My top 5 Madonna songs

[lazyhour]

No love for Hung Up? I think it's so great I even bought the 12"!

https://youtu.be/EDwb9jOVRtU

[Brundle-Fly]

Her best stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6jBID2G-qM

[Norton Canes]

The really early, trashy stuff: Everybody, Holiday, Borderline. Angel; Into The Groove, of course.

[Crabwalk]

Open Your Heart (especially the 12" version)
Borderline
Cherish
Material Girl
Get in Groove

Nothing controversial, just absolute beastunes that suit her lovely thin voice at the time.

[wosl]

just absolute beastunes that suit her lovely thin voice at the time.

If thin, then I wish more modern pop singers sounded this way.  On the whole she seems to have reined back the full power available, and she usually sounds pleasantly moderate, sweet and clear.  The thing I'm not keen on is that croak/fry thing she throws in from time to time, to indicate angst or rising desire, presumably, a styling she possibly pioneered and which some others have run with to annoying lengths (although I'll be struggling to name them, if pressed).

[Crabwalk]

If thin, then I wish more modern pop singers sounded this way.

Oh me too, absolutely. I didn't mean it as an insult at all.

[wosl]

She can also swoop and gulp to excess when opting to emote more strongly.

[wosl]

I didn't mean it as an insult at all.

No, I know ('lovely thin voice').  It just prompted me to ponder 'thin'.

[Gulftastic]

It's 30 years ago this year I saw her Blonde Ambition Tour at Wembley. Great gig, except for the Dick Tracy section which was shee-ite!

[Crabwalk]

No, I know ('lovely thin voice').  It just prompted me to ponder 'thin'.

Yes, I was being a bit reductive there!

[JaDanketies]

Dunno about top 5 but "Frozen" is probably my favourite. Absolutely incredible tune.

I agree with The Mollusk. I used to say Like a Prayer was the best but Frozen blows it out of the water.

Also I used to be a bit ironic when I said I had a favourite Madonna song until I listened to a bunch of her 90s / 00s stuff on MDMA

[wosl]

It's 30 years ago this year I saw her Blonde Ambition Tour at Wembley.

I got to see her at Wembley in 1987, courtesy of a gratis ticket going begging (the concert took place in the evening of the day that Michael Ryan had run amok in Hungerford).

[Better Midlands]

I forgot, Justify My Love is totally ace too. I love the sparse production - it sounds like a demo.

[hummingofevil]

Agree with all you fellow Voguers... strike a pose.

And this version specifically. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTaXtWWR16A . I have watched it hundreds of times.

Who needs to sing live when you can just mic up your fans instead.

[peanutbutter]

Into the Groove is the obvious #1

[Darles Chickens]

My daughter's got into Madonna recently, and her favourite songs (I just asked her) are:

1. La Isla Bonita
2. Like a Prayer
3. Express Yourself
4. Cherish
5. Hit Me Baby One More Time

She's 8.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Big Time Wooly Woofter
Boz on the Jeb
Press My Gunt, Jonathan
21st Century Playa
Schnauzer Procurant

[Dr Rock]

Into The Groove (which was supposed to have been written for one of my exes, I may have mentioned a million times)
Like A Prayer
Borderline
Crazy For You (had my first snog to it)
Express Yourself

and some late stage Madonna: Ray Of Light, Hung Up, Beautiful Stranger

(Like a Prayer is one of my karaoke go-tos now. Get on Smule!)

[Darles Chickens]

But it has to be the original Like a Prayer and Express Yourself from the album, and not the horrible new arrangements which were on the Immaculate Collection / singles.

That said, most of the Immaculate Collection tracks are mixed with Q-Sound, and sound much better than the original mixes. I still have no idea why this technology didn't take off big time.

[machotrouts]

I don't care much for any Madonna that was released before I existed. My most-played 80s Madonna song is 'Everybody', which is #33 overall on my scrobble chart. She only gets interesting at Justify My Love as far as I'm concerned. You are all so OLD. Your 8-year-old daughters are fucking OLD.

[Darles Chickens]

I hadn't realised that Justify My Love was co-written by Lenny Kravitz. The guy's a musical chameleon - the difference in style and tone between that and It Ain't Over Till It's Over and Are You Gonna Go My Way is staggering.

[sevendaughters]

Like A Prayer
Into The Groove
Papa Don't Preach
Holiday
Material Girl

Immaculate Collection maybe the best singles comp/best of.

[Dr Rock]

But it has to be the original Like a Prayer and Express Yourself from the album, and not the horrible new arrangements which were on the Immaculate Collection / singles.

You're not wrong

[the science eel]

'Material Girl' is sooooooooooooooo good

Next time you listen, focus on the drums. You can FEEL him absolutely tensed up ready to roll like thunder, but holding back, just pumping like a piston in the pocket. Later there are a few stumbling rolls but you know he wanted to do more. It gives the track real power. It's fucking amazing.

[the science eel]

Just found out it's the Chic fellas playing on it! so that's Tony Thompson doing his thing

[Panbaams]

I think most of my top five has been mentioned already, but this one hasn't: "Secret".

And I like the bonkers remix of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina": it's much better than the drippy original.

[Jockice]

Into The Groove (which was supposed to have been written for one of my exes, I may have mentioned a million times)
Like A Prayer
Borderline
Crazy For You (had my first snog to it)
Express Yourself

and some late stage Madonna: Ray Of Light, Hung Up, Beautiful Stranger

(Like a Prayer is one of my karaoke go-tos now. Get on Smule!)

Into The Groove actually reminds me of one of my exes. One of those short-lived late teens things. She basically told me to bugger off in a nightclub and then danced to this. And Free Yourself by The Untouchables. The irony of that didn't escape me.

I had my first snog to True by Spandau Ballet, but Crazy For You reminds me of spending a very pleasant afternoon trawling record shops looking for the single copy of it with a very pretty young lady from a few years below me at school who wanted it for her new boyfriend. I'd just bumped into her in town and unlike most good-looking women she didn't seem ashamed to be seen in public with me. She was lovely was Ruth. Apparently she's now a fanatical right-wing anti-everything Christian. What a waste.

[Pseudopath]

I forgot, Justify My Love is totally ace too. I love the sparse production - it sounds like a demo.

This. I've always been inordinately fond of that song, but have never been able to decide if I genuinely like the tune or if it just reminds me of being 13 years old and gawping astonishedly at MTV as my cock world exploded.

[kalowski]

Isn't she just singing over this?

https://youtu.be/YHyCIDu6dSY

[Jockice]

Isn't she just singing over this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ux344pL7U8

It's as easy as Vice Versa.