1

HOLIDAY
Produced by John “Jellybean” Benitez for Jellybean Productions Inc.

2
LUCKY STAR
Produced by Reggie Lucas for Kalisa Inc.

3
BORDERLINE
Produced by Reggie Lucas for Kalisa Inc.

4
LIKE A VIRGIN
Produced by Nile Rodgers for Nile Rodgers Productions, Inc.

5
MATERIAL GIRL
Produced by Nile Rodgers for Nile Rodgers Productions, Inc.

6
CRAZY FOR YOU
Produced by John “Jellybean” Benitez for Jellybean Productions Inc.

7
INTO THE GROOVE
Produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray

8
LIVE TO TELL
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

9
PAPA DON’T PREACH
Produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray

10
OPEN YOUR HEART
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

11
LA ISLA BONITA
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

12
LIKE A PRAYER
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

13
EXPRESS YOURSELF
Produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray

14
CHERISH
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard

15
VOGUE
Produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone
Executive Producer: Craig Kostich

16
JUSTIFY MY LOVE
Produced by Lenny Kravitz for Super Mouche Productions
Associate Producer: André Betts

17
RESCUE ME
Produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone
“The Coolest Queen of White Heat”...
“An outrageous blend of Little Orphan
Annie, Margaret Thatcher and Mae
West”... “Narcissistic, brazen, comic...
the Goddess of the Nineties...”
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s been said about Madonna sin-
ce she arrived in 1983. The complete press file would probably yeild enough
recyclable pulp to keep what’s left of the Amazon rain forest from the saw for
several months. And yet, in all that ink and column inches, most of what’s
been written has addressed the way she looks, acts, earns, and conduts her per-
sonal life. A breathless TIME cover story, for example, concluded with four
pages devoted to Madonna’s comments on 22 pithy topics the magazine had
chosen –everything from Fame and Feminity to Parents, Virginity, Catholicism
and Belly Buttons. Apparently, TIME ’s editors didn’t think anyone cared to
read what Madonna had to say about her specialty, the preeminent thing it is
that she makes: Music. ¶ In the years since, the ensuing hoopla has further
fogged the issue of Madonna’s music. It’s easy to forget that before her hit
singles became Events, they were great records, the best of which hit pop´s
cosmic G-spot, got a groove, and literally shook the world. Collected in one
place and listened to as a body of work, those records 1) document the musi-
cal career-in-progress of an artist with an uncommon capacity for growth and
change, and 2) sound as good as, and often immeasurably better, than ever.
¶ The party started officially in October 1982, when Sire Records released a
12-inch of “Everybody.” (Those who choose to see Madonna as a self-image
mongerer might be surprised to learn that her likeness doesn’t even appear on
the sleeve os this first record.) It wasn’t until almost a year later that Madon-
na really “broke”, with the joyous “Holiday.” Cougar and Culture Club were
hot, the Police and Abba were cooling, and the marriage of New Wave and
disco, hastily arranged by England’s New Romantics, was on the rocks. Onto
this scene burst the two records that, by and large, invented what came to
be called Dance Music: Shannon’s “Let The Music Play” and “Holiday.” The
former turned the beat around with tough poly­– rhythms, and the latter simply
rocked-gently but insistently–with melodic sweetness and a “girl” playfully
sending out party invites (“Everybody spread the word...we’re gonna have a
celebration”). A synth burbles like some superfresh tributary of the Fountain
of Youth and the girl, sexy and sure of herself, beckons us to “take one day out
of life” ‘cause we need that holiday, “Oh yeah, oh yeah.” It’s irresistible pop,
and easily one of the most persuasive Let’s-get-lost songs ever sung. “Holiday”
and the string of Madonna dance classics that followed–1984’s sinewy, and
astro-bodied “Lucky Star” and “Borderline” (at Number Ten, her last single
not to go Top Five) and 1985’s 12-inch anthem, “Into the Groove”–virtually
defined the Eighties’s emerging sound. It was black-rooted, dressed sharp in
custom production, physically attractive. “Star” and “Groove” and “Dress You
Up” and the rest forced radio to devise a whole new format to accommodate
them (“Hot” or “Power” Radio, depending on where you listened). As Power
flowered, the arrival of each new Dance Music hitmaker raised audience ex-
pectations about the genre’s prime mover and shaker: what would Madonna do
next? ¶ Her first Number One single, crowned the third week of November ‘84,
gave an unequivocal answer. “Like A Virgin” shocked some, intrigued others,
and succeeded so thoroughly as an across-the-board pop smash (six weeks at
the top) that it rendered the whole competition issue moot. From now on,
this “shiny and new”, coolly understated single announced, Madonna records
would confound all expectations, including those set by previous Madonna re-
