VIDEO by Mary
Lambert
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Like A Virgin The
Immaculate
1984 Collection
1990
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NOTE: The "Like A Virgin" single is due for platinum
re-certification.
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“Like A Virgin”, the first single
release from Madonna’s second studio album of the same name, was the first of
her
songs to go to #1 all the way across the boards. The global smash boosted her to the very
pinnacle of music and
popular culture, suddenly making Madonna a household
name. The album, released in November,
had originally been
scheduled for an early summer release, but was repeatedly
postponed due to the sudden successes of “Borderline”
and “Lucky Star”.
It has since been awarded the diamond award, meaning that the album has
sold an astounding 10
million copies.
Both the song and the video
for “Like A Virgin” oozed with sexual innuendos and
controversy. Upon their releases,
every girl in the world suddenly wanted to be like Madonna
and every boy in the world wanted to sleep with her! The
video, shot in Venice, featured Madonna cavorting on a boat in a very “not
like a virgin” manner. In some scenes
she
even donned a wedding dress, seemingly mocking the
outrageous, slutty, persona she was creating for
herself.
“Like A Virgin” became so
popular that it was even parodied by Weird Al Yankovich,
an MTV star who built an entire
career on the mockery of
other people’s music. His version,
titled “Like a Surgeon”, featured altered song lyrics and
a truly comical remake of the
“Like A Virgin” video.
Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly with a male singer in mind,
it’s a bit ironic
that “Like a Virgin” is now
synonymous with the name of arguably the most famous
woman on the planet. A timeless
pop classic, Madonna has performed the song in
various reincarnations over the years
at most of her world tours. During her
performance
of the song in Toronto for the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour, Madonna was
actually
threatened
with arrest by local authorities who believed her on-stage rendition of
"Like A Virgin" to be immoral and
corruptive. The performance
featured Madonna simulating masturbation on a bed while surrounded by gay
dancers
who played with phallic-like props.
Madonna was never arrested for the performance but the bizarre sex scene
was
promoted on MTV and
actually received several VMA
nominations even though it did not win any awards.
“Like A Virgin” amassed a
remarkable 6 weeks at number 1 on the Hot 100, second only to “Take A Bow” for Madonna’s longest-running chart-topper.
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In September of 1984, two full
months before “Like A Virgin” first hit the airwaves, Madonna gave viewers a
truly memorable on-stage rendition of the soon to be chart-topper at the MTV Video Music Awards. Armed with a wedding dress (really nothing
more than a teddy with a tutu), a larger-than-life cake, and a microphone,
Madonna delivered a teasingly sexy performance as she pranced carefree and
seductively across the MTV stage before the
millions of stunned viewers who were hearing the pop classic “for the
very first time”. Wearing a wedding
dress with accompanying garter belts, high heels, and the infamous “boy toy”
belt, Madonna drops to her knees and acts out a rather lewd impromptu, using
solely her hips and the stage floor as props!
In an MTV interview, singer Melissa
Etheridge reminisces on Madonna’s performance by saying that it was “the most
blatantly sexual thing [she] had ever seen on television”.
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