Say which flavour you like and I'll have it for you: Suedey's Madonna top 50

So gorgeous! One of my favorites for sure. Unfortunately, despite it being a number 1, I never hear it anywhere
 
Suedey said:
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30. Express Yourself (Like A Prayer, 1989; The Immaculate Collection, 1990; Celebration, 2009)
UK Chart Position: 5
Key remix: Shep'Spressin' Himself
Key live performance: Blond Ambition World Tour (1990)

Long stem roses are the way to your heart
But he needs to start with your head
​
The feminism jumped out! Seriously though I love how in one fell swoop she basically annihilates ‘Material Girl’ in the opening couplet of ‘Express Yourself’. This is one of the defining Madonna songs in the entire canon, and if anything it should be even more celebrated than it already is. The original LP version is an ode to Sly & The Family Stone but to me it really came alive with the Shep Pettibone remixes (which she clearly also preferred). Overplay has placed it at no. 30 on my 2021 countdown but previous iterations would probably have it in my top 20.

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The video is of course iconic and we are all awaiting that inevitable HD upscale because that Metropolis inspired Fincher masterpiece needs to be reassessed properly. It has been performed on numerous occasions live, taking on different incarnations from disco (Girlie Show) to military (Re-Invention) to majorette (MDNA) but the definitive remains the opening performance of the Blond Ambition Tour and, my personal favourite, the MTV VMAs 1989 performance featuring embryonic Vogueing. As for the whole Gaga drama back in 2011, I shall leave it there back in 2011 where it belongs. Of course it gave the gays delicious diva-feuding fodder but let’s face it, we all know ‘Born This Way’ borrowed heavily from ‘Express Yourself’ but it’s a great song in its own right as well. I just wish Gaga’s ego hadn’t gotten in the way at the time – a bit of grace on her part would have really helped but then again we wouldn’t have had all the drama which we lived for. So there you have it.
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One of my favourite songs of all time! And that video...wowowowowow! The Blond Ambition performance is everything too.
 
Suedey said:
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27. This Used To Be My Playground (Barcelona Gold, 1992; Something To Remember, 1995)
UK chart position: 3​

More ‘90s Madonna gloop and I am not ashamed. “This Used To Be My Playground” is absolutely lusciously gorgeous and the longing in her voice is just heartbreaking. Fact fans: it was the first Madonna single I bought. I’d been buying her albums since True Blue but it was around this period that I became a collector as well, at the age of 12. ‘…Playground’ was released at another interesting time in her career – literally round the corner from the biggest backlash a pop star has arguably ever experienced. Recorded for the League Of Their Own soundtrack, this was a US No. 1 single (easily forgotten fact!). It is a nostalgic, orchestral ballad and the video served up a demure looking Madonna in her best ‘50s dresses which 'borrowed' generously from Boy George’s ‘To Be Born’ photo album video concept. Little did anyone know that she’d be hitch-hiking naked a mere few months later.

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I always find it interesting that this is a sole Madonna and Shep Pettibone composition. It is just so different from everything they did together before or since. Apparently the recording session was a bit fraught due to the live strings section but I love the finished product and the crack at the voice in her end when she sings ‘Wishing you were here with me’ is the very reason why I adore her voice so much. It may not be technically perfect but the pure emotion always gets to me.
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So wistful, elegant and DEVASTATING. It's just a straight-up classic. And kudos to her for actually making a good soundtrack song video.
 
I always enjoyed the beefed up single mix of Express Yourself and if you compiled a list of 10 songs the general public associate with her I imagine it would scrape in.
 
Suedey said:
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27. This Used To Be My Playground (Barcelona Gold, 1992; Something To Remember, 1995)
UK chart position: 3​

More ‘90s Madonna gloop and I am not ashamed. “This Used To Be My Playground” is absolutely lusciously gorgeous and the longing in her voice is just heartbreaking. Fact fans: it was the first Madonna single I bought. I’d been buying her albums since True Blue but it was around this period that I became a collector as well, at the age of 12. ‘…Playground’ was released at another interesting time in her career – literally round the corner from the biggest backlash a pop star has arguably ever experienced. Recorded for the League Of Their Own soundtrack, this was a US No. 1 single (easily forgotten fact!). It is a nostalgic, orchestral ballad and the video served up a demure looking Madonna in her best ‘50s dresses which 'borrowed' generously from Boy George’s ‘To Be Born’ photo album video concept. Little did anyone know that she’d be hitch-hiking naked a mere few months later.

