Artist:Madonna
Song:Like a Prayer
Album:Finally Enough Love
Even after all these years, the 1989 single Like a Prayer is still one of Madonna's biggest and most enduring hits. There isn't much to the song. It's very repetitive. But Patrick Leonard's arrangement and especially Andrae Crouch's choir really hit the spot. I knew Madonna was a gospel fan but Like a Prayer really hammered that home. The album Like a Prayer came at the end of Madonna's marriage to Sean Penn. I don't know if Penn has mellowed over the years but he sure had a bad temper at the time. She also appeared on Broadway in the David Mamet's play Speed The Plow and it was critically panned. She hadn't released a new album since 1986. She was getting older and music was changing. So she wanted a more mature sound. For the most part, she wrote the songs and produced with Patrick Leonard including Like a Prayer. He seemed to encourage the more mature attitude as opposed to Madonna's long time producer Stephen Bray who produced two songs. Prince produced one song. Like a Prayer was the first single and it set the tone for the rest of the album. The gospel influence is really prominent including a choir led by gospel music legend Andrae Crouch. The song topped the charts worldwide. Leonard and Bray were in competition for every song and Leonard won probably because of his more mature arrangements. That's what Madonna wanted, right? Of course the religious lyrics and the video was very controversial at the time. I thought that director Mary Lambert did a very cheeky thing by saying at the end that it was a play. The saint was played by Leon Robinson (usually credited in films as Leon). As I said before, there's not much to the song. It's basically a couple of bridges and a repeated chorus. But the song was well arranged by Leonard and the use of the choir was perfect. And Like a Prayer perfectly set up Madonna's 90s music. It's still one of her biggest hits. In the past I have recommended Madonna's 2CD comp Celebration. Warner Bros. replaced it in 2022 with Finally Enough Love. This single CD version is available as a budget CD. Or you can get a 3CD version that has all 50 of Madonna's #1 hits. Here's the video for Like a Prayer by Madonna.
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