Madonna's least favourite single of her career

[GhostOrchid 702]

It's widely known that Madonna openly dislikes some of her singles because she was "forced" to release them and they don't reflect her personality. These were pushed by the label either to soften her public image or to get her overall sales going, and most of them are from around or post-Erotica era.

Which of these singles do you think she hates the most?

[Guest Nobody Knows Me]

Probably This Used to Be My Playground.

She’s expressed her liking of Take a Bow and she’s at least performed You’ll See and The Power of Good-Bye. She seemed pretty into the Orbit remix of I’ll Remember around the Ray of Light era as well.

[Pretender1978 996]

Does she hate any of these? Playground, remember and you'll see were all written especially for their projects, also I'm quite sure she likes Rain at least she did at the time. She has expressed her dislike of Cherish though

[Winn 2,201]

The only song i heard she didnt like was Sorry. Didnt she say it was cheesy or something?? Nearly broke my heart.

[VogueMusic 678]

The song I'm thinking of ain't even on the list.

[Guest Nobody Knows Me]

13 minutes ago, Winn said:

The only song i heard she didnt like was Sorry. Didnt she say it was cheesy or something?? Nearly broke my heart.

She mentioned that she didn’t like that and Cherish in a Rolling Stone interview in 2009 or 2010 I think.

[CYSMM 673]

Fom the list I'll Remember

[Blue Prince 995]

I refuse to believe there was no actual emotion behind This Used To Be My Playground. It's a heartbreaking song and sure makes my top five by her. I'll remember on the other hand sounds like a song no one ever would remember recording. I still believe though that there are singles she dislikes way more, like Into The Groove, Like A Virgin, Sorry etc.

[Husam Elzien 656]

12 minutes ago, Blue Prince said:

 I still believe though that there are singles she dislikes way more, like Into The Groove, Like A Virgin, Sorry etc.

She has been outspoken about her dislikes of Like a Virgin and Material Girl. I would assume Who's That Girl and Causing a Commotion are also on that list too since the former wasn't performed for 28 years and then was dropped from the RH setlist midway through and the latter hasn't been touched since Blond Ambition. Angel and Cherish will probably never be mentioned or sung by her ever again since she probably views them as extremely inferior to her later discography. I wonder if she likes Keep It Together or not? 

[captainjay 1,598]

 “I’ve never been a good judge of what things are going to be huge or not. The songs that I think are the most retarded songs I’ve written, like ‘Cherish’ and ‘Sorry,’ a pretty big hit off my last album, end up being the biggest hits. ‘Into the Groove’ is another song I feel retarded singing, but everybody seems to like it.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2009/10/hey_madonna_its_time_for_you_t.html

 

[Blue Prince 995]

4 minutes ago, Husam Elzien said:

She has been outspoken about her dislikes of Like a Virgin and Material Girl. I would assume Who's That Girl and Causing a Commotion are also on that list too since the former wasn't performed for 28 years and then was dropped from the RH setlist midway through and the latter hasn't been touched since Blond Ambition. Angel and Cherish will probably never be mentioned or sung by her ever again since she probably views them as extremely inferior to her later discography. I wonder if she likes Keep It Together or not? 

I wouldn't say she dislikes every song she doesn't perform. She described Rescue Me as a dope song on Billboard in 2019 and it's not a performed track. I think it can be vocal issues and also the fact that she's not much in touch with what the fans really want from her. She did perform the cheesy True Blue song on Rebel Heart Tour and I don't see why it's so much superior to Cherish or Who's That Girl. Only a tour like Tears of a Clown could show us which forgotten gems she actually cares about.

[GhostOrchid 702]

I think she's just goofing arround when she says she doesn't like Into the Groove or Cherish, or she even may really think they are silly, but at least she wanted them released. But I feel the ones from the poll were made/released because somebody told her to make/release a certain type of song for a particular reason. That's why I think she doesn't feel them. Or she may like them but didn't want them as singles.

For example The Power of Good-bye was never meant to be released as a single. Drowned World was originally planned as the third worldwide single including the US, but due to the pressure from the public and radio, Warner decided to release it before Drowned World (in the US), which was then dropped altogether.

The same with Rain, which was only brought in as a damage control for Erotica, when Danel Abraham was brought in to remix Fever and Rain in a more radio-friendly manner, as an intervention for radio/TV which at that point were not too keen on airing anything Madonna. From what I understood, Rain jumped in instead of the planned Bye Bye Baby whose hip-hop remixes had already been made and would have served as the fourth single off Erotica, but was eventually scrapped for a worldwide release.

[RUADJAI 14,942]

10 minutes ago, GhostOrchid said:

The same with Rain, which was only brought in as a damage control for Erotica, when Danel Abraham was brought in to remix Fever and Rain in a more radio-friendly manner, as an intervention for radio/TV which at that point were not too keen on airing anything Madonna. From what I understood, Rain jumped in instead of the planned Bye Bye Baby whose hip-hop remixes had already been made and would have served as the fourth single off Erotica, but was eventually scrapped for a worldwide release.

