We're probably at peak sophistipop here in the US in '85, with Sade having become a major act and lots of pop - and even R&B - being tinged with sophistipop production values. I think the genre actually had its biggest chart impact as a kind of flavor in more mainstream hits, thanks to successes enjoyed by Tina Turner and others with sophistipop-tinged hits. I'd argue an upcoming pop & R&B superstar owes more than a bit of her early sound to the genre as well. I didn't really realize it at the time - it was all just the current sound to me - but like Yacht Rock it's a thread you can certainly tease out in hindsight as something distinct and separate from earlier, now stodgier "light rock" or "EZ listening" production sported by acts from, say, the Manilow axis (like late '70s - early '80s Dionne Warwick) during the early '80s.
Interesting song, where the verse kind of acts as a chorus at the same time. Not too many songs like this.
Crazy For You is a nice song. I don't seem to recall hearing this as much as her other big hits after the original run. Could it be that it's from a soundtrack and not on one of her main albums?
Maybe it was regional, when I was growing up it played constantly, also was big on adult contemporary radio which is what my parents listened to so hardly a week went by in the late eighties when I didn't hear it.
USA For Africa - We Are the World I could not escape this song in the Spring/Summer of 1985. Everywhere, all the time. I don't think I actually liked it at the time, but it was an extremely memorable song. The stars upon stars helped certainly, but I think it still comes down to Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie writing a super catchy song. The rest is like the most glamorous and fantastic cake decorations ever. The cake itself is still good, however. I love how each singer is identifiable by their voice. Starting with Lionel, moving through some serious star power and having Michael deliver the first chorus was a genius move. That in itself, that first minute and a half sold the song completely. I was pretty indifferent on Springsteen at the time, but his role in this made me really dislike the dude. He's the low part of this whole thing, just overly showy and self-important. Anyway, that's my one beef with this song. Cyndi Lauper is right on the edge of that too, but I like her so I can tolerate it. I like the bridge and you can tell it's one of Michael Jackson's creations. It's a fantastic change with another great melody. Another thing I really appreciate about this song is how incredibly diverse it is. It's diverse in skin color, music genre, singing style, all of it. This song has been parodied into the ground the past 35 years and there's certainly a huge layer of cheese here, but damn if it's not a good song above all. Video: it's the alternate universe version of the Ghostbusters video. It's so much fun to watch the video for this song. You really get the sense of handing off from singer to singer with the video. It's a simple production, but it's captivating to watch. Even all these years later. Thank you @The Slug Man for featuring Stars. It's the same concept, but it's so hilariously bad that it somehow turns good. The highlight is having all the shredders trying to out-shred each other. An endless, massively wanking guitar solo. LOVE IT! Fun fact for this Maiden fan: even though Bruce Dickinson is nowhere to be seen, Dave Murray & Adrian Smith lay down the rhythm guitars in the song. Oh, and Spinal Tap in character...brilliant. Nothing could be more perfect for this song. You posted the edited version, the full version is even more kick ass.
That’s a big part of it. It’s been a decent AC recurrent, but that’s about it. Part of the issue with Madonna is that she has so many classic hits, and her uptempo numbers provide more variety to playlists. The ones I hear the most on the radio still are Borderline and La Isla Bonita. For all the hype that her vocals got after the Evita training, it’s easy to forget how effective a singer she was from early on. Excellent tone and good control. I remember a Rolling Stone review that specifically longed for her “heartsick Italian girl” vocals from “Crazy For You.”
A local chart from that era. CJCB - Sydney, Nova Scotia WEEK OF MAY 5 - 11, 1985 1. We Are The World - USA For Africa 2. Crazy For You - Madonna 3. Tears Are Not Enough - Northern Lights 4. Rhythm Of The Night - DeBarge 5. Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds 6. Obsession - Animotion 7. Nightshift - Commodores 8. Some Like It Hot - Power Station 9. All She Wants To Do Is Dance - Don Henley 10. Rock And Roll Girls - John Fogerty 11. Everything She Wants - Wham 12. One More Night - Phil Collins 13. Missing You - Diana Ross 14. A Criminal Mind - Gowan 15. Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 16. Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid - Daryl Hall & John Oates 17. Tokyo Rose - Idle Eyes 18. Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears 19. That Was Yesterday - Foreigner 20. Smooth Operator - Sade 21. Angels - Amy Grant 22. Welcome To The Pleasure Dome - Frankie Goes To Hollywood 23. Shout - Tears For Fears 24. Suddenly - Billy Ocean 25. Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody - David Lee Roth 26. Axel F - Harold Faltermeyer 27. The Riddle - Nik Kershaw 28. Forever Man - Eric Clapton 29. Along Comes A Woman - Chicago 30. (Make Me Do) Anything You Want - Helix 31. Things Can Only Get Better - Howard Jones 32. Black Cars - Gino Vannelli 33. Vox Humana - Kenny Loggins 34. When The Rain Begins To Fall - Pia Zadora & Jermaine Jackson 35. Material Girl - Madonna 36. Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves 37. One Night In Bangkok - Murray Head 38. No More And No Less - Rational Youth 39. Can't Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon 40. Just Another Night - Mick Jagger TOP 40 PROSPECTS You're A Strange Animal - Gowan Would I Lie To You - Eurhythmics
Funny, my senior prom was the week "Crazy For You" was #1. I don't recall if it got played or not. Our prom theme was "The Best Of Times". I do like it pretty well; it's one of my favorite Madonna songs. I have the full version on the Vision Quest cd I picked up a few years ago. I suppose The Immaculate Collection (and its remixes) is going to feature in the next several years of chart discussions.
