Single Reissues Campaign - This Used to Be My Playground - OUT NOW

[Prayer 15,093]

9 minutes ago, Anapausis said:

Do you believe this could happen at all?

Of course.

She's gonna want to vindicate her personal landmark albums and "Erotica" is clearly one of them to her.

[Anapausis 6,139]

11 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Of course.

She's gonna want to vindicate her personal landmark albums and "Erotica" is clearly one of them to her.

Poor @MaDöner Kebab though... I only hope she makes it up to Shame (it'd be a way to her making it up to Shep too right?) and get able to offer the very early demo off GTI could, because, if she "hated" that by then according to Shep's diaries, for sure things would be very different rn.

[Donna 17,970]

6 hours ago, Prayer said:

This is not true. Reggie Lucas completed his project. He was the only experienced produced there, not her, not Jellybean. She was the one feeling her voice hadn't been heard (fair point) and that's why she brought some songs to Jellybean. But he simply remixed and tweaked some parts, he only produced "Holiday" - an easy job considering the original writers have a band a they simply performed it entirely, Jellybean just directed the whole thing. Then he went around claiming credit for the success of that album, while it was Lucas the one who had made the work mainly.

Jellybean was a DJ, not a producer. He won the narrative and convinced everyone he was the man, but it wasn't the case.

Reggie Lucas was always super professional and never really entered any public war, but he talked about it with Rolling Stone and The Atlantic in 2013 within their pieces about the 30th anniversary of the debut album:

Rolling Stone:

https://archive.is/20240502005311/https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/how-madonna-became-madonna-an-oral-history-94288/

When Warner Brothers called me about working with Madonna, I was the big score. It seems ridiculous in retrospect, but I was an established professional and she was a nobody. I met with her at a tiny little apartment she had in the Lower East Side. I thought she was vivacious and sexy and interesting, and had a lot of energy.

“Borderline” has a stylistic similarity to “Never Knew Love Like This Before” [the 1980 Grammy-winning Stephanie Mills song that Lucas co-wrote and co-produced], particularly in the front, with Dean Gant’s electric piano introduction.

This was the first record I ever used a drum machine instead of a drummer. And the bass on “Borderline” is an ARP 2600 synthesizer, but the great Anthony Jackson – who did that intro on the O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money” – is playing along on an electric bass guitar, and they’re playing so tight you can’t tell the difference.

The Atlantic:

https://archive.is/20240206021619/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/the-vicious-competition-for-credit-over-launching-madonnas-career/277974/

“Just for the record, one tires in a lifetime of hearing someone taking credit for something that you’ve done.”

Many people think other famous producers launched Madonna’s career. What are your feelings about that?

I’ve refrained over the years in addressing aspects of Madonna’s career because I’m not a person who likes negative discussions. But what I will say is that in Madonna’s ascent to fame and fortune, there’s been a pretty vicious competition for credit in being involved. In other words, someone will say, “I launched Madonna.” If I talk to a lot of people today, I will say I was Madonna’s first producer. I produced six of the eight tracks on her first record. I would say nine times out of 10, their response will be, “Oh yeah, I thought Jellybean did that.” But Jellybean didn't do that. Jellybean was a remixer, and we didn’t have time to remix records. It wasn’t something that I was interested in doing. Somewhere in this process of publicists and personal relationships, somehow he came out as the guy.

I was a traditionalist and probably a little naive at the time, but I started out working for Billy Paul. Billy and his wife Blanche were like parents to me. They took me under their wing. I was a little kid. They took me on the road. They looked after me. They supported me. I joined Miles Davis’s band. Miles introduced me to the world of big-time jazz success. I played at the greatest halls in the world and stayed at the finest hotels. Miles was like a surrogate father to the guys in the band. You got credit for the work you did. You were a member of Miles’s band. When I worked for Roberta Flack, Stephanie Mills, and Phyllis Hyman, we made the records and people would say, “Oh, you produced that record.” You produced one good record for Stephanie Mills and take her from selling no records to selling gold records; they would call you back and treat you better.

So this Madonna record was my first and worst introduction to the notion that you wouldn’t have a linear continuation with someone who you’ve had success with. It totally blindsided me. I understand it a little bit better now, but not really. Just for the record, one tires in a lifetime of hearing someone taking credit for something that you've done. Jellybean produced “Holiday” and he remixed a couple of tracks, but remixing tracks for radio isn’t the same thing as producing one of the major breakout pop stars of the 1980s. Now there’s Wikipedia and you'll always find these distortions in Wikipedia. My kids find this stuff and they fix it for me. [laughs] I don’t think there’s really ever been someone to clear this up. Madonna certainly hasn't helped at all. I think if it were left up to Madonna, she wouldn't talk about anybody.

