Madonna

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Madonna

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Madonna debuted with this record in late 1983, initiating the most successful female pop career in history. At the time, disco was dead and dance music was verboten on pop radio. Along with Shannon, Madonna helped bring dance music back into the mainstream. Thus, although "Madonna" sounds like safe pop music now, it was actually pretty cutting edge at the time. "Everybody" was her first single; it became a solid dance hit but didn't cross over to pop radio or the Hot 100. With its unusual shuffling beat, it should have been a hit and still sounds great today.

"Madonna" eventually yielded three pop hits, each one charting higher then the previous - Holiday (#16), Borderline (#10), and Lucky Star (#4). "Borderline" was her first ballad, although relatively up-tempo. Her voice is thinner here than it would be on later ballads, but she still sounds lovely. The video was also a huge hit and introduced people to Madonna's breakthrough style. I became aware of Madonna for the first time through that video and have been a fan ever since. "Lucky Star" sounds a bit dated with too many synthesizers, although it's still a great pop song. Although "Holiday" was the smallest hit, it's perhaps the most enduring of the three: a real party anthem.

Along with these hits, the non-singles are also uniformly solid. "Burning Up" is the closest thing to a rock song that Madonna made during her early years, although the guitars are paired with a terrific dance beat. "Physical Attraction" is another highlight - a dance song that really shows off Madonna's sex appeal and slither. "Think of Me" and "I Know It" are the two least memorable songs on this CD - straight ahead dance tunes without much of Madonna's panache. With just 8 songs, "Madonna" breezes by quickly and sometimes seems a bit insubstantial. However, the CD is an undeniable dance classic that began the Queen of Pop's career. Most highly recommended.

Many years back I woke up in the early hours on a Sunday morning in a park in Barcelona. I was still incredibly drunk. I had a few bucks in my pocket, my passport and a picture disc copy of Madonna's fist lp. Strangely I had no recollection of how I got the lp but it was enclosed in a record shop plastic bag, so i was sure I had not stolen the thing. The lp itself had a rather attractive topless photo of the singer looking somewhat like Marilyn Monroe.

Within my wallet was a basic map of the city and so I felt confident enough of finding my hotel......eventually. I was in no mood to move quickly or think much beyond finding an open cafe or at least walking in vaguely the right direction. During my slow meandering I noticed that the only people on the streets were me and the cops. All good folk were in bed, getting ready to go to church, on their way to church or at church. A cop with a strange metal helmet on eventually stopped me and asked for identification. When satisfied, he checked out my Madonna picture disc. As he smirked checking out the record I could not help but think he looked like a futuristic matador from the year 2050. My blood shot eyes and sex pistols t-shirt convinced me not to attempt telling "officer friendly" I was on my way to mass. He knew I was lost and so I showed him my hotel address. He invited me to follow him and I assumed we were going to my destination. We passed streets I recognized, this time without the pick pockets and prostitutes harassing passers by.

Eventually I walked into a local police station and was escorted to a recreation area towards the back of the station. Several male cops were drinking, smoking, and playing cards and generally relaxing. The Madonna record was placed on the turn table and suddenly every Spaniard knew English, belting out the lyrics. Understandably in the early 80's you couldn't walk 3 blocks without hearing a Madonna song. It certainly seemed like the Spanish cops took too her stuff like "bulls to a red rag." I had a few beers and staggered back to my hotel. I slept for many hours and on waking debated with myself about if I had dreamed about the interaction with the cops. I had these cheesy Madonna songs buzzing around my head.

Sometime later I answered a knock on the door and one of the cops down at the station shook my hand and returned my record. It had confirmed the experience had occurred.