​


I always find it interesting that this is a sole Madonna and Shep Pettibone composition. It is just so different from everything they did together before or since. Apparently the recording session was a bit fraught due to the live strings section but I love the finished product and the crack at the voice in her end when she sings ‘Wishing you were here with me’ is the very reason why I adore her voice so much. It may not be technically perfect but the pure emotion always gets to me.
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This has a special place in my heart because it was the first time I really took notice of her. I remember seeing the video on MTV and being mesmerized by it. I had never seen anything like it before (including the Boy George video that she copied :eyes:). My teenage self couldn't get enough of all the drama that this song oozes. Then I discovered The Immaculate Collection and I stanned :disco:
 
Boring! The fact that this came between Rescue Me and Erotica, and was a bigger hit than both tells you everything you need to know about straight people.
 
Loufoque said:
Boring! The fact that this came between Rescue Me and Erotica, and was a bigger hit than both tells you everything you need to know about straight people.
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Do you reckon it's boring cos it's a ballad that isn't OVERSUNG? :sour:
 
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26. Bad Girl (Erotica, 1992)
UK chart position: 10
Key remix: extended version or Boy George's unofficial mix
Key live performance: Saturday Night Live (1993)​

Let’s face it, ladies – ‘Bad Girl’ is module 37 in Madonna gay history 101. Whether we have lived vicariously through the lascivious-but-guilty lyrics or we actually are @RaspberrySwirl, the song speaks to all of us. [Eva Peron]All of us![/Eva Peron]. In all seriousness though, ‘Bad Girl’ is of course wonderful and perfectly encapsules the dichotomous nature of its parent album Erotica. I just love its jazzy, soulful feel together with her strained vocal. I really don’t think a ‘better’ vocal would have actually suited this song. And we still have those luscious layered vocal harmonies in the chorus which I would love to hear in isolated form one day. Released at the height of the SEX backlash, it only just made the top 10 here and was a pretty big flop (by her then-standards) in the USA, just scraping into the top 40.

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The video was another instalment in the Madonna/David Fincher saga and remains a masterpiece of course. And yes we’ve all been in Louise Oriole’s shoes at some point or the other – ‘Thank you whoever you are’. The song has only ever been performed once, on Saturday Night Live, and it is a tour de force of a performance with a killer live band. Hopefully it will get an upscaled treatment soon (‘Fever’, from the same show, was recently upscaled so we can live in hope). Oh, and it's her best single sleeve ever - fact.
 
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Suedey said:
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26. Bad Girl (Erotica, 1992)
UK chart position: 10
Key remix: extended version or Boy George's unofficial mix
Key live performance: Saturday Night Live (1993)​

Let’s face it, ladies – ‘Bad Girl’ is module 37 in Madonna gay history 101. Whether we have lived vicariously through the lascivious-but-guilty lyrics or we actually are @RaspberrySwirl, the song speaks to all of us. [Eva Peron]All of us![/Eva Peron]. In all seriousness though, ‘Bad Girl’ is of course wonderful and perfectly encapsules the dichotomous nature of its parent album Erotica. I just love its jazzy, soulful feel together with her strained vocal. I really don’t think a ‘better’ vocal would have actually suited this song. And we still have those luscious layered vocal harmonies in the chorus which I would love to hear in isolated form one day. Released at the height of the SEX backlash, it only just made the top 10 here and was a pretty big flop (by her then-standards) in the USA, just scraping into the top 40.

