Madonna Like A Virgin album Poll. Pick Your Favourites & Discuss.

Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 1984, by Sire Records. Following the success of her self-titled debut album, Madonna wanted to become the record producer of her next album. However, her label was not ready to give her the artistic freedom and she chose Nile Rodgers instead to produce the album due to his work with David Bowie. Madonna wrote six songs on the record, five of which feature Steve Bray as a co-writer. The album was recorded at Power Station Studio in New York at a quick pace. Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards, who was the bassist, and Tony Thompson, who played drums. Jason Corsaro, the record's audio engineer, persuaded Rodgers to use digital recording, a new technique introduced at that time.


The album's photographs were shot by Steven Meisel. Madonna wanted the album title and the cover image to make provocative link between her own religious name Madonna, as the Roman Catholic title for Jesus' mother Mary, and the Christian concept of the virgin birth. While not a substantial musical departure from Madonna's first album, she felt that the material from Like a Virgin was stronger. After its release, Like a Virgin received mixed reviews from music critics, but was a commercial success. It became Madonna's first number one album on the Billboard 200 and set the record as the first female album in history to sell over five million copies in the United States. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) later certified it diamond for shipment of ten million units. It also reached number one in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time with sales of over 21 million copies worldwide.

Five singles were released from the album, including Madonna's first US number-one "Like a Virgin" and her first UK number-one "Into the Groove". To promote the album, she embarked on The Virgin Tour, which had shows in cities of North America only. Like a Virgin has attained significance as a cultural artifact of the 1980s. Madonna proved that she was not a one-hit wonder and was able to provide herself with a permanent footing in the music world. Her songs became a lightning rod for both criticism by conservatives and imitation by the younger female population, especially "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin". According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, "Every important artist has at least one album in his or her career whose critical and commercial success becomes the artist's magic moment; for Madonna, Like a Virgin was just such a defining moment."

My thoughts.

I bought this on release day. I’d gotten the debut Madonna album a couple of weeks previously and had high hopes for the sophomore LP. Although she hadn’t quite blown up yet (that would be 1985) in the UK, there was a definite buzz around the new album. Obviously accelerated by the risqué (for 1984) lead single and title track. We were so much more easily shocked then.

Like A Virgin wasn’t well received critically, as I recall. The press were still trying to write Madonna off as a flash in the pan. I liked the album and could see other potential hits, but didn’t expect it to be the smash it became. In many ways it’s her most famous album. Even though she has others that have sold more. The artwork helped, I think. It’s a classic sleeve with Madonna using her, erm, attributes very well. The videos for Like A Virgin and the second single, Material Girl, didn’t hurt either..

So, I’ve created a poll. I’ve added Into The Groove as it was added to the tracklisting of the European release after the single spent a month at #1 in 1985. It’s always felt like part of the album to me. Even though it’s not really! Vote for as many as you like and tell us what you think of the album. When you bought it etc. Do you feel it’s endured well, or have you outgrown it now?

 

This album had so many great songs. So many favorites and I think Dress You Up is so underrated in this album. I love that song!

 

Love this song. I remember it well summer 1985 on the FM dial.

 

This is one of my favorites too. My mom loved this song when it came out.

 

The majority of this album is great. I voted for Like A Virgin, Over and Over, Pretender (I've always liked this one) and Into The Groove. The album has one duffer in Love Don't Live Here Anymore. Shoo Be Doo and Stay aren't memorable to me.

It has some of the best pop singles from a great era for pop singles. The videos were and still are great. Her image from this time has aged very well, a rare thing for the mid 80s. The album cover is stunning, both sides of it and the inner sleeve. One of my favourite album covers. An essential Madonna album.

I heard this album a lot in the 80s as my sister played it a lot when she was very young and I was a teen rock fan. I always liked it but wouldn't have admitted it then! It's only relatively recently that I've owned it.

 

Angel, Dress You Up, Pretender, Material Girl, Over And Over, Into The Groove and the title track. Great pop music. I remember getting some flack from my record store coworkers at the time for buying it. What the heck, I'm not a 'rock elitist'...I like what I like. I honestly prefer Madonna's first three albums to anything that came later...

 

Angel and Dress You Up have sadly been forgotten a bit... seems like anything from the eighties that wasn't either a HUGE hit or something with "controversial" or funny lyrics (Like A Virgin, You Shook Me All Night Long) has been forgotten, even by eighties-focused radio stations. I hear Like a Virgin and Papa Don't Preach often, but I don't think I've heard songs like Angel or Open Your Heart on radio/80s satellite/muzak in 30 years or so. And they were big hits at the time!!

