Like a Virgin (song)

"Like a Virgin"
Single by Madonna
From the album Like A Virgin
Released	November 6 ,1984
Format	12" single CD single
Genre	Pop
Label	Sire
Writers	Billy Steinberg Tom Kelly
Producer	Nile Rodgers
Director	Mary Lambert
Certification	Gold
Chart positions	#1 U.S. #1 AU #3 UK
Madonna singles chronology
"Lucky Star" 1984	"Like a Virgin" 1984	"Material Girl" 1985

"Like a Virgin" is the first number-one single from American singer Madonna, topping the charts at the end of 1984, and the beginning of 1985. "Like A Virgin" was also the first single from Madonna's second album Like A Virgin. It also appears, slightly remixed, on her best-selling 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection.

Song information

"Like a Virgin" (the song) was Madonna's biggest hit until 1995's "Take a Bow" and her biggest hit of the 1980s. It was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, and remained at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six consecutive weeks.

Madonna has reinvented the song by singing it with different arrangements on her Blond Ambition tour and The Girlie Show. Madonna wears a wedding gown in the music video, which was directed by Mary Lambert.

"Like a Virgin" was honored by Rolling Stone magazine and MTV in 2000 as the fourth song on their list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs".

Madonna also performed "Like a Virgin" at the first MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in 1984.

Production

"Like a Virgin" was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, and was produced by Nile Rodgers. Other credits on the song are as follows:

Bass by Bernard Edwards.
Guitar by Nile Rodgers.
Drums by Tony Thompson.
Assorted synthesizers and bass synthesizer by Rob Sabino.

Music video

The music video, directed by Mary Lambert, was shot in Venice, Italy and partly in New York City. It shows Madonna dancing on a gondola and running around in a wedding dress. It premiered on MTV on July 12, 1984 and became an instant hit.

Two other live-performance videos also exist, one from the Virgin Tour (directed by Danny Kleinmann, released in 1985) and one from the Blond Ambition Tour (directed by Alek Keshishian, and released in 1991). She performed a remastered version of the song during the Confessions Tour, where she danced on a mechanical horse-like device dressed in S&M styled riding gear.

Reception

The title and lyrics were enough to raise eyebrows in 1984. Madonna's performance at the 1984 MTV Video Music awards is considered by many to be her true "arrival". Wearing the white wedding dress from her music video (Boy-Toy belt buckle and all), Madonna rolled around onstage and simulated masturbation with the veil, making it one of the most famous performances of her career.

In 1990, Madonna again attracted attention for performing the song. Dressed in a gold bustier with the iconic cone-bra, Madonna again simulated masturbation, this time on a crimson bed, while singing a Middle Eastern-influenced version of the song. The performance was so risque that police in Toronto, Canada, threatened to arrest her and charge her with indecency. Madonna, of course, was unyielding, stating that she would much rather cancel the show than change it. The show went on unaltered, and the police backed off.

Tributes and cover versions

The song was the subject of a famous exegesis in the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino's film, Reservoir Dogs. It was also the subject of a parody by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Like A Surgeon", and was performed by Jim Broadbent in the film Moulin Rouge! (2001) as a comic piece sung in the third person singular ("She made it through the wilderness...").

Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera paid a tribute to Madonna's performance at the MTV Video Awards show nineteen years later at the same awards show, finishing the performance with a kiss. The kiss generated months of discussion in celebrity magazines.

References

In the movie Reservoir Dogs, the song comes up in a conversation amongst a group of gangsters, when one raises the theory that the song is actually about an oversexed woman who meets a man who is so well-endowed that the woman experiences pain during intercourse with him - reminding her of the pain accompanying the loss of her virginity.

Chart Performance

"Like a Virgin" became Madonna's first of many number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100; this one stayed at the top spot for six weeks and eventually earned itself gold certification. The single also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play, and was her first top-ten hit on the R&B chart.

Internationally, the story was similar, the song was in the top five in the United Kingdom (behind million sellers Band Aid and Wham!) and reached the top spot in numerous countries. It was her first number one single in Australia and Canada.

Charts

Chart (1984)	Peak position
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	9
U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
Chart (1985)	Peak position
U.S. Adult Contemporary	29
UK Singles Chart	3
Canadian Singles Chart	1
Australian Singles Chart	1
Japan Singles Chart	1
German Singles Chart	4
French Singles Chart	8

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