cords. Like “Material Girl.” The infectious, neo-Blue Beat romp resembles no
other Madonna music before or since. Here, she comes on at once coquettish
and self-determined, hence tantalizingly unreadable. With probably explains
the intense heat the disc drew once it hit (i.e., considerably more than Ran-
dy Newman’s unmistakably facetious “Short People” encoutered a few years
earlier). What to make of “Material Girl”’s bucks-based dialectic? It’s anyo-
ne’s guess, but we ought to note that by the third verse she’s counting her
wealth in “experience”, and that the end toward which she’s been justifying
her means turns out to be pretty benign and thoroughly pop: Boy Attraction
(“and now they’re after me”). Roots bonus: when she chirps “That’s right!”
and “No way” on the second and fourth verses, she sounds uncannily like
Lou Christie fading on “Two Faces Have I” (1963). ¶ “Material”’s unlikely
follow-up, the VISION QUEST ballad “Crazy For You” that Madonna tre-
ats with exceptional tenderness and a tinge of Country, presages a quartet of
innovative, radiantly sung singles from her underrated 1986 TRUE BLUE
album. She had a hand in writting all four highly dissimilar tracks. “La Isla
Bonita” is as light and wistful as “Open Your Heart” is taut and determined.
Both pivot from the subtlest of hooks into killer choruses, the former swelling
and ebbing like some Tropic tide, the latter driving like hard rain: “Don’t try
to run”, she warns the unresponsive guy of her dreams, “I can keep up with
you...” While the majestic “Like A Prayer” dwarfs it for sheer scope, “Papa
Don’t Preach” certainly ranks as one of Madonna’s most compelling drama-
tic performances. She flat-out sells the songs–from the inside–in a way that
would have been unthinkable a year earlier. A new maturity is evident too in
“Live To Tell.” Her voice, full with loss and longing, sweeps across the stark
arrangement of distant synth chords and lone guitar figures, seeking, holding,
secrets. “...It will burn inside of me....” ¶ Nearly two years pass between 1987’s
“Who’s That Girl” and the three LIKE A PRAYER hits. The album, whi-
ch critics waste no time in proclaiming Madonna’s most frankly personal,
even “confessional”, yields more surprises–fore-most among them a head-on
confrontation with Catholicism and a re-embracing of her R&B roots. The
title track doesn’t just appropriate religious images: the words, and Madon-
na’s impassioned delivery, actually sound Spirit-driven, rising from a whisper
to a wailing soundwall. It keeps on pushin’. Only Madonna and co-writer
Patrick Leonard know whether the song’s theme is the redemptive power of
romantic love or the Holy Ghost gig, or both (check the video). Either way,
“Like A Prayer” Takes You There. ¶ Madonna has called “Express Yourself”
a tribute to Sly & The Family Stone, and it’s surely her deepest sould dig
since “Lucky Star.” “You don’t need diamond rings/Or 18 carat gold”, the one-
-time Material Girl sings, recommending truth and self-respect (“Don’t go
for second best, baby”) as infinitely better investments. “Cherish”, the third
single from LIKE A PRAYER , simply swings. Credit Madonna’s sunlit
vocal and valentine lyrics. The Shirelles and Chiffons never had benefit of
a better couplet than “Romeo and Juliet/They never felt this way I bet.” A
true tonic, “Cherish” bounces along as if it had the power to lift the darkest
heart. If there’s ever a sucessor to YOU CAN DANCE (the seamless-
ly segued anthology of Madonna dance mixes from ‘87), “Cherish” belongs
there, in perpetual play, a joyous little whirl without end, amen. ¶ Origi-
nally, the stylish “Vogue”, her most recent Number One, was to have closed
this collection. Of course it’s here, the epochal dance-pose track is still
inspiring musical (and video) imitations even as we write. Fittingly, the final
honors now go to two just-cut Madonna originals, the dark and hauntingly
poetic “Rescue Me” and “Justify My Love.” Their inclusion is further proof
that Madonna’s interest lies not in what has happened, but rather in what’s
happening. “Vogue” collaborator Shep Pettibone co-wrote “Rescue Me.” Writer-
-singer Lenny Kravitz was Madonna’s partner on “Justify My Love.” ¶ Putting
a lid on a collection of Madonna’s greatest hits is a risky business at best.
Like no other singer (or writer or producer) in recent memory, she continues
to demonstrate an uncompromising commitment (hell, maybe an obsession)
to never stay put. The experience of honoring that commitment has made the
Material Girl “rich.” It has also enriched popular music as a whole-pushing it
to new limits, pulling apart pre-conceptions about what it can say and do. Best
of all, there’s our experience of the music she’s made, itself so rich in wit and
emotion, and so abundant with the undisguised joy she has taken in making
it. That’s one secret she’s never been able to keep.
–GENE SCULATTI, 1990
HOLIDAY
(Curtis Hudson/Lisa Stevens)
Published by House of Fun Music/Pure Energy Pub. Co. Inc. BMI
Produced by John “Jellybean” Benitez for Jellybean Productions Inc.
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda †

