AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Madonna

Artist:Madonna

Song:Like A Virgin

Album:Celebration

The 1984 single Like A Virgin was Madonna's first number one single. She went on to have bigger hits but Like A Virgin launched her to stardom. She was born Aug. 16, 1958 in Bay City, MI. She took ballet lessons as a child. Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to have a career as a dancer. But she got into a relationship with musician Dan Gilroy, he made her lead singer of his band The Breakfast Club. She left that band with drummer Stephen Bray and formed The Emmys. Bray would be a big factor in establishing Madonna's music career. She started dating Danceteria DJ Mark Kamins. He got her a meeting with Sire Records owner Seymour Stein. Sire was distributed by Warner Bros. Her three singles did well enough on the dance charts that Warners hired Mtume leader Reggie Lucas to produce her debut album Madonna. When Madonna was unhappy with the finished product, she brought in John "Jellybean" Benitez to remix everything. He also produced Madonna's first top ten single Holiday. The album did well and there were three hit singles. Then she appeared in the 1985 film Vision Quest. Crazy For You was a big hit from the soundtrack. Madonna became more popular because of her look. She was a fashion trend. The music seemed secondary. There was criticism that she was imitating Marilyn Monroe. She did not have a great singing voice. Madonna wanted to produce her next album. But Warners wouldn't allow that. So she brought in Nile Rodgers of Chic as she liked his work with David Bowie. He brought in Chic members Bernard Edwards on bass and Tony Thompson on drums. Madonna deliberately wanted to be provocative. That's why her sex appeal is up front. And it's also why Like A Virgin was the first single. It came with a sexy video. And Madonna performed Like A Virgin on the MTV Music Awards in a provocative manner. The result was that Like A Virgin topped the charts for six weeks. The album sold over 20M copies worldwide. Though Madonna and Stephen Bray wrote several of the songs on the album, Like A Virgin was written by the team of Thomas Kelly and William Steinberg. They were very successful in the 80s writing songs with The Bangles' lead singer Susanna Hoffs. Of course Madonna went on to bigger hits. Like A Virgin is not even a top five hit in her career. But it was an important bridge to bigger things for her. Here's the video for Like A Virgin by Madonna.