It's a great slow jam. The country touches are unexpected and work really well. This was during an era where country acts had gone from ruling the roost '79 - '82 to essentially excommunicated from the pop charts so nothing could have been more out of fashion than country, yet this is to a great degree a country ballad at heart and - maybe apart from the synth work and some of the arrangement - wouldn't have been terribly out-of-place on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack... It definitely showed Madge broadening her audience beyond her Manhattan dance club base...and frankly beyond Cyndi Lauper's too. Again, that word "unexpected" crops up.
Madonna - Crazy For You This is a good ballad from Madonna. It's got a really good melody and she's showing so much more confidence in her voice. She's definitely improved as a singer since her debut. This track is from the Vision Quest soundtrack and from what I can tell, it was recorded after the Like a Virgin album. So it's even more growth in her voice, rather than just being another song from those sessions. It's interesting that the release of this song broke up the singles from LAV. Before were Like a Virgin and Material Girl with 3 upcoming ones after Crazy for You. The part of this song that really grabs me is that change when she sings "...still a world away". This was her first ballad as a single and it was a great choice; it brought a different layer to her music. I like this song a lot. video: It's solely scenes from Vision Quest (which I've never seen) mixed with Madonna singing in a night club. The movie scenes frequently use a lot of the same shots (the jump rope) which isn't a good move. Madonna looks good, but she's at a bit of a distance. The video is concerned with selling the movie more than Madonna, but it's her voice and presence that really sells the whole thing. We just wait to get the glimpses of her in between stupid scenes from the movie.
Yeah, my prom was the same time as yours - I guess. I don't remember the specific date but it was May 1985. No idea if they played "CFY"!
The scenes of her singing hail from Vision Quest. The makers of that film lucked out big time. Vision Quest was filmed near the end of 1983, when Madonna was essentially a fresh face with Holiday climbing the charts, and by the time the movie came out over a year later, she was the hottest star in pop, so what initially was an incidental background singer at a bar was beefed up to showcase as much as possible with what they filmed
I recognized "Crazy for You" when I played it just now, but I never knew what it was called or that it had been a #1 hit. That more or less sums up my opinion of the song. Not my cup of tea but I can see why it was a big hit. I started junior high in the fall of 1985 and those two years were the only time in my life I went to dances regularly (and I now consider that something of a travesty), but I don't recall "Crazy for You" being played for the slow dances. Which doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I think I probably would have remembered.
If this is of consolation to British lurkers of this thread, "Crazy For You" did top the New Musical Express and Melody Maker singles charts, but fell short in the "official" charts compiled then by Gallup, reaching only #2.
Crazy For You I had totally forgotten about this song. I find Madonna's ballads to be pretty unmemorable for the most part, and this is no exception. What was up with the charts in early 1985 that so many of the songs at the top were so slow? I dimly recall Vision Quest, a fairly dull movie from the mid-80s that starred Matthew Modine. Remember him? He seemed to peak when he appeared in Full Metal Jacket a few years later, then completely disappeared. Checking out IMDB, it seems he's mostly been on TV or in TV movies the past 20 years. His co-star, Linda Fiorentino, was another actress who seemed primed for big things but kinda fizzled out. This was her film debut. She hasn't appeared in anything since 2009. Here's the trailer. It's so eighties it hurts. 'Louden Swain' -- good grief. Note how neither Madonna nor her song are used in the trailer, and how they emphasize the relationship when the movie is really more a sports movie IIRC.
Matthew got some buzz as a villainous turn as Eleven's father the first season of Stranger Things Linda seemed to be really hot in the late 90s then vanished when the new millennium got here. She was the lead in Dogma
Modine still works regularly. He had a medium-sized role in "Dark Knight Rises" in 2012, and he's had supporting roles in fairly well-known movies like "Steve Jobs", "47 Meters Down" and the "Sicario" sequel. He never became a leading man-type star, but he's had a good career! Didn't she and Smith butt heads a ton on "Dogma"? Been a long time since I watched those DVD extras, but I seem to recall that he claimed it was a bad experience...
The system stopped giving me alerts for this thread. I should have anticipated that. So, "Crazy for You." Just ok. I'm sorry and your mileage may very, but Madonna's voice, I'm just not crazy for it. On a song like it is competent, but to my ears, not something that is #1 single level good.
@sunspot42 I noticed you mentioned "Voices Carry." A great song I concur. And a great voice. I love all of Til Tuesdays albums. It is a pity they did not take off. Songs like "Coming up Close" and "On Sunday" should have been huge.