​


The was another instalment in the Madonna/David Fincher saga and remains a masterpiece of course. And yes we’ve all been in Louise Oriole’s shoes at some point or the other – ‘Thank you whoever you are’. The song has only ever been performed once, on Saturday Night Live, and it is a tour de force of a performance with a killer live band. Hopefully it will get an upscaled treatment soon (‘Fever’, from the same show, was recently upscaled so we can live in hope). Oh, and it's her best single sleeve ever - fact.
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This song is a bit, dare I say it...overrated? I will say though, that despite having a mediocre melody and objectively poor vocals, it does work somehow. Perhaps it's the effectively chilly production and, as you say, the pained vocals, plus THAT gorgeous video, that somehow all combine to make it work. But I've never felt it was a particularly great song. I admire it more than love it.
 
Bad Girl never did it for me like her other 90s ballads. Maybe she felt the same because it wasn't included on STR, or maybe she/they just didn't feel that the title of the song fitted in with the brand makeover they were going for with that album. It's more interesting and tells a better story than its contemporaries, but sonically it's not as lush.

I mean, I still really like it though.
 
Now Bad Girl is more like it, after the... questionable run of picks just prior. It makes me feel like... taking a handful of tramadol with a glass of wine and firing up Grindr for the evening.
 
I categorize "Express Yourself" along with "Vogue".... I don't listen to them on my own as much as I should, but they are definitely worth the hype.

"This Used to Be My Playground" and "You'll See" are lovely, and it's a crime she's never performed (or acknowledged??) the former in live form. It was a US #1!

"Burning Up" is cute but nowhere near my top fifty or even in the top half of that self-titled album IMO *mimes poorly while straddling guitar*

"Bad Girl" is about where it'd place on my countdown- love it.
 
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25. Borderline (Madonna/The First Album, 1983; The Immaculate Collection, 1990; Celebration, 2009)
UK Chart Position: 56 (1984); 2 (1986)
Key remix: extended dance mix
Key live performance: Virgin Tour 1985​

As I type this I am thinking to myself I probably should have ranked this even higher. Nevertheless, it is what is at this point in the game. I have always adored ‘Borderline’ and I really have no time for so-called hardcore fans who hate it to be cool or because the general public likes it. Well guess what, the GP got it right this time. ‘Borderline’ is one of her best ‘80s singles – from the twee opening to the driving synths and her impassioned ‘girlie’ vocal which really makes the song for me. She literally is living those lyrics and means every single word (even though she didn’t write this one.)

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The video is arguably one of her earliest iconic moments featuring BoyToyMadonna in full glory and highlights her love of Latin culture at a very early stage. I just love it. Although it became first US top 10 single, ‘Borderline’ was actually a massive flop in the UK when it was released first time around in 1984 peaking at number 56. For a hot minute there, after the success of ‘Lucky Star’ and ‘Holiday’, things were looking a little shaky at Madonna HQ over here but ‘Like A Virgin’ soon changed all of that. Upon its re-release in 1986, ‘Borderline’ peaked at number 2. It was performed on the Virgin Tour in 1985 (but cut from the home video) after which it lived in Madonna greatest-hits retirement hell until she revisited it live with mixed results. The Sticky & Sweet 2008 version is painful, but when she slowed it down and sang it in a lower key for Obama and, later on the Tears of a Clown shows, it worked much better.
 
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Playground is drab, agreed.

Burning Up however is a hot 80s dance moment. I see a direct link between it and the Confessions tracks.
 
Isn’t it worrying that we’ve reached top 25 and still no songs have appeared from certain albums?
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
Isn’t it worrying that we’ve reached top 25 and still no songs have appeared from certain albums?
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There is only one studio album which has been snubbed from the top 50.

So if you're a fan of a certain album which will remain unmentioned for now then yes I'd be worried...
 
I personally wouldn't have excluded Hard Candy from the countdown. 4 Minutes still slaps, whatever you think about it. Devil Wouldn't is the best ballad Justin Timberlake wrote post Cry Me A River. And Candy Shop makes you want to work out your buss on a frozen curly-wurly.
 
