Like a Virgin (song)
"
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.
"Like a Virgin" 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,
Girlie Show, and
Confessions tours. 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.
"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.
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.
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.
Japanese pop singer,
Hitomi, performed a shortened cover of it during her LOVE LIFE tour in Japan, recorded on the tour dvd.
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.
"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 |
