Like a Virgin (song)
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| “Like a Virgin” | |||||
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| Single by Madonna from the album Like a Virgin |
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| B-side | "Stay" | ||||
| Released | November 6, 1984 | ||||
| Format | 7" single 12" single CD single |
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| Genre | Pop | ||||
| Length | 3:38 (Album Version) 3:11 (Edit Version from The Immaculate Collection) |
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| Label | Sire, Warner Bros. | ||||
| Writer(s) | Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly | ||||
| Producer | Nile Rodgers | ||||
| Certification | Gold | ||||
| Madonna singles chronology | |||||
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"Like a Virgin" is the first single by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her second studio album, Like a Virgin and was released on November 6, 1984 by Sire Records. It also appears in a truncated and slightly remixed form on the 1990 greatest hits compilation The Immaculate Collection.
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[edit] Song information
Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly wrote the song, and Kelly sang on the demo. In an interview with Songfacts, Steinberg said:[1]
| “ | When Madonna recorded it, even as our demo faded out, on the fade you could hear Tom saying, 'When your heart beats, and you hold me, and you love me...' That was the last thing you heard as our demo faded. Madonna must have listened to it very, very carefully because her record ends with the exact same little ad-libs that our demo did. That rarely happens that someone studies your demo so carefully that they use all that stuff. We were sort of flattered how carefully she followed our demo on that. | ” |
Madonna wears a wedding gown in the music video, which was directed by Mary Lambert.
The hook has been known to be similar to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," although Jackson's song is about a man denying paternity of a child and Madonna's is about a reality-altering love. In reality, the hooks of both songs borrow heavily from The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself". Madonna acknowledged the similarities between her hit and those of Jackson and The Four Tops by incorporating elements of each into her live performances of "Like A Virgin" (with "Billie Jean" during 1985's The Virgin Tour and with "I Can't Help Myself" during 1987's Who's That Girl World Tour).
Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" at the first MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in 1984.
In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna singles of all-time by Q-Magazine. "Like a Virgin" was allocated the #5 spot.
[edit] Song Trivia
- "Like a Virgin" was honored by Rolling Stone and MTV in 2000 as the #4 song on their list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs".
- This song was voted #10 on VH1's 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years.
- This song was voted #8 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's.
[edit] Production
"Like a Virgin" was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly (who also wrote Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors") and was produced by Nile Rodgers. Other credits on the song are as follows:
- Bass by Bernard Edwards.
- Guitar by Nile Rodgers.
- Drums by Tony Thompson.
- Assorted synthesizers and bass synthesizer by Rob Sabino.
[edit] Music videos
The music video, directed by Mary Lambert, was shot in Venice, Italy and partly in New York City during the summer of 1984. (And while on a break from filming the movie Desperately Seeking Susan.) It shows Madonna dancing on a gondola,[1] and running around in a wedding dress intercut with shots of a panting lion [2]. The video's MTV world premiere took place on November 13, 1984, and became an instant hit. [3]
- Director: Mary Lambert
- Producer: Simon Fields
- Director of Photography: Peter Sinclair
- Editor: Glenn Morgan
- Production Company: Limelight Productions
[edit] The Virgin Tour live
In 1985, a live music video of "Like a Virgin" from "The Virgin Tour" filmed in Detroit, Michigan was used to promote Live - The Virgin Tour video. This version was nominated for Best Choreography at the MTV Video Music Awards.
- Director: Danny Kleinman
- Producer: Simon Fields
- Director of Photography: Jerry Watson
- Editor: Mitchell Sinoway
- Production Company: Limelight Productions
[edit] Truth or Dare version
The live performance of "Like a Virgin" from the Blond Ambition Tour in Paris, France was released as a music video on May 9, 1991 to promote the documentary film Truth or Dare. This version was nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards: Best Female Video and Best Choreography.
- Director: Alek Keshishian
- Producers: Tim Clawson, Lisa Hollingshead, Jay Roewe
- Director of Photography: Toby Phillips
- Editor: John Murray
- Production Company: Propaganda Films
[edit] Trivia
- This video was ranked #61 on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos.
[edit] Live performances
Like a Virgin made its debut at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, where Madonna appeared on stage atop a giant wedding cake dressed in a wedding dress (adorned with the infamous "Boy Toy" belt buckle) and veil. The climax of her risqué performance found her humping and rolling around on the stage.
Madonna's performance of Hollywood at the 2003 Video Music Awards recreated the 1984 performance of Like a Virgin, with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera dressed in the wedding costume and singing the song atop a wedding cake with Madonna as their groom. Following in the controversial footsteps of the original performance, Madonna created another stir by kissing Spears and Aguilera on the lips.
The song has also been included in five of Madonna's seven tours.
For 1985's The Virgin Tour, Madonna again donned wedding attire and performed a straight version of the song featuring a quotation from Michael Jackson's similar-sounding Motown-style single, "Billie Jean". Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" was released before "Like a Virgin". In 1987's Who's That Girl Tour, the song was given a lighthearted comedic theme and included quotations from The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)".
For the 1990 Blond Ambition Tour, the song was re-invented with a middle-eastern arrangement and risqué (and utlimately infamous) choreography which found Madonna simulating masturbation on a bed. The explicit performance garnered a lot of attention, particularly when police in Toronto Canada threatened to arrest Madonna and charge her with indecency unless she altered the performance. Madonna refused and the show went on unaltered. She was never arrested. (This situation was documented in the singer's 1991 documentary, Truth or Dare.)
Seeing how the song could not get any more risqué Madonna swapped the wedding dress for a tuxedo and adopted a Marlene Dietrich-like persona for 1993's The Girlie Show Tour, singing the song with a thick German accent and including a quotation from Dietrich's signature tune, Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It).