The bottom line is that, I think, the kind way that Madonna has always tried to refer to me is that I was just an R&B producer. There are two things that I dislike about that. First thing is, that it treats being an R&B producer as pejorative, as if it were something less than being a pop or rock producer. Second thing is, that I didn’t make an R&B record for her. I made a crossover pop record of the highest order. So the notion that she similarly dismissed me because I was just an R&B producer is offensive on multiple levels to me.

It’s hurtful because I didn’t understand it. I did the same thing I always did. I came in and worked my ass off to support the artist and cast them in a good light. Everybody but her reciprocated by saying they liked the record, and let's make another one. Between her and Jellybean, they try to pretend the records I did weren’t any good. It’s almost like I was fired or something. I wasn't fired. I finished the record, I put it out, and they took it and put it out and sold a bunch of records. And everybody else ran around trying to take credit for it because it was so big that they couldn’t help themselves.

----

Sorry for the long texts but I think it's about time that Madonna fans acknowledge Reggie Lucas over Jellybean.

I love reading things like this.  We definitely get a different perspective.  This is why I would for Madonna to share HER side of things.  What exactly did she not like about Reggie and his work when we know he did work his ass off.  Still, she felt something more was needed.  At the end of the day, it was HER album, so she has every right to change things if she could.

[Erotico 301]

Wonder about what we will get out of Dress you up next month....

whether the cover will be the 7" or the 12" ...

if they don't add the remix/edit promo the track list will probably be as follow...

1 Lp version

2 The 12" Formal Mix

3 The Casual Instrumental Mix

4 Shoo bee doo (2024 remaster)

[steady75 9,881]

1 hour ago, Erotico said:

Wonder about what we will get out of Dress you up next month....

whether the cover will be the 7" or the 12" ...

if they don't add the remix/edit promo the track list will probably be as follow...

1 Lp version

2 The 12" Formal Mix

3 The Casual Instrumental Mix

4 Shoo bee doo (2024 remaster)

I will riot if this is all we get 

[Erotico 301]

Actually now that I think about it the Angel digital did not get any 2024 remaster... wonder why, I thought they did remaster all Like A virgin and not just Material Girl, unless they just remastered the album tracks and not the edits... go figure....

[MikeyK 772]

18 minutes ago, Erotico said:

Actually now that I think about it the Angel digital did not get any 2024 remaster... wonder why, I thought they did remaster all Like A virgin and not just Material Girl, unless they just remastered the album tracks and not the edits... go figure....

Possibly. Material Girl’s single version is the album version, same w/Pretender, so they could’ve just pulled them from an upcoming album release (though hopefully not considering the quality 🙉).

MG is also one of her most streamed tracks, which could be another reason why it got remastered and Angel, which gets very little engagement, was just old digital files uploaded.

[club78boy 11,077]

I am still dissapointed that they didn't give us the full/movie version of This Used To Be My Playground. It feels like that might have been our last shot?

[Donna 17,970]

46 minutes ago, club78boy said:

I am still dissapointed that they didn't give us the full/movie version of This Used To Be My Playground. It feels like that might have been our last shot?

Yeah, I mentioned that sometime back in this thread.  I thought that would been a real treat for the fans.  However, I try not to have much expectations.  At least, they are uploading what's been commercially available. That's important.  Only a handful a hardcore fans know of that version or care about it. 

[Jitterbug 3,485]

What I really want is that they sort the singles correctly.

For example, moving Love Profusion and Don’t Tell Me from the albums section to the singles section.

[MaDöner Kebab 7,154]

8 hours ago, club78boy said:

I am still dissapointed that they didn't give us the full/movie version of This Used To Be My Playground. It feels like that might have been our last shot?

TUTBMP is strongly associated with the Erotica album, as it was recorded during those sessions. I think IF they indeed plan to release expanded versions of her albums, it will appear there.

I never expected it to appear on this single though. They only go as far as promo mixes occasionally but an actually unreleased version? No chance, unfortunately.

And unlike some people here pretending to be super loyal fans by saying crap like "Oh I think it’s great that some stuff stays exclusive to (rich) fans! Not everything should be available. " I am disappointed in the inconsistency and the overall patchiness of these re-releases.

[steady75 9,881]

Yeah something has changed majorly throughout this campaign. From the first Human Nature upload missing some of the major commercially widely available released mixes, to real effort being made with vinyl only promo mixes being sourced and releasing up to 15 mixes on a single release  to just pressing upload on the basic maxi or CD single and not bothering to register as New Music Friday. They can’t even get the dates and chronology right and whether it’s an album or single. 
With that and the fuckery of the FEL tracklist and I really don’t hold much hope for the EXPANSIVE releases. 
 