LUCKY STAR
(Madonna)
Published by Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl ASCAP.
All rights for the world on behalf of Bleu Disque Music Admin. by WB Music Corp.
Produced by Reggie Lucas for Kalisa Inc.
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶

BORDERLINE
(Reggie Lucas)
Published by Likasa Music BMI
Produced by Reggie Lucas for Kalisa Inc.
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶

LIKE A VIRGIN
(Billy Steinberg/Tom Kelly)
Published by Billy Steinberg Music/Denise Barry Music ASCAP
Produced by Nile Rodgers for Nile Rodgers Productions, Inc.
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶

MATERIAL GIRL
(Peter Brown/Robert Rans)
Published by Minong Publishing Company BMI/Candy Castle Music ASCAP
Produced by Nile Rodgers for Nile Rodgers Productions, Inc.
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Michael Hutchinson †

CRAZY FOR YOU

(John Bettis/Jon Lind)
Published by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/Warner-Tamerlane Pub. Corp. BMI
Produced by John “Jellybean” Benitez for Jellybean Productions Inc.
Arranged by Rob Mounsey
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Michael Hutchinson †
INTO THE GROOVE LIKE A PRAYER
(Madonna/Stephen Bray) (Madonna/Patrick Leonard)
Published by WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Adm. Published by WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Publishing, Inc.
by WB Music Corp./Black Lion Music, Inc. ASCAP Adm. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/Johnny Yuma Music BMI
Produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard
Additional Production by Shep Pettibone Additional Production: Shep Pettibone
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶ Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶

LIVE TO TELL EXPRESS YOURSELF

(Madonna/Patrick Leonard) (Madonna/Stephen Bray)
Published by WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Publishing, Inc. Published by WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl
Adm. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/Johnny Yuma Music BMI Adm. by WB Music Corp./Black Lion Music,Inc. ASCAP
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard Produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Michael Hutchinson † Additional Production: Shep Pettibone
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶
PAPA DON’T PREACH
(Brian Elliot; Additional Lyrics by Madonna) CHERISH
Published by Elliot/Jacobsen Music Pub. Co. ASCAP (Madonna/Patrick Leonard)
Produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray Published by WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Publishing, Inc.
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Michael Hutchinson † Adm. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP Johnny Yuma Music BMI
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard
OPEN YOUR HEART Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Michael Hutchinson †

(Madonna/Gardner Cole/Peter Rafelson)