 

Angel
Dress You Up
Into the Groove
Shoo-Bee-Doo

Dress You Up and Into the Groove are just superb, especially the latter. I never liked Material Girl and whenever I hear the title track, I find myself singing along with "Weird Al" Yankovic's Like A Surgeon lyrics instead.
I got the Sainsbury's clear vinyl a few months ago. They don't replicate the flip cover (the back cover should be "upside down"). I always loved the rear sleeve photo. Still one of the great Madonna images. There's arguably a case to be made that it should have been the cover.
As a kid, being unfamiliar with Rose Royce and not realising it was an old song being covered, I was bewildered as to why Madonna was singing Love Don't Live Here Anymore, since Jimmy Nail had UK chart success with his version in 1985.

 

Open Your Heart is one of Madonna's best singles to me.

 

Material Girl and Like a Virgin defined her image at the time and cemented her in public consciousness but today they sound like novelty songs that try too hard.

The real gems on this album are Angel and Dress You Up. The reissue added Into the Groove, which I think is a contender for Madonna’s best single and is, in my opinion, probably one of the five best singles of the 80s.

But all in all, I think this album is a step down from her debut. Too much production focus on the ‘hits’ and not enough on the whole.

I was uh pretty captivated by the cover art at the time.

 

Excellently executed Nile Rodgers spot on production of this mid 80's gem.


Nile Rodgers

Rodgers in 2012

 

I remember having both the Material Girl and Angel 45 RPM singles. I think I liked Angel more as a kid, but you don't hear it much anymore.

Material Girl I appreciate more now though, especially for the live (not machine) rhythm section.

 

I consider it a step down from her debit as well, but it was so instrumental in establishing Madonna as a force to be reckoned with, both this album and True Blue.

 

At the time, I remember not liking this album too much. It seemed like too many of the songs were very specifically "in character" and kind of tongue-in-cheek, or at least a lot more so than her debut album which I loved! Over time though, it's grown on me. Into The Groove, Dress You Up and Love Don't Live Here Anymore are my picks on this list although I didn't have a copy with Into The Groove so I had to tape it off the radio (remember that?)

Funny thing about this album: at the time my copy was an Indonesian cassette that my father picked up for me on a business trip (at the time, "locally-made" cassettes of major US releases were dirt-cheap and my father was making regular business trips to Indonesia so I'd give him $10 and he'd come back with dozens of albums on tape for me.) My copy of Like A Virgin (which I lost many years ago) had the same front cover photo as the album but the photo was edited with carefully drawn on lace over her upper chest, neck and arms, to give the impression that the iconic dress went all the way up her throat and all the way down to her wrists! I've never seen another copy like this, or even a version with the picture edited in the same way and I regret not hanging on to it, I'm sure it'd be worth something to some crazy Madonna collector somewhere! (And FWIW, it also wasn't this version, which shows the unedited version of the cover that would have been somewhat scandalous in a very conservative country.)

 

Madonna History: November 12, 1984

On November 12 1984, Madonna’s Like A Virgin album was released by Sire Records. The album was re-released worldwide in 1985, to include the bonus track, Into the Groove.

The original track listing for Madonna’s second album included:

Material Girl
Angel
Like A Virgin
Over & Over
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
Dress You Up
Shoo-Bee-Doo
Pretender
Stay

The cover sleeve and album insert images were shot by Steven Meisel. The first shot in this post was used for the album cover. The rest of the photos in this post are outtakes from the same photo shoot.

 

Singles and albums reviews from UK Smash Hits magazine. November 1984.

 

Material Girl
Like A Virgin
Into The Groove

 

I remember being nine running around the house singing "like a virgin...touched for the very first time" to my mom's horror after hearing the title track on the radio a lot. My mom had no idea what was going on. So Madonna is the reason my dad had the birds and the bees talk with me. They did buy me the album a month later for Christmas.

 

I know Into Yhe Groove was added to this album after its chart success, and a great single it is, but it doesn’t fit on here, in my view.

A strong album, the singles are great, but it’s not an album I spin often. Much as I love Nile Rogers it’s brittle, digital sounding production make it hard work for me. Was better on vinyl though.

The cover art is great.

 

I like "get into the groove"

That is it

 

Something I’d forgotten. Like A Virgin was far from an instant hit in the UK. Despite two top 10 singles, the album took 17 weeks to reach the top 10! That’s unthinkable now when if your LP doesn’t enter the top 5 in it’s first week you lose your record deal In fact, LAV didn’t really start to take off until the (non-album) Into The Groove single was released in the summer of 1985..

This chart shows the week LAV first entered the UK top 10.

 

That's a dreadfull top 100

No telling what the US one looked like

Madonna was all over MTv

The Venice canal scene


Never thought about a 9 year old singing it around the house