steady75

I suppose it’s just a bit of a shame that the most artistic period in her career was represented so half heartedly. The 90’s (beginning and end, let’s forget the ballad hell middle) were her most creative decade with her brightest results.

Just give me chronological tracklist and two new tracks. that’s all. Even four from each studio album plus Beautiful Stranger Would have felt more balanced for 17 tracks. Erotica Deeper & Deeper Fever Bad Girl Secret Take A Bow Bedtime Story Human Nature Frozen Ray Of Light The Power Of Goodbye Nothing Really Matters Beautiful Stranger American Pie Music Don’t Tell Me What It Feels Like For A Girl

I think the proximity of GHV2 to Something To Remember would have been her main issue. She was probably somewhat forced to do Something To Remember after the success of Take A Bow and thought she could bear it as long as the ballads framed her well enough for her getting Evita. "You want me to do a ballad greatest hits to soften my image and warm my self to Joe Public again because things have soured? Ok if I must" five years later she's on top of the world again, After grafting her bollox off for Evita , then having a child and hustling her ass non stop on Ray Of Light, Music, The Next Best Thing and the Austin Powers theme song she really didn't see the point. She was back on top criticaly, commercially, a mother in a happy and fruitful relationship, with a full reinvention of both image, lifestyle and public perception and Warner want to pull the Greatest Hits lever again after she'd just worked her ass off for five years to stop her being resigned from a legacy artist? I can imagine she wanted to tell them to fuck right off. So she tweaked the track list for maximum profit and said that's all the effort I'm willing to make. I have absolutely no doubt that at that time Warner would have actually asked for a full retrospective Greatest Hits and Madonna probably told them to suck her punani. BTW A full career double disc retrospective in 2001 is actually a cute thread concept.

Madonna singles used to have great hooks, melodies and earworms that hung around and repeated in your head. These tools have become way more simplistic and somewhat gimmicky in her work in the last 15 years. 1-2 Cha Cha Cha L.U.V. Madonna Hey yay yaay hey yayay yaay Oooh Oooh Ooh... your gonna love this Get Stupid, Get Stupid, Get Stupid, Don't Stop Me I'd personally like a move away from that and a return to strong melodic hooks.

IMO the last thing Madonna needs to do is record an album with the Weeknd. Most of his music is notoriously mediocre. He simply doesn't have the range. I am not her for Midonna. The success of Popular is frightening to me. Keep that mid away from Madge.

There is no way in hell someone, anyone would have purposely removed three clicks form the beginning of Dress You Up. No body listened to the whole compilation before going to press and thought . "you know what this needs? The first three beats chopped from Dress You Up. Nothing else,,,just that. I think it would really set it off" I think it's clearly a fuck up and probably time stamp edit issue as it's the first track on the CD. Abysmal.

This Used To Be My Playground CD single would be great if it included the Barcelona Gold edit

I suppose we really also have to remember she was still in a commercial peak..possibly just starting to wane and she was the oldest active big pop girl alive. She'd already been tick taking and talking about not stopping and running out of time. Sometimes a Greatest Hits feels like a Gold watch to performers. Thanks you very much and out to pasture. It's certainly true that that is exactly what happened to some degree so maybe she didn't want to put too much focus on it, instead focusing on huge new Touring deal because that's where it seemed the money was going. Artists are fragile and sensitive and a woman going through a lot of endings (marriage / commercial peak / menopause / 25 year record deal where she felt she had less sway than she ever had before), probably felt she was moving into a new phase of life. A humanitarian and a film maker. She certainly was at a cross roads for sure.