Published WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Publishing, Inc. VOGUE
Adm. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/Warner-Tamerlane Pub. Corp. BMI/ (Madonna/Shep Pettibone)
Doraflo Music, Inc./Bertus Pub. Published by WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Publishing, Inc.
Adm. by Warner-Tamerlane Pub. Corp. BMI/Rafelson Music ASCAP Adm. by WB Music Corp./Lexor Music ASCAP
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard Produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶ Executive Producer: Graig Kostich
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶
LA ISLA BONITA
(Madonna/Pat Leonard/Bruce Gaitsch)
Published WB Music Corp./Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./Webo Girl Publishing, Inc. Adm.
by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/Johnny Yuma Music BMI/Edge Of Fluke Music ASCAP
Produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard
Mixed by Shep Pettibone and Michael Hutchinson †
 © 1990 Miss Bessie Music ASCA P And deliver and despise
JUSTIFY MY LOVE Produced by Lenny K ravitz for Super Mouche Productions And right while I am standing there
(L enny K ravitz / Ing rid Chavez; Additional Ly rics by Madonna) Associate Producer: A ndré Betts I suddenly begin to care
Back g round Vocals: Madonna and Lenny K ravitz And understand that there could be
Recorded by: Henr y Hirsch, David Domanich, A ndy Cardenas and A person that loves me
I wanna kiss you in Paris
Josh Cuer vokas at Waterfront Studios and Unique Recording Studio
I wanna hold your hand in Rome Mi xed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶
I wanna run naked in a rainstorm Chorus
Make love in a train cross-country
You put this in me RESCUE ME Love is understanding–it’s hard to believe
So now what, so now what? (Madonna /Shep Pettibone) Life can be so demanding
I’m sending out an S.O.S.
Wanting, needing, waiting I’m talking, I’m talking Stop me from drowning
For you to justify my love I believe in the power of love Baby I’ll do the rest
Hoping, praying I’m singing, I’m singing
For you to justify my love I believe that you can rescue me Chorus:
Rescue me/your love has given me hope
I want know you With you I’m not a little girl Rescue me/I’m drowning
Not like that With you I’m not a man Baby throw out your rope
I don’t wanna be your mother When all the hurt inside of me
I don’t wanna be your sister either Comes out, you understand Ooh ahh love is understanding
I just wanna be your lover You see that I’m ferocious Ooh ahh love is understanding
I wanna be your baby You see that I am weak
Kiss me, that’s right, kiss me You see that I am silly Love is understanding–it’s hard to believe
And pretentious and a freak Life can be so demanding
Wanting, needing, waiting But I don’t feel too strange for you I’m sending out and S.O.S.
For you to justify my love Don’t know exactly what you do Rescue me, rescue me
Yearning, burning I think when love is pure you try
For you to justify my love It’s not my business to decide
To understand the reasons why How good you are for me
What are you gonna do? And I prefer this mistery How valuavle you are
What are you gonna do? It cancels out my mysery And what the world can see
Talk to me–tell me your dreams And gives me hope that there could be Only that you try to understand me
Am I in them? A person that loves me And have the courage
Tell me your fears To love me for me
Are you scared? Chorus:
Tell me your stories Rescue me/your love has given me hope I believe in the power
I’m not afraid of who you are Rescue me/I’m drowning I believe that you can rescue me
We can fly! Baby throw out your rope
© 1990 W B Music Cor p./ Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc./ Webo
Poor is the man With you I’m not a facist Girl Publishing, Inc. Adm. by W B Music Cor p./ Lexor Music ASCA P
Whose the pleasures depend Can’t play you like a toy Produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone
On the permission of another And when I need to dominate Mi xed by Shep Pettibone and Goh Hotoda ✶
Love me, that’s right, love me You’re not my little boy Recording Engineer: P. Dennis Mitchell
I wanna be your baby You see that I am hungry Assistant Engineers: Curt Frasca and John Partham
For a life of understanding Keyboards and Prog ramming: Peter Schwartz
Additional Prog ramming: Joe Moskow itz
Wanting, needing, waiting And you forgive my angry little heart
Back g round Vocals: Dian Sorel, Catherine Russell, Lillias White
For you to justify my love When she’s demanding Recorded at A x is Studios, N YC.
I’m open and ready You bring me to my knees
For you to justify my love While I’m scratching out the eyes LYRICS REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
Of a world I want to conquer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 Assistant Engineers:
Curt Frasca and Lolly Grodner
†
Mixed at Right Track Studios, NYC
✶
Mixed at Sound Works, NYC
Mastered by Ted Jensen at
Sterling Sound, NYC
Album Coordinated by
Shep Pettibone and Jane Brinton
Management: Freddy DeMann/
The DeMann Entertainment Co.
Lenny Kravitz appears courtesy of
Virgin Records
Photography: Herb Ritts
Art Direction: Jeri Heiden
Design: Jeri Heiden and John Heiden
Digital Booklet: André Guedes

Special Thanks To: Craig Kostich,

Junior Vasquez and “The Sound
Factory sound system on a Saturday
night when we needed to listen.” To
my favourite Charleses Jo & Lu-Lu,
and especially to Mr. Boneyhead for
working the hardest, BOOTS!, and
assistant to Boney–Tony.

This album is dedicated to “The Pope,”

my divine inspiration.

Please read the following QSound Information before playing your

CD or tape.
QSound and the QSound logo are registered trademarks of QSound Ltd.
© 1990 This recording has been processed with QSound, an unrivaled
advancement in stereophonic sound technology.
QSound presents the listener with a new three dimensional aspect of recorded sound
when played back through any conventional stereo system.
 Sire Records Company, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. 10019-6908.
Marketed by Warner Bros. Records Inc., a Time Warner Company.
©1990 Sire Records Company for the U.S. and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the U.S.