Always wondered about that. Why we got Bye Bye Baby Remixes, but no video. 

[stevemic 266]

I remember reading an interview with her in a magazine during the Confessions era - around 2006 (maybe Rolling Stone?) where she was asked that question and stated that she hated Cherish and Sorry.

How can she hate Cherish?? - that's blasphemy!

I expect her favourites and dislikes change over time too.

[RUADJAI 14,942]

and Frankly I don't give a fuck what Madonna thinks. 

[GhostOrchid 702]

39 minutes ago, RUADJAI said:

Always wondered about that. Why we got Bye Bye Baby Remixes, but no video. 

They spent all their emergency cash on Fever/Rain videos. Plus they decided that american public couldn't take another unconventional/adult song from Madonna. Erotica cost them a lot of money.

The same story for all other remixed songs that never got the proper single release. Impressive Instant was meant to be a part of the fourth Music single- the double-A Amazing/Impressive instant where the first one was meant to be serviced to radio and TV and the second one to the clubs (much like the Bad Girl/Fever single) but then when Madonna rejected Amazing we were left with only Impressive Instant remixes.

Same with Nobody Knows Me. It was supposed to be Nothing Fails to radio/TV and Nobody Knows Me to clubs, during that summer/early autumn, but then she decided to participate in Me Against the Music while NNM was already in the clubs but she pushed NF for later that autumn.

[realityisalways 4,011]

1 hour ago, GhostOrchid said:

They spent all their emergency cash on Fever/Rain videos. Plus they decided that american public couldn't take another unconventional/adult song from Madonna. Erotica cost them a lot of money.

The same story for all other remixed songs that never got the proper single release. Impressive Instant was meant to be a part of the fourth Music single- the double-A Amazing/Impressive instant where the first one was meant to be serviced to radio and TV and the second one to the clubs (much like the Bad Girl/Fever single) but then when Madonna rejected Amazing we were left with only Impressive Instant remixes.

Same with Nobody Knows Me. It was supposed to be Nothing Fails to radio/TV and Nobody Knows Me to clubs, all during that summer, but then Me Against the Music jumped in while NNM was already in the clubs but she pushed NF for autumn.

Nothing Fails with a good video would have been a hit.

Amazing was a radio friendly song but a bit similar to Beautiful Stranger.

Beautiful Killer was also very radio friendly and would have made an amazing single, and it also had a lot of potential for a memorable video.

Beat Goes On would have been a better single than Give it To Me.

Skin could have had a video that was kind of like the second part to Bedtime Story.

[bedtimestory 758]

batuka is her worst single.

[realityisalways 4,011]

1 hour ago, bedtimestory said:

batuka is her worst single.

Favela (Faz Gostoso) would have been a better single.

[MADAME SEX 412]

I think Love profusion is weak, she wanted the video for Nothing fails, wich is a remarkable song. Love profusion leaks of M vision. I can feel that. I hope I'm not the only one who noticed something off with that song.

[MADAME SEX 412]

I don't believe that she doesn't like Rain , the video was beautiful and detailed, ( i heard it was shot in a particular way and then hand-colourized by some artist idk if its true) , this means high budget and planning. She was passionate, the song is beautiful and reveals the romantic side of erotica. She never performed Rain after the Girlie (exept the "thing" from S&S interlude) but I can tell it was her choice, not warner's or mavericks .

[RUADJAI 14,942]

3 minutes ago, MADAME SEX said:

I think Love profusion is weak, she wanted the video for Nothing fails, wich is a remarkable song. Love profusion leaks of M vision. I can feel that. I hope I'm not the only one who noticed something off with that song.

I love that song... and the video fully captured the dark ominous verses juxtaposed with the light airy chorus essence of the song. 
 

 

[MADAME SEX 412]

7 minutes ago, RUADJAI said:

I love that song... and the video fully captured the dark ominous verses juxtaposed with the light airy chorus essence of the song. 
 

 

I'm glad you like it as single, and I respect your beautiful pov.  I was not attacking the song, wich is enjoyable to me, she did worse lmao. But the video is really tragic, the concept was too complex for 2003 technology or the whole thing was done in a rush, (compared to AL or Hollywood).

[realityisalways 4,011]

30 minutes ago, MADAME SEX said:

I think Love profusion is weak, she wanted the video for Nothing fails, wich is a remarkable song. Love profusion leaks of M vision. I can feel that. I hope I'm not the only one who noticed something off with that song.

Yes the video is one of her most uninspired, just her walking in front of a green screen. I was also confused when that was released as a single. 

[GhostOrchid 702]

Just now, realityisalways said:

Yes the video is one of her most uninspired, just her walking in front of a green screen. I was also confused when that was released as a single. 

The video was done as part of promotion for an Estee Lauder perfume, I dont think there was any additional money spent on it because they used the actual set for the commercial also directed by Luc Besson. Or maybe she agreed to let them use the song in exchange for the video.