It is what it is. I’d rather it was new music tbh and these dropped between albums but her output has slowed to a crawl so I guess it padd it out til the biopic time. 
We are where we are. 

[Alpha 1,505]

21 minutes ago, steady75 said:

Yeah something has changed majorly throughout this campaign. From the first Human Nature upload missing some of the major commercially widely available released mixes, to real effort being made with vinyl only promo mixes being sourced and releasing up to 15 mixes on a single release  to just pressing upload on the basic maxi or CD single and not bothering to register as New Music Friday. They can’t even get the dates and chronology right and whether it’s an album or single. 
With that and the fuckery of the FEL tracklist and I really don’t hold much hope for the EXPANSIVE releases. 
 

It is what it is. I’d rather it was new music tbh and these dropped between albums but her output has slowed to a crawl so I guess it padd it out til the biopic time. 
We are where we are. 

This is just personal conjecture from certain fans have said...the digital anniversary versions of LAP and TB were tests to see if there was enough interest on streaming. They obviously met expectations and released the standard US maxis for the first few releases like Human Nature, Secret, Hanky Panky, and Music. Obviously reception was really good so they gave cute bonus remixes/edits for Justify My Love and Rescue Me. Fans were genuinely getting excited which is when we started getting expanded versions that weren't just standard commercial releases and actual rare promo mixes for Like a Prayer, Bedtime Story, Express Yourself and Beautiful Stranger. We were INFAMOUSLY going to get a major goldmine with both Fever and Love Don't Live Here Anymore with an insane amount of tracks that were promo but in the end they swapped them for i believe LAP & Bedtime. Shortly after is when she got in the studio with Mike Dean to work on what became Finally Enough Love and when we got the press release about reissues. It's my personal conjecture once it was confirmed to do expanded reissues that they decided to go back to standard US versions so they'd have exclusive content saved for these reissues. We keep hearing they're being worked on and that allegedly 3 are ready to go so its only a matter of time that will get something. We're getting impatient because we want them now but they're being smart about it because...people did spend a pretty penny on FEL. Not everyone has expendable income to spend 200 bucks. They obviously knew fans were going to have expenses buying tickets for the tour and probably figured fans were also going to be spending on tour merch and travel. I'm sure they didn't wanna risk a reissue being a slow seller from over saturation especially since expanded reissues are more of a niche thing specifically for fans. Its barely going to be two months in a couple of weeks since Rio so I would imagine maybe August or Sept for an announcement and preorder to also keep fans satisfied while she's filming the biopic.

[Prayer 15,093]

While I acknowledge the flaws here and there along the way, I don't share such a negative view... it's true we've lacked some particular promo mixes sometimes, it's true some releases like "Borderline" have been messy and it's true not releasing them as new to take advantage of Release Radar has reduce the impact on these releases a lot (again, we don't know if that decision was Warner on their own or Spotify and the rest of the platforms requested to not send old releases as new).

But look at her Singles discography on Spotify today. We're close now to have all of the singles there, which is a dream really. Most of them are the complete singles as they were released originally.

It's hard to believe now but not so long ago, only four years ago, her oldest digital single available but "Hung Up" (or "Sorry" depending of the territory). We've come a long way.

I think what really changed the focus on these old singles releases (and the remastered videos) was the change of direction after she decided to tour instead of doing the movie. The focus clearly changed a bit from that moment.

If anything, the remastered/upscaled videos is the most disappointing part at this moment, the fact that "LAP", "La Isla", "Vogue" and other monster iconic videos are still SD in 2024 is BAD.

[steady75 9,881]

Yeah I’m glad we have what we have but if Emily was an employee of mine she’d be in for an appraisal / disciplinary. It’s giving high maintenance unreliable employee who lacks consistency. 

[Andreo 5,504]

How people in M's team wake up in the morning knowing they gotta go to work to AI upscale a single cover and reupload an old song adding '(edit), (extended)' to its name file and then have another month of paid holiday:

 

[animalinstinct 2,125]

4 hours ago, steady75 said:

Yeah I’m glad we have what we have but if Emily was an employee of mine she’d be in for an appraisal / disciplinary. It’s giving high maintenance unreliable employee who lacks consistency. 

She’d be on her final written warning if she was an employee of mine

[Donna 17,970]

6 hours ago, Alpha said:

 Not everyone has expendable income to spend 200 bucks. They obviously knew fans were going to have expenses buying tickets for the tour and probably figured fans were also going to be spending on tour merch and travel. I'm sure they didn't wanna risk a reissue being a slow seller from over saturation especially since expanded reissues are more of a niche thing specifically for fans. Its barely going to be two months in a couple of weeks since Rio so I would imagine maybe August or Sept for an announcement and preorder to also keep fans satisfied while she's filming the biopic.

I think the Madonna team are waiting for the right moment to start releasing re-issues.  I do think this fall would probably be the likeliness of it happening.  I'm sure it will be one album at a time, spaced out over time. While I don't think the "expendable income" probably is a huge issue on their mind, I do think they know they can't over saturate the market with a bunch of re-issues at the same time. It's the same with the digital and streaming releases.  They want to keep things constantly updated to generate more traffic, rather just put it all out at the same time. Also, I think their main focus is to release what was previously commercially available, rather release rare mixes and edits as well.  It's possible as some states, some of them might be included on the re-issues as well. So yeah, I agree in the next two months we might start seeing an announcement for pre-orders. Of course, it all depends on how/when they are planning to release the Celebration Tour Film.  I would expect that would be top priority since that is something new they would want to be pushing, rather a re-issue of an old album.  It doesn't mean both can't happen though. 

[steady75 9,881]

Im thinking Who's That Girl remix with Tokischa for pride on the 29th event with the remix dropping on the 30th along with the old EP.

 

[Donna 17,970]

43 minutes ago, steady75 said:

Im thinking Who's That Girl remix with Tokischa for pride on the 29th event with the remix dropping on the 30th along with the old EP.

 

Nope, we're gonna get another re-issue of FEL Rainbow edition.  You're gonna love it, even if you don't!

[steady75 9,881]

Speaking of which is two years today that Finally Enough Love came out. 
 

We’d be on to True Blue from Like A Virgin by now. 

[MaDöner Kebab 7,154]

11 hours ago, Alpha said:

This is just personal conjecture from certain fans have said...the digital anniversary versions of LAP and TB were tests to see if there was enough interest on streaming. They obviously met expectations and released the standard US maxis for the first few releases like Human Nature, Secret, Hanky Panky, and Music. Obviously reception was really good so they gave cute bonus remixes/edits for Justify My Love and Rescue Me. Fans were genuinely getting excited which is when we started getting expanded versions that weren't just standard commercial releases and actual rare promo mixes for Like a Prayer, Bedtime Story, Express Yourself and Beautiful Stranger. We were INFAMOUSLY going to get a major goldmine with both Fever and Love Don't Live Here Anymore with an insane amount of tracks that were promo but in the end they swapped them for i believe LAP & Bedtime. Shortly after is when she got in the studio with Mike Dean to work on what became Finally Enough Love and when we got the press release about reissues. It's my personal conjecture once it was confirmed to do expanded reissues that they decided to go back to standard US versions so they'd have exclusive content saved for these reissues. We keep hearing they're being worked on and that allegedly 3 are ready to go so its only a matter of time that will get something. We're getting impatient because we want them now but they're being smart about it because...people did spend a pretty penny on FEL. Not everyone has expendable income to spend 200 bucks. They obviously knew fans were going to have expenses buying tickets for the tour and probably figured fans were also going to be spending on tour merch and travel. I'm sure they didn't wanna risk a reissue being a slow seller from over saturation especially since expanded reissues are more of a niche thing specifically for fans. Its barely going to be two months in a couple of weeks since Rio so I would imagine maybe August or Sept for an announcement and preorder to also keep fans satisfied while she's filming the biopic.

Also, the sad truth is that some Madonna fans are around 60. If they keep waiting to release some of the rare stuff, there will be no one left to buy or stream it. I even know some fans who have even passed by now and never got to witness the singles on streaming. It’s very very sad, so this whole "things need to stay exclusive" bullshit is extremely elitist and ignorant.

[Alpha 1,505]

7 minutes ago, MaDöner Kebab said:

Also, the sad truth is that some Madonna fans are around 60. If they keep waiting to release some of the rare stuff, there will be no one left to buy or stream it. I even know some fans who have even passed by now and never got to witness the singles on streaming. It’s very very sad, so this whole "things need to stay exclusive" bullshit is extremely elitist and ignorant.

No comment 

[Would You Like To Try 8,724]

@deathproofI'd be excited to know some "proof" (no pun intended) that Who's That Girl is coming with a new date if you have it since I assume that the listing is not the date planned but the day it is really coming to streaming 

[TOpher 939]

2 hours ago, MaDöner Kebab said:

Also, the sad truth is that some Madonna fans are around 60. If they keep waiting to release some of the rare stuff, there will be no one left to buy or stream it. I even know some fans who have even passed by now and never got to witness the singles on streaming. It’s very very sad, so this whole "things need to stay exclusive" bullshit is extremely elitist and ignorant.

60?!? Shut your filthy mouth