Madonna has always been one of the many great performers of the 80s, 90s, and today. There really is not one female performer that cannot come close in seeing as much success as Madonna has seen in her career that has now spanded over 25 years. In 1983, Madonna had released her debut album entitled, MADONNA. This album is jam-packed with fresh material delivered by the hands of Madonna, and it is one of my all-time favorite Madonna albums.
LUCKY STAR
The album's fifth & final single. This is one of the many great songs by Madonna. The music featured in the song is perfect for a Madonna album of this kind. In the song's video, Madonna reveals one of her most infamous outfits to date: an outfit completed with black half-tops, black knee-length tights, Madonna's BOY TOY belt (although, she is not wearing the belt in this song's video), clunk jewelery (which includes chains and crucifixes), clunk bracelets, and the infamous rubber bracelets. This was a style that Madonna, and Madonna only, could pull off. This style simply said ... Madonna.
BORDERLINE
The album's fourth single. This is definitely one of my favorite songs from Madonna. It may sound a little bumble-gummy, but there is something about this song that makes it classic. The video to this song was the first video of Madonna's to be directed by Mary Lambert, who would go on to direct a handful of Madonna's music videos (including "Like A Virgin", "Material Girl", "La Isla Bonita", & "Like A Prayer").
BURNING UP
The album's second single. This became an instant favorite for me the minute I heard it for the first time. What a great song.
I KNOW IT
A great song that explains Madonna knowing that her current boyfriend will be taking off and abandoning her.
HOLIDAY
The album's third single. This is definitely one of the best anthems Madonna has ever recorded. Just think that Madonna did not want this song to go on this album. She wanted a song entitled, "Ain't No Big Deal" to fill this spot, but her producer, John "Jellybean" Benitez said that "Holiday" would be a better choice, for he told her that this song was for Madonna to release as a single, and for her to watch this single become a massive hit. And it did, indeed, become a massive hit. Madonna has performed this song a numerous amount of times on her first six world tours (which would be THE VIRGIN TOUR 1985, THE WHO'S THAT GIRL TOUR 1987, THE BLONDE AMBITION TOUR 1990, THE GIRLIE SHOW TOUR 1993, THE DROWNED WORLD TOUR 2001, & THE RE-INVENTION TOUR 2004). Sadly, Madonna has decided not to perform this song on her seventh world tour entitled: THE CONFESSIONS TOUR 2006. Madonna has point, I hope you all know: "If we took a HOLIDAY, took some time to celebrate, just one day out of life, it would be so nice".
THINK OF ME
Great.
PHYSICAL ATTRACTION
Now, a lot of people, mostly other Madonna fans, have continued to insist that this song was a single, where it was released as the B-Side to the "Burning Up" single. Well, that's just completely wrong. Although, this song was featured as the B-Side to the "Burning Up" single, this song was never released as its own single. But, this song is one hell of a tune. This is a great song.
EVERYBODY
The album's first single. The song that started it all. This song was released a single back in October or November of 1982, before Madonna began working on this album. My guess is that the producers probably thought that Madonna should wait on recording a full-length album, until they were all certain that this single would sell. Well, it did not do well on the Billboard Hot 100, but it did extremely well on the Billboard Club Songs, which led the producers in giving Madonna the greenlight to record her first full-length album, which is what you see here. This is a great song, with Madonna requesting that, "...Everybody, come on, dance and sing. Everybody, get up and do your thing..." and for us to, "...Let the music take control, find a groove and let yourself go. When the music begins to sway, you'll know what I'm trying to say...".
This album is the very first start of Madonna's extraordinarily successful career. So to all the diehard Madonna fans out there, who have not yet purchased this album, or any of Madonna's albums, start off your Madonna collection with MADONNA, the first of her many incredible albums.
This was the album that introduced the Material Girl to the world. How could one predict that from this modest dance/new wave album, that one of biggest artists in music history would be born. Of course Madonna's videos and image have alot to do with her success, but image can only carry you so far. In the end, the music has to stand on its own and her self-titled album does just that. "Lucky Star" is a dance classic while "Borderline" is a classic pop tune with its plucky synth and Madonna's plaintive vocals. It is the successor to the girl group hits from the 60's. "Burning Up" is falls under the new wave banner with it's searing guitar and synth action while "I Know It" foreshadows futures songs like "True Blue" and "Cherish" with it's bouncy sound. The albums closer is "Everybody" and is a hypnotic, syncopathic number that begs you to get up and move. Madonna started off slowly when it was released in 1983, in fact it took 58 weeks to crack the top ten, but it laid the groundwork and foundation for her next release Like A Virgin that would take her from rising star to mega-star.
Ah yes, Madonna's first album. When this album first came out in 1983, I doubt that anybody thought that she would go on to be the top female recording artist of all time. I remember at the time a lot of people thought that Cyndi Lauper would end up being the bigger star of the two. Funny how things turn out. Madonna first album was a dance album with a sound typical of the early '80s. Of the eight songs on the album, five were released as singles. "Lucky Star", "Borderline" and "Holiday" are of course classic hits. "Burning Up" and "Everybody" were flop singles, but they still are great songs. As for the other three songs: "Think of Me" and "Physical Attraction" are good songs; and "I Know It" is not a very good song. Madonna's singing ability was not fully developed at this point. She could carry a tune, but she didn't have much range. Somewhat suprisingly, Madonna wrote five of the eight songs on the album. She wrote them by herself, unlike in the future when she almost always wrote with a collaborator. This was a solid debut album that was underrated by most people at the time, but nowadays it can almost be considered a classic.
But why did they change the original picture/artwork? "The First Album".. I mean, really? Keep it classic, guys.
This album is a classic, with singles as Lucky Star, Borderline, Burning Up and Everybody the world stared noticing Madonna first as a dance artist and also as a writer and producer since she help and wrote most of the songs in this album.
My personal favorite song here is the Classic HOLIDAY a feel-good song that has trandsance time and you can hear in almost all of her tours (including the re-invention tour), I would never get tired of listing this song, is one of my all-time favorites. Recommended if you are a Madonna fan, if not buy the compilations instead.
