Story behind "Open Your Heart"

[madaboutM 474]

Peter Rafelson recounts how his demo made it into the True Blue album, starts around minute 30

http://aca.st/b6bac2

 

[Enrico 15,788]

Thank you, thar was very interesting and new!

He doesn't speak about the second demo, sung by Donna DeLory, who was Cole's girlfriend at the time:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155938873990758&id=6795125757&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&_rdr

Donna: Yeah, I did this demo. A boyfriend of mine at the time Garner Cole wrote this song, he gave it to her with his voice on it, and she said ‘No’ and then he went to me and said, ‘Will you sing it?’ so I sang it, did my thing, and then she took the song, made it a huge hit – which was good for him because it made him a millionaire. And then….in return for that I got an introduction to her producer Pat Leonard and got to meet her and tour with her.

[Synchrone 535]

That was so fascinating! That's one of my favorite Madonna songs so love to hear the backstory 

[madaboutM 474]

9 hours ago, Enrico said:

Thank you, thar was very interesting and new!

He doesn't speak about the second demo, sung by Donna DeLory, who was Cole's girlfriend at the time:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155938873990758&id=6795125757&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&_rdr

Donna: Yeah, I did this demo. A boyfriend of mine at the time Garner Cole wrote this song, he gave it to her with his voice on it, and she said ‘No’ and then he went to me and said, ‘Will you sing it?’ so I sang it, did my thing, and then she took the song, made it a huge hit – which was good for him because it made him a millionaire. And then….in return for that I got an introduction to her producer Pat Leonard and got to meet her and tour with her.

 

Apparently, Cole's and Rafelson's versions of how the song came to fruition differ from each other, but I guess that happens in the world of songwriting credits  ?

[wtg1987 10,151]

9 hours ago, Synchrone said:

That was so fascinating! That's one of my favorite Madonna songs so love to hear the backstory 

Mine too and her best video from the 80s too - that or Oh Father ?

[cake 320]

Open Your Heart is simply anthemic. And the music video caused quite a bit controversy.

Interesting story. Wonder who that writer/producer Sean almost killed was..

[Redha DBL 7,263]

6 hours ago, cake said:

Open Your Heart is simply anthemic. And the music video caused quite a bit controversy.

 

Who would have thought that 33 years later Madonna's new video would still cause controversy !

[MarXus 92]

Thank you.  It's these type of things I enjoy about Madonna forums.  You find these threads that give you a back story on songs and videos that you may have know about.  Very fascinating read.