Girl were you talking about number Billboard 200 #1 albums because... Take A Bow was number 1 in the 90's. This Used To Be My Non Song was number 1 in the 90's Vogue was number 1 in the 90's Justify My Love was number 1 in the 90's and Music was number 1 at the turn of the decade and included on GHV2 So it had two US number one records on GHV2 I'll Remember & Frozen number 2 Secret & Erotica number 3 Ray Of Light number 5 Along with five other top 10's She did just fine considering the god awful SEX backlash If she was really pushing the HITS narrative the track listing would have looked like This Used To Be My Non Song Erotica Deeper & Deeper Rain I'll Remember Secret Take A Bow You'll See You Must Love Me Dont Cry For Me Argentina Frozen Ray Of Light The Power Of Goodbye Music Dont Tell Me Beautiful Stranger but you can see how it starts to look very Something To Remember + and like a ballad salad. Rain / Playground / You'll See excluded because of STR Nothing Really Matters exclusion was to avoid there being five singles from it's parent album and to stop it being Ray Of Light heavy though Drowned World not being an international single was a curious choice instead. Don't Cry For Me chosen over American Pie & Fever to avoid paying royalties on three tracks that were covers. All the Music singles and Bedtime singles were included. So what else was there to put on? Flop Girl her biggest commercial failure to the point? It's probably as good as it could have been in truth So yeah I do think GHV2 was a good compilation with a commercially smart tracklist but it absolutely suffered in fans eyes at a measly 15 tracks. 17 Would probably have appeased some fans to match Immaculate collection but 15 tracks plus no new songs. Mama really? The truth is America was largely only here for most of her downtempos in the 90's if were to believe the charts and by that time as Fever / Bedtime Story / Human Nature / Nothing Really Matters were all flops though Madonna was ready to never release another ballad for the next decade or so.

Indeed but my points remain. I'd also argue that coming off the back of two hugely successful albums and two of her biggest singles ever Hung Up & 4 Minutes along with her Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and the highest grossing tour of all time was pretty great promotion in and off itself.

If truth be told there was actually more input from Madonna around Celebration than the IC. Four songs recorded for Celebration were released in some format and both singles were performed on MDNA and the former showcased on S&S2. Madonna ducked out after Justify on IC and Warner UK resorted to reissuing Holiday, Holiday Collection and Crazy For You to generate promotion. The Immaculate artwork was made from reused photos from the Blond Ambition tour book. At least Celebration had a specialist commissioned artwork by a famous artist. That’s just the tea. Are there even any interviews anywhere if Madonna promoting or speaking about The Immaculate Collection? I genuinely can’t think of any. Any hits album released at your controversial and commercial peak with a headline grabbing video like Justify is gonna be more essential and in the moment. The facts remain that Celebration Is the Immaculate minus Rescue plus 19 more hits. Released nearly 20 years later. Who ever thought that would be possible in 1990 let alone 92-3. Celebration is a hell of a flex and in truth contains four of the songs many wished has been included on IC. Everybody, Burning Up, Dress You Up, Who’s That Girl. Honestly I’d it had included shorter edits ( no one needs six plus minutes of Holiday). True Blue, Deeper & Deeper, The Power Of Goodbye and Give It 2 Me instead of Miles Away it would pretty much be perfect and hugely comprehensive.

Yea possibly. Music revenue was shocking and the tour and merch era were about to begin. She doesn't really do legacy stuff but I do believe she would have wanted to wrap up her longest and only record deal with at least some consideration. Hence the four new tracks recorded and specially commissioned artwork. This wasn't a GHV2 situation.

I mean I love me some Who's That Girl but Julie from Costco is not staning. She's a Borderline kind of girl as much as I don't care for it much myself. I also really think 4 Minutes has not been canonised the way some of her other singles have but no doubt it was a smasher at the time and her last genuine big hitter ...but It's dominance today really is mostly down to Justin and to some degree Timbalands streaming power. It's the only song on the list with triple artists which disproportionally inflates its streams. Julie would much prefer Sorry or Dress You Up or even Don't Tell Me. I often think if she listed Take A Bow as a duet with Babyface its streams would go through the roof. The tags matter.

In terms of what the general public would expect: In terms of a banging collection that would keep you bopping along (maybe except Frozen)

I know I compiled a double disc of her biggest streaming singles but the truth is streaming is a self fulfilling prophecy. Celebration is the go to album for the general public. Outside of that it’s This Is Madonna. There are no songs from Erotica on This Is Madonna apart from Rain. Which is no doubt why it’s her most streamed track from the album. Erotica the lead single doesn’t even appear on the list. People also don’t listen to entire playlists or albums so streams always fall to the front loaded tracks. This also probably accounts for Jumps great streams. True Blue and Confessions are the only albums where all the singles are featured. (Plus the only non single on the playlist Forbidden Love) Artists literally have the ability to rewrite the history of their own singles in many ways and this can be done by streaming playlists. Do Deeper and Deeper suffers from not being on either This Is Madonna or Celebration when it’s 100% one of her best tracks and a clear fan favourite.

You are of course correct. Immaculate is perfection but you can't really compare 26 tracks with 17 so Celebration really does win hands down. It is actually Immaculate collection (minus Rescue Me) plus another 19 tracks so it's hard to argue otherwise. What local would pick up a modern day Madonna hits collection and not expect to hear Frozen Ray Of Light Music Hung Up maybe even Take A Bow stateside.