April 2003, an impromptu performance at Tower Records NYC was done as a request from the crowd and would later air on ABC. It was the crowd's response to her mentioning VIRGIN records, which brought on the request of Like a VIRGIN.
In 2006's Confessions Tour, the song was given a horseriding theme whilst the arrangement was brassy with more hooks than the original and featuring a thumping bass & brass climax in the middle. Madonna performed the song atop a studded leather S&M carousel horse while x-rays of her broken bones (the result of a horse-riding accident on her 47th birthday) flashed on the screens behind her.
[edit] Tributes and cover versions
- Cristina Yang, caracter from TV series Grey's Anatomy played by Sandra Oh, sings Like a Virgin while harvesting hearts from cadavers. During a few lines from the first chorus, caracter Lexie Grey played by Chyler Leigh also sings to the song, but Cristina seems to desaprove it and Lexie leaves her singing by her own. The scene is featured on Season 4's episode The Becoming. It is also already in YouTube.
- The song was the subject of a parody by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Like a Surgeon", and was performed by Jim Broadbent in the film Moulin Rouge! (2001) as a comic piece sung in the third person singular ("She made it through the wilderness. ..").
- In 2001, MTV gay punk rocker Nick Name performed a punk cover version for the Madonna tribute at the historic El Rey Theatre.
- Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera paid a tribute to Madonna's performance at the MTV Video Awards show nineteen years later at the same awards show, at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, finishing the performance with both kissing Madonna. The kisses generated months of discussion in celebrity magazines.
- On But Can They Sing?, Bai Ling sang a cover of that song on week one.
- Japanese pop singer, Hitomi, performed a shortened cover of it during her LOVE LIFE tour in Japan, recorded on the tour dvd.
- Winnipeg death-folk outfit The Horribly Awfuls recorded an ironic cover on their 2003 record, "We Fight Like the Crips and Bloods."
- Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this as a swingin' Lounge version on their 2006 album "Silent Nightclub".
- Japanese singer, Angela Aki, cover the song during her Piano Live ONE concert in Japan.
- Lords of the New Church covered the song on the 1985 IRS's "Best of" Album.
- In Shrek's "Karaoke Dance Party" extra Fiona can be heard singing this song.
- Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub covered the song on their 1991 album The King.
- Alt-Rockers Sonic Youth performed the song in an alter ego Ciccone Youth
- The Horribly Awfuls recorded a cover of this song on their 2003 release, We Fight Like the Crips and Bloods.
- Rock band Incubus has been known to play this song live. The band Blur has also covered it before live in concert.
- A dance version by German techno group Mad'House was released in the early 2000s.
- German country band Texas Lightning covered the song on their debut album Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch.
- Marilyn Manson has been known to perform a cover of the song at various concerts.
- Victoria Beckham has a solo segment where she poses on the catwalk whilst an instrumental mix of the song and RuPaul's Supermodel (You Better Work) song is played in the 2007/2008 Return of the Spice Girls Tour.
[edit] References in Pop Culture
In the movie Reservoir Dogs, the song comes up in a conversation amongst a group of gangsters. Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino) raises the theory that the song is actually about an oversexed woman who meets a man who is so well-endowed that the woman experiences pain during intercourse with him - reminding her of the pain accompanying the loss of her virginity. (Madonna would later meet Tarantino after Reservoir Dogs was released and when giving him her autograph wrote: "Quentin, it's about love, not dick. Madonna.")
In the short story La Bamba, by Gary Soto, a boy is at a talent show. While describing the lineup of the event, he mentions there are three young girls singing "Like a Virgin". Also, the year after the song came out, Weird Al Yankovic came out with a parody of it.
In one episode of Married with Children Kelly says to Bud that he got a dedication from a girl.The dedication is Like A Virgin.
Shrek featured this song during the dance party scene at the end of the video.
In the episode of The Becoming of Grey's Anatomy, Christina Yang sings Like a Virgin while harvesting Hearts from cadavers.
[edit] Charts
"Like a Virgin" became Madonna's first of 12 number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for six consecutive weeks and eventually earning gold certification. The single also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play, and was her first top-ten hit on the R&B chart.
"Like a Virgin" slammed onto the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart the week of November 17, 1984 at #48, and shot up the chart rapidly, reaching #1 by its sixth week, December 22, 1984. "Like a Virgin" was the first of four Top five singles from Madonna's album of the same name. "Like a Virgin" remained in the Top 10 for nine weeks, in the Top 20 for eleven weeks, and in the Top 40 for fourteen weeks.
Internationally, the song was a Top 5 hit in the United Kingdom (behind million sellers Band Aid and Wham!) and reached the top spot in numerous countries. It was her first number one single in Australia, Canada, Italy and South Africa. The song would be her biggest selling and top-charting single worldwide until "Like a Prayer" in 1989.
| Chart (1984/1985) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 29 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | 9 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play | 1 |
| U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 | 1 |
| Australia | 1 |
| Austria | 8 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Chile | 1 |
| Eurochart Hot 100 | 1 |
| Japan Oricon International Singles Chart | 1 |
| France | 8 |
| Germany | 4 |
| Republic of Ireland | 4 |
| Israel | 2 |
| Italy | 1 |
| Norway | 8 |
| South Africa, Republic of | 1 |
| Switzerland | 9 |
| Sweden | 15 |
| United Kingdom | 3 |
[edit] References
- ^ Songfacts "Like A Virgin" entry. Accessed on August 14, 2007
| Preceded by "Out of Touch" by Daryl Hall and John Oates |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 22, 1984- January 28, 1985 |
Succeeded by "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner |
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