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About "You Can Dance"


OceanBlue
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I think cash in fits quite well. Of course, they also wanted to hold the fans in line while the upcoming break. It was foreseeable that it would take a longer time until the next studio album, as Madonna was busy with film and stage projects - and it was too early for a first greatest hits, even if she already had more hits at that time than most artists in their whole life.

The long unmixed versions went on vinyl to DJs and the single edits probably went as vinyl promo to journalists. The CDs are presumably mostly bootlegs. (edited)

https://www.discogs.com/de/Madonna-You-Can-Dance-Single-Edits/release/800742

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18 minutes ago, Levon said:

I think cash in fits quite well. Of course, they also wanted to hold the fans in line while the upcoming break. It was foreseeable that it would take a longer time until the next studio album, as Madonna was busy with film and stage projects - and it was too early for a first greatest hits, even if she already had more hits at that time than most artists in their whole life.

The long unmixed versions went on vinyl to DJs and the single edits probably went as vinyl promo to journalists. The CDs are presumably bootlegs.

https://www.discogs.com/de/Madonna-You-Can-Dance-Single-Edits/release/800742

I remember that the single edits were released officially on CD too ?

https://www.discogs.com/Madonna-You-Can-Dance-Single-Edits-Of-Album-Remixes/release/741965

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Yes I'm sure I first heard about it in 1986 not long after True Blue came out and was expecting it in time for Christmas 86 but it then got postponed until after WTG.   I guess TB was still selling very strongly and they didn't want to lose sales from that.   Anyone know why Physical Attraction isnt a remix though - seems really lazy!   

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They were cashing in her success on the club charts, but with artistic intent since some remixes were new and they added a song. They also had to make Into The Groove an album track in some way for the US so it probably helped in the process.

Don't pretend she wasn't involved in it: it's not "the company" versus "the artist". M was always aware of the business and marketing aspect of everything. She was involved in YCD as Spotlight and the choice of remixers / producers show.

The extended remixes and the fact that each track segues into the next felt very bold for a commercial release. Of course, you had radio shows with great djs at that time. Dance mixtapes were very common but also outside the regular market, you had to trade cassettes or go to underground record stores. 

You Can Dance worked on that idea. And it's still a very solid compilation, and with the two-sided structure of the original album mix, a testimony of its time.

You can actually dance to it from beginning to end, with a break in the middle.

I really wish she pulled out a new remix project.

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1 hour ago, bootboy31 said:

Anyone know why Physical Attraction isnt a remix though - seems really lazy!   

I guess they had to extend the album in last minute, because in some countries runtimes over 43 or 45 minutes were required for album charts. Below that YCD would have been considered as an EP. Without Physical Attraction the run time would have been about 42:31.

Another speculation is that Think of Me has been replaced by Physical Attraction. There have been leaked longer remix versions of Think of Me, supposedly mixed by Jellybean for YCD.

In my opinion, Over and Over did not fit stylistically at all to the other songs: Too fast, too many annoying sound effects and much too long. Overall I love the album though.

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I remember looking into this and thinking about it many years ago and I added a comment and a quote here that might help: (Jay's note is mine - I'm Jay)

https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/2017/12/04/today-in-madonna-history-december-4-1987/

On December 4 1987, Madonna filed for divorce from Sean Penn in Los Angeles County Superior Court, California. Twelve days later, Madonna withdrew the divorce papers and the couple stayed together until January 5 1989, when Madonna filed new divorce papers citing “irreconcilable differences”.

Jay’s Note: I often wondered why Madonna released You Can Dance with so little promotion behind it (You Can Dance was released November 17/1987). Understanding that her personal life was falling apart at the time, it makes sense that she wouldn’t have been concerned with releasing singles or filming music videos to promote the remix collection.

I also found this quote from her about You Can Dance:

“I don’t know that I like it, people screwing with my records, remixing them. The jury is out on it for me. But the fans like it, and really, this one was for the fans, for the kids in the clubs who like these songs and wanted to hear them in a new, fresh way.”

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1 hour ago, captainjay said:

I remember looking into this and thinking about it many years ago and I added a comment and a quote here that might help: (Jay's note is mine - I'm Jay)

https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/2017/12/04/today-in-madonna-history-december-4-1987/

On December 4 1987, Madonna filed for divorce from Sean Penn in Los Angeles County Superior Court, California. Twelve days later, Madonna withdrew the divorce papers and the couple stayed together until January 5 1989, when Madonna filed new divorce papers citing “irreconcilable differences”.

Jay’s Note: I often wondered why Madonna released You Can Dance with so little promotion behind it (You Can Dance was released November 17/1987). Understanding that her personal life was falling apart at the time, it makes sense that she wouldn’t have been concerned with releasing singles or filming music videos to promote the remix collection.

I also found this quote from her about You Can Dance:

“I don’t know that I like it, people screwing with my records, remixing them. The jury is out on it for me. But the fans like it, and really, this one was for the fans, for the kids in the clubs who like these songs and wanted to hear them in a new, fresh way.”

Wait, you are Jay, THE jay that makes today in madonna history?

