played fine, but in the end it was not a good show. I still rank it as the worst concert I have ever seen.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Lead singer Peter Cetera wrote this song with producer David Foster. Originally, the tune was intended for Kenny Rogers. Apparently, Foster was working with Rogers and Rogers had asked if Cetera could write something for him. It had to be done quickly as Rogers was already in the studio recording an album. Foster met with Cetera and the two plotted out the basics of a song. Cetera later finished it off with lyrics and got it over to Rogers, who ended up passing on the song. When Cetera and Foster later got together to do the new Chicago album, Cetera dusted off the song, made a few changes, and got it recorded. It ended up being one of Chicago's biggest hits.

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"Jamie" by Ray Parker, Jr.

Song#:  2130
Date:  11/17/1984
Debut:  65
Peak:  14
Weeks:  17
Genre:  R&B, Adult Contemporary



Pop Bits:  Parker, Jr. just scored the biggest hit of his career with the #1 soundtrack song "Ghostbusters." He needed to follow that song up quickly in order to take advantage of the momentum provided by the hit. A full album was not nearly ready yet, so it was decided a compilation LP would be released to fill the gap. Titled Chartbusters, the album would included "Ghostbusters," two other solo hits, a hit from his Raydio days, two album tracks, and three new tunes including this first single. The song wasn't a major hit, but it did well at AC getting to #6 while making it into the Top 20 at both R&B (#12) and Pop. The album couldn't make it into the upper reaches of the charts, but over time the compilation sold well enough to go gold.

ReduxReview:  It is an advantage for an artist to try and capitalize on a hit and keep things going, but it has to be done the right way. This one nearly felt like a quick cash-in product. I mean, really....Chartbusters? In addition to the name, the cover was basically a rip-off of the Ghostbusters logo. The title is also misleading because in reality, only three of the songs included reached the Top 10 at Pop and R&B. Parker, Jr. had only released two solo LP's by this point, so a hits compilation was a tidge too early. They also padded it with album tracks instead of legit singles. It was just weird, hastily assembled, and not very good. However, the one decent thing from the project was this tune. It grooves along quite well even though it doesn't have a big catchy chorus.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  One of the new tracks on the LP was a bit of an oddity for a hits compilation. Just in time for the holidays, Parker, Jr. wrote the song "Christmas Time is Here" (not to be confused with the Vince Guaraldi classic from A Charlie Brown Christmas). The tune would also serve as the b-side to "Jamie." Unless they are major hits, holiday songs are rarely included on any hits compilation from an artist. It seems Parker, Jr. just wanted to cover all bases and was probably hoping for a little airplay action during the season to help boost album sales.

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"Tender Years" by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band

Song#:  2129
Date:  11/17/1984
Debut:  72
Peak:  31
Weeks:  14
Genre:  Rock, Soundtrack



Pop Bits:  As the film Eddie & the Cruisers was enjoying its second life via HBO reruns, the soundtrack tagged along and became a delayed Top 10 hit thanks to the #7 "On the Dark Side." For a follow-up single, this track was selected. Like "Dark Side," it too had been issued early on as a single when the movie first hit theaters. It didn't do so well only peaking at a low #78. But thanks to the revitalized movie and soundtrack, the song got a second chance and this time it stopped just outside of the Pop Top 30. The track also got to #10 at Rock and #30 at AC. It helped to make the album a triple-platinum seller.

ReduxReview:  I really don't have much to say here that I didn't already cover in my initial review of the song. It's still pretty amazing that two of Cafferty's songs got revived from the obscurity bin and became hits. It's not unheard of for an overlooked track to get a second life, but to get two of them is quite a feat. Actually, if you count Cafferty's very first single in 1980, the independently released "Wild Summer Nights," then this would be the third time around for "Tender Years" as it appeared as the b-side to that single. Both songs ended up on the Eddie soundtrack.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Nearly a decade before Eddie came along, director Martin Davidson did another film about a group of guys. He co-directed and co-wrote a 1974 film about four leather-clad teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. That film co-starred a young Sylvester Stallone two years before his breakout role in Rocky. The movie also featured Henry Winkler in a role that was not unlike his Happy Days character, The Fonz. Although the movie came first, being filmed in 1973, it wasn't released until May the following year. By that time, Happy Days was experiencing its first hit season and The Fonz's popularity was taking off.

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"Bruce" by Rick Springfield

Song#:  2128
Date:  11/17/1984
Debut:  81
Peak:  27
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Rock



Pop Bits:  Long before Springfield was singing about "Jessie's Girl," he had recorded a handful of albums for a few labels and even scored a #16 hit in 1971 called "Speak to the Sky." After his fourth album, 1976's Wait for Night, could only muster the #41 single "Take a Hand," Springfield was again searching for another label and another chance to hit the charts. He signed on with Mercury in 1977 and began to work on a new album. Although the album was mostly completed, it didn't seem to work for the label and the project got shelved. Perhaps due to the success of Bruce Springsteen, in 1980 the label decided to send out this song as a single. It failed to do anything. Flash forward a few years and now Springfield has become a platinum-selling artist. Someone at Mercury then remember that they owned an album's worth of tracks from Springfield. They dug them out of the vaults to see what could be done with them. Although Springfield's vocals were intact and fine, the music seemed to lack a bit for the 80s market. So the label completely re-recorded the backing tracks and then added Springfield's voice to them. All this was done without consent or involvement from Springfield. When completed, the LP got released as Beautiful Feelings. To promote the album, "Bruce" was once again released. By this time, both Springsteen and Springfield were on the charts together and arguably at the heights of their careers and this helped the single get into the Pop Top 30. The album sold a few copies and Mercury probably made a few bucks off of it.

ReduxReview:  I was aware of this quick cash-in scheme from the label before it was released. I mean, really. If the songs were truly any good, or even slightly good, the label would have issued them back in the day. But they didn't. They obviously thought it was not worth releasing. However, that tune can change when all of a sudden the artist becomes a big star. Then they see dollar signs. So Mercury trotted this album out much in the same way Motown did their own cash-in project with some old Michael Jackson recordings (Farewell My Summer Love) earlier the same year. Now, I'm all for issuing old, unreleased tracks from an artist. They can be interesting and sometimes even very good. But those are usually done with the artist's approval and/or involvement. Projects like this one where they just did what they wanted and shoved it out in hopes of making a quick buck are reprehensible. As for this song, I never really liked it. The one-note humor of a situation wears out after one listen and the music/performance can't compare to his 80s hits. I would have been fine if this had been left locked in the label's vault.

ReduxRating:  4/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) Springfield wrote this song based around experiences he had with people who mistook him for Bruce Springsteen. Initially, being called Bruce bothered Springfield. But after a while, he treated it as a joke and to play off of that he wrote this humorous song.  2) Years later in 2007, the songs from the Mercury sessions were revisited. Those original studio versions were collected and released as The Early Sound City Sessions. The CD included the songs that would go on to make up Beautiful Feelings plus one extra unreleased track.

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