Loufoque said:
I personally wouldn't have excluded Hard Candy from the countdown. 4 Minutes still slaps, whatever you think about it. Devil Wouldn't is the best ballad Justin Timberlake wrote post Cry Me A River. And Candy Shop makes you want to work out your buss on a frozen curly-wurly.
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A couple of years ago I would have agreed with you but as time has gone on, I have genuinely found that I actually actively dislike the album. Some of the songs are good but those vocals and her absence as a producer are, in the final analysis, unforgivable for me. In the Bowie/Madonna trajectory it's her Never Let Me Down - a Bowie album I like to pretend never existed.

Funnily enough I'd say that 'Candy Shop' is my favourite nowadays and would probably feature in my Ciccone top 79.
 
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24. Till Death Do Us Part (Like A Prayer, 1989)

The bruises they will fade away
You hit so hard with the things you say
I will not stay to watch your hate
As it grows​

Time now for a deep cut – this may or may not be the highest ranked album track (non-single) in the countdown. You’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Another autobiographical Leonard/Ciccone composition, this addresses specifically and pointedly her turbulent marriage to Sean Penn. The lyrics are in sharp contrast to the jaunty, driving and upbeat nature of the musical accompaniment. But it works really well. The high drama is supplemented with breaking glass sound effects and haunting spoken word passages as well. There is not really much more to say about this because the song itself is self explanatory really - except to say that if you are a new fan and are reading this thread as part of your journey of Madonna discovery then I do beseech you to seek this out on Spotify. It really is a colossus of a song. Never performed live, of course, and was never touted to be a single (it appeared as the B-side to ‘Dear Jessie’) and I doubt she’ll ever sing it. Of course in an alternate universe we would have had the demo version in the 30th anniversary reissue but instead we got a truncated Spotify playlist that actually had fewer songs on the album than the original release. Sigh.

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Agree about Devil, but 4 Minutes I never was a fan of. It sounds nothing like a Madonna song, and for a Justin/Timbaland song it was their weakest up to that date.
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
Agree about Devil, but 4 Minutes I never was a fan of. It sounds nothing like a Madonna song, and for a Justin/Timbaland song it was their weakest up to that date.
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4 Minutes is great but it's Timbaland/Timberlake feat. Madonna. It could have been Nelly Furtado or anyone else.

'Devil' in its original Madonna incarnation would have been quite a beautiful torch ballad (as she described it herself in 2005) but the way it became bloody Cry me a What Goes Around Part 3 ruins it.
 
Suedey said:
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24. Till Death Do Us Part (Like A Prayer, 1989)

The bruises they will fade away
You hit so hard with the things you say
I will not stay to watch your hate
As it grows​

Time now for a deep cut – this may or may not be the highest ranked album track (non-single) in the countdown. You’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Another autobiographical Leonard/Ciccone composition, this addresses specifically and pointedly her turbulent marriage to Sean Penn. The lyrics are in sharp contrast to the jaunty, driving and upbeat nature of the musical accompaniment. But it works really well. The high drama is supplemented with breaking glass sound effects and haunting spoken word passages as well. There is not really much more to say about this because the song itself is self explanatory really - except to say that if you are a new fan and are reading this thread as part of your journey of Madonna discovery then I do beseech you to seek this out on Spotify. It really is a colossus of a song. Never performed live, of course, and was never touted to be a single (it appeared as the B-side to ‘Dear Jessie’) and I doubt she’ll ever sing it. Of course in an alternate universe we would have had the demo version in the 30th anniversary reissue but instead we got a truncated Spotify playlist that actually had fewer songs on the album than the original release. Sigh.

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Adore this one! I love how melancholic it is.
 
Till Death is the definition of a deep cut. It doesn't sound like a great pop single, but it's a fantastic pop song.
 
It’s such a problematic song in the sense that is so good and bittersweet it makes me wish Sean Penn hit me then fucked me.
 
Suedey said:
'Devil' in its original Madonna incarnation would have been quite a beautiful torch ballad (as she described it herself in 2005) but the way it became bloody Cry me a What Goes Around Part 3 ruins it.
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We need an acoustic rendition (preferably by another vocalist).
 
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What a great idea for the final nail in all three coffins of their careers.
 
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