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40 Years of Ballads

Donna

By Donna,
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Your Favorite Madonna Ballad?   

93 members voted

  1. 1. What is your favorite Madonna Ballad?

    • Crazy For You
      4
    • Live To Tell
      23
    • The Look of Love
      1
    • Oh Father
      3
    • This Used to Be My Playground
      6
    • Rain
      8
    • I'll Remember
      7
    • Take A Bow
      5
    • I Want You
      2
    • You'll See
      7
    • You Must Love Me
      0
    • Drowned World/Substitute For Love
      5
    • The Power of Goodbye
      8
    • What it Feels Like For A Girl
      3
    • Miles Away
      1
    • Masterpiece
      2
    • Ghosttown
      3
    • Other?
      4

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Donna

Donna 16,499

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10 minutes ago, Voguerista said:

Omg! Yesssss. Definitely!!! Adding: try this:

 

Somone deserves a spanky for not having listen to this by now!  LOL!  Seriously though @Ayham, I'm curious when you became a fan and what other songs you haven't heard of hers?  We're gonna have to start flooding your profile with songs you haven't heard yet!  :kiss2::tongue:

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Donna

Donna 16,499

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5 minutes ago, Prayer said:

I was literally going to write the same as @Aiwa08did!

"Live To Tell" is her masterpiece. Her peak as a ballad songwriter.

Okay wait? Her "peak"?  Hmmmm?  I adore that song.  The video alone hooked me to Madonna, but I do think she has written some stellar ballads since. 

But I'm ready for a good rebuttal to prove me wrong because I do LOVE the song.  Also, I know you are someone who doesn't take things too personal and love a good civil debate! :)

And what's fascinating to contrast the love for this song, I've notice a lot of people (especially the younger generation) feel this song is long in the tooth.  It only proves that the younger generation have huge attention span issues. 

 

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Drownedboy

Drownedboy 1,678

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For me Madonna always excells at ballads, and she is a masterful performer of them, a thing she tends to be underated at. Live to tell is special, of course, but Drowned world has a special place in my heart, as I became hooked with it all time on the radios summer 1998. For me it´s like a meditation, more than a big ballad, and what an opener for her Magnus Opus, ROL. The video is masterful too, and each time she did it live, amazing too. I think it´s a favourite of hers. The demo is lovely, but William Orbit really took it there, a good choice as a producer, without a doubt. Said, Frozen, Power of goodbye, Mer girl or To have and not hold are gems in my heart, not less loved by me.

But, after ROL ballads, and even prior with You´ll see or I´ll remember, there´s falling free, forbiden love, Ghostown, easy ride, Miles away, Devil wouldn´t recgonise you, or another special in my heart, Gone, that she did live and it´s one of my top ten favourite Madonna tour performances. So many golden moments, I hope she recovers that style on the next tour, even though we know she is the queen of dancing and big shows.

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Ayham

Ayham 5,487

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10 hours ago, tscott said:

Somone deserves a spanky for not having listen to this by now!  LOL!  Seriously though @Ayham, I'm curious when you became a fan and what other songs you haven't heard of hers?  We're gonna have to start flooding your profile with songs you haven't heard yet!  :kiss2::tongue:

I became a fan around GHV2 when my dad bought me the CD! 🥰 I knew M from ROL days but I was just a kid. 🙃

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Prayer

Prayer 14,381

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10 hours ago, tscott said:

Okay wait? Her "peak"?  Hmmmm?  I adore that song.  The video alone hooked me to Madonna, but I do think she has written some stellar ballads since. 

But I'm ready for a good rebuttal to