Correct answer: She is yet to release a definitive package and there isn't even a single disc for the casuals to even cover the titan signature songs in her catalogue. I think streaming has been around long enough now to give us a good metric of which songs from her catalogue have stood the test of time Single Disc - Streaming dominance Holiday Like A Virgin Material Girl Crazy For You Into The Groove Live To Tell Papa Don't Preach La Isla Bonita Like A Prayer Vogue Take A Bow Frozen American Pie Music Hung Up Sorry 4 Minutes Bitch Im Madonna Popular Double Disc - Streaming dominance Holiday Borderline Like A Virgin Material Girl Crazy For You Into The Groove Live To Tell Papa Don't Preach True Blue La Isla Bonita Who's That Girl Like A Prayer Express Yourself Vogue Justify My Love Take A Bow Don't Cry For Me Argentina Frozen Ray Of Light The Power Of Goodbye American Pie Music Die Another Day Hung Up Sorry Jump 4 Minutes Give It 2 Me Celebration Give Me All Your Luvin Girl Gone Wild Living For Love Ghosttown Bitch Im Madonna Medellin Popular In the streaming age songs that fail to make the cut (in order) open Your Heart Don't Tell Me Justify My Love Get Together Beautiful Stranger Hollywood Rain Secret Dress You Up I'll Remember Cherish You'll See Miles Away Burning Up This Used To Be My Playground Deeper & Deeper Drowned World What It Feels Like For A Girl Angel Lucky Star Revolver Human Nature Erotica I'd truly love it if there was a site that combined like for like unit sales / digital sales and stream equivalent so we could get a real picture but in the streaming age these are her biggest hits. Of course we have to adjust for streaming being the primary platform for anything released 2012 onwards really.

I think they're on to something. She's obviously realised her artistic vision now in arenas in her two major markets. I think we'll see an updated even more hits heavy version of the show that will be scaled way back on a technical basis but will enable her to do some major festivals around the globe. That way she's just paying for dancers and crews to be moved around and the festival promoter takes the bulk of the production hit. Much of Celebration would not translate well to Glastonbury. The 80's opening section would be perfect and the Vogue / Don't Tell Me / Bitch part would too. The Like A Prayer Erotica section would need to be vastly reworked and Bedtime Story / Ray Of Light completely reconfigured / rethought. add in Music, Material Girl, Express Yourself, Frozen and Papa Don't Preach / Crazy For You & Like A Virgin proper and you've got a killer GP show. Mother & Father / Bad Girl / Bedtime Story may need standing down for a GO festival tour. She could possibly squeeze another 80's classic in the nightclub scene. Think Sticky & Sweet 2. A few changes to setlist and some refigured numbers could really seal the deal for her in terms of the GP and build a strong base for her Biopic and the Expended Albums schedule. But yeah I can't see them launching a Like A virgin 40 with zero songs from the album performed on the setlist.

The song is dog shit Jackson and Richie at their most insipid. Cindy was only interested because she'd heard the British Feed The World and thought it was a killer song with real emotional content. When she heard We Are The World she thought it was naff. It's also a case of misogyny really. There were lots of raspy male voices but with Cindy and Madonna it was one of the other. Madonna had a great rock voice too not just pop. But Im glad she missed it tbh.

The Met gala look is 100% one of her finest looks ever. How I wish it had served as a look for a video or single artwork. top tier.

Weird that they've bothered with Vinyl only remixes for this. Is this the first time in ages since? Were Like A Prayer the last ones? We didn't get Peggys Fever Mixes in the end.

Pop / dance / house. I wouldn’t mind a bit of sythnwave or electro 80’s from her. What I don’t want is Garage / drum and bass / trance resurgence. I think she’s missed the boat on alt rnb tho I’d have loved a Bedtime Stories 2. Or rock. I’m still waiting for her punk rock record.

Oh my god the Mariah remix is so chaotic she sounds like a boiling kettle. Absolutely awful and I adore both artists. Im howling at just how bad it is.

They both did really well because they were soundtrack songs that were never gonna be on a Madonna album so fans who only really bought her albums were gonna have to buy it to own it. See also Into The Groove / Beautiful Stranger / American Pie / Die Another Day. She really benefited from soundtrack songs in the first half of her career and they always did well because stand alone etc.

I thought This Used To Be My Playground was about her looking back at New York once she moved to LA with Sean. Guess I was wrong huh.