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Madonna & B Sides


louis.exe
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Something I never understood with her is that she doesn't have a lot of b sides I mean most of them are just album tracks. I feel like a lot of the unreleased tracks that have been leaked over the years would of made perfect b sides like Angels With Dirty Faces, Shame, Revenge, Liquid Love.

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I always got the impression that if she didn’t feel it was good enough to be on her album, it wasn’t really good enough to be released. She worked on songs for a specific album or individual songs for soundtracks so they all had a purpose. She wasn’t prolific like Prince who had so many songs lying around he could put a B side in all of his 80s singles, many as good as if not better than the A side. I think with M a few outtakes slipped through to pad out singles or for charity albums. I remember her saying “Liquid Love” gave her “the wrong tingles” even though I think it’s a great song, so she must just go by her gut instinct on what to put out.

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Sire Records, Warner or Madonna herself preferred to do other things with the outtakes instead of putting them as mere B-sides of singles.

We have 9 real B-sides:

1985 - Madonna - Ain't No Big Deal
1989 - Madonna - Supernatural
1993 - Madonna - Up Down Suite
1994 - Madonna - Let Down Your Guard
1998 - Madonna - Has to Be
2000 - Madonna - Cyber-Raga
2006 - Madonna - History

Then, we have 7 exclusive bonus tracks from special/limited editions:

1987 - Madonna - Spotlight
2005 - Madonna - Fighting Spirit
2005 - Madonna - Super Pop
2008 - Madonna - Ring My Bell
2009 - Madonna - It's So Cool
2012 - Madonna - Broken
2015 - Madonna - Auto-Tune Baby

Then, we have 4 collaborations by Madonna herself:

1987 - Madonna - Santa Baby
1994 - Madonna - Goodbye to Innocence
1997 - Madonna - Freedom
2007 - Madonna - Hey You

And finally, there are 8 outtakes written by Madonna given to other artists:

1987 - Nick Kamen - Each Time You Break My Heart
1988 - Marilyn Martin - Possessive Love
1991 - Nick Scotti - Get Over
1993 - Donna DeLory - Just a Dream
1997 - Gary Barlow - Love Won't Wait
2004 - Laura Pausini - Me abandono a ti
2006 - Tilt - Come Closer
2007 - Kylie Minogue - Alone Again

If they didn't use any of the unreleased songs that we know today, it is because they were leaked before they could rethink producing them again or because they didn't think that the tracks had enough quality to be even a B-side.

As examples, we have Your Honesty, a 1993/94 never-known outtake released in 2004 (Remixed & Revisited), and Back Up That to the Beat, a 2014 leaked track released with a new production in 2019.

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8 minutes ago, rlittler81 said:

I always got the impression that if she didn’t feel it was good enough to be on her album, it wasn’t really good enough to be released. She worked on songs for a specific album or individual songs for soundtracks so they all had a purpose. She wasn’t prolific like Prince who had so many songs lying around he could put a B side in all of his 80s singles, many as good as if not better than the A side. I think with M a few outtakes slipped through to pad out singles or for charity albums. I remember her saying “Liquid Love” gave her “the wrong tingles” even though I think it’s a great song, so she must just go by her gut instinct on what to put out.

Agreed. I think there is a severe quality dip between her released album tracks and outtakes. I don’t know whether it’s because she stops working on them when she decides they aren’t fit for the album. But even “extra” songs on albums have a quality dip: All the extra tracks on Rebel Heart super deluxe even sound different. The mastering or something makes her voice sound completely different than on the main record. I don’t think any of the b sides or extra songs hold a light to any of the actual album songs she puts out

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21 hours ago, Bermu said:

Sire Records, Warner or Madonna herself preferred to do other things with the outtakes instead of putting them as mere B-sides of singles.

We have 10 real B-sides:

1985 - Madonna - Ain't No Big Deal
1989 - Madonna - Supernatural
1993 - Madonna - Up Down Suite
1994 - Madonna - Goodbye to Innocence
1994 - Madonna - Let Down Your Guard
1998 - Madonna - Has to Be
2000 - Madonna - Cyber-Raga
2006 - Madonna - History

Then, we have 7 exclusive bonus tracks from special/limited editions:

1987 - Madonna - Spotlight
2005 - Madonna - Fighting Spirit
2005 - Madonna - Super Pop
2008 - Madonna - Ring My Bell
2009 - Madonna - It's So Cool
2012 - Madonna - Broken
2015 - Madonna - Auto-Tune Baby

Then, we have 3 collaborations by Madonna herself:

1987 - Madonna - Santa Baby
1997 - Madonna - Freedom
2007 - Madonna - Hey You

And finally, there are 8 outtakes written by Madonna given to other artists:

1987 - Nick Kamen - Each Time You Break My Heart
1988 - Marilyn Martin - Possessive Love
1991 - Nick Scotti - Get Over
1993 - Donna DeLory - Just a Dream
1997 - Gary Barlow - Love Won't Wait
2004 - Laura Pausini - Me abandono a ti
2006 - Tilt - Come Closer
2007 - Kylie Minogue - Alone Again

If they didn't use any of the unreleased songs that we know today, it is because they were leaked before they could rethink producing them again or because they didn't think that the tracks had enough quality to be even a B-side.

As examples, we have Your Honesty, a 1993/94 never-known outtake released in 2004 (Remixed & Revisited), and Back Up That to the Beat, a 2014 leaked track released with a new production in 2019.

This is new for me:

2006 - Tilt - Come Closer

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12 hours ago, Let'sGetUnconsciousHoney said:

So many unreleased songs from Rebel Heart would have been great Bsides. Putting Tragic Girl on Living for love, Nothing lasts forever on Ghosttown and Two steps behind me in Bitch I'm Madonna would have encouraged the fans to buy the single EPs

I don’t think b-sides are very common now that singles don’t get physical releases. Artists tend to put bonus tracks on their albums instead.

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I’m hesitant to say if I would like a Bsides/unreleased album because none of the leaked songs from her career have really impressed me so far. Aside from some Hard Candy outtakes most of the unreleased songs are far inferior to the ones that made an album. I would like to hear some unreleased Madame X songs but Funana and Back That Up To The Beat already show a steep decline in quality compared to actual albums tracks so I am hesitant 

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