 

HATS OFF!!! Your work is UNBELIEVABLE!!!

 

THANKS FOR DOING THIS EVERY DAY!! Please never stop!!

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3 hours ago, captainjay said:

I also found this quote from her about You Can Dance:

“I don’t know that I like it, people screwing with my records, remixing them. The jury is out on it for me. But the fans like it, and really, this one was for the fans, for the kids in the clubs who like these songs and wanted to hear them in a new, fresh way.”

I wonder if this opinion was caused by how unhappy she was with the UK version of Everybody by Rusty Eagan

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I’ll never understand why the UK didn’t make Spotlight a single and Everybody too on that case in 88. 
after they re released the Holiday, Borderline. Gambler and The Look Of Love a regional singles and later Crazy For You and Holiday in 90. 
Like… Everybody was newly mixed on a current album and had not made a dent first time round and Spotlight was a brand new song. It just made sense to me at the time… and if You Can Dance had been released after True Blue I think we would have got Where’s The Party as a single too. 

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7 hours ago, steady75 said:

I’ll never understand why the UK didn’t make Spotlight a single and Everybody too on that case in 88. 
after they re released the Holiday, Borderline. Gambler and The Look Of Love a regional singles and later Crazy For You and Holiday in 90. 
Like… Everybody was newly mixed on a current album and had not made a dent first time round and Spotlight was a brand new song. It just made sense to me at the time… and if You Can Dance had been released after True Blue I think we would have got Where’s The Party as a single too. 

Cause it was the only unreleased new song on the album and they wanted people to spend (more) money on the album.

Making "Spotlight" available as a single would have made the album less interesting and profitable.

About her attitude towards "You Can Dance"... this was a weird project. First it was going to be a little 6-track EP for Christmas 1986, then delayed till Christmas 1987. I guess she just didn't care about it that much. Besides, by that point she had been non-stop working on music from 1983 to 1987 and maybe she needed a break from it, especially after the world tour and all the marriage issues.

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I see your point but this was peak commercial period for Madonna. A lead single would have been much greater promotion for album sales than just the album being plonked out itself. Especially with a single edit. And also … release the album first … and then the single. Anyways history now. 

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On 4/27/2021 at 11:50 AM, Levon said:

I guess they had to extend the album in last minute, because in some countries runtimes over 43 or 45 minutes were required for album charts. Below that YCD would have been considered as an EP. Without Physical Attraction the run time would have been about 42:31.

Another speculation is that Think of Me has been replaced by Physical Attraction. There have been leaked longer remix versions of Think of Me, supposedly mixed by Jellybean for YCD.

In my opinion, Over and Over did not fit stylistically at all to the other songs: Too fast, too many annoying sound effects and much too long. Overall I love the album though.

I always thought that remix of "Think Of Me" was fake. Was it actually real? And how do we know that?

 

But yeah, "Physical Attraction" was such a random choice for that album. Was it chosen because of it's tempo, or something? I don't know what it's tempo is, or what the tempo of the other songs are, but I could imagine an 80's album mixed together would take tempo into account. 

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1 hour ago, clkelley39 said:

But yeah, "Physical Attraction" was such a random choice for that album. Was it chosen because of it's tempo, or something? I don't know what it's tempo is, or what the tempo of the other songs are, but I could imagine an 80's album mixed together would take tempo into account. 

It was a club track. It was released as a double A-side with Burning Up in 83, and she performed it at practically every club performance she did that year. So it makes sense for it's inclusion. 

Plus YCD was a remix album, and not a greatest hits. They could have included the likes of Open Your Heart or Lucky Star, but they might as well just add the rest of every other top 10 hit of hers at that time, if you know what i mean....

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If i remember well that was a project heralded by Mo Ostin the CEO of Warner Records then & Craig Kostich head of the dance division of Warner because they thought Madonna could lose the club going fans whom made her successful with the more pop oriented sound of True Blue. So the idea was to remix her most  dancefloor tracks that never had a proper remix so she could still be played in clubs with something new.

I've always found the singles roll out of True Blue very odd. Warner sat on the Open Your Heart video for Almost 5 months before releasing it. True Blue was released as a single because radios played it. So i've always wondered if Open Your Heart wasn't originally supposed to be released in september instead of True Blue (which had a video contrary to TB even though it had that awful, imo, european one) and if You Can Dance was supposed to be released for christmas 86 then Where's The Party could have been the Christmas single instead of Open your Heart. But Pettibone remixed True Blue before he remixed Into the Groove if we go by the album's liner notes "When i was asked to remix True Blue i wish it was Into The Groove". And ITG & WTP were not remixed at the same time since ITG was a collab with the Latin Rascals (Tony Moran) and both remixes have a different sound engineer. (Shep Pettibone was also infamous for not doing all the remixes he was credited for, some were in fact unofficially remixed by his sound engineers or associates like Jane Brinton.

The other thing i find odd is that Over and Over is the sole remix not made by real club dj's and it shows. Everybody is remixed by Forrest & Heller whom were the resident dj's of the famous Better Days parties at Club America. Thomson & Barbiero were just Warner in house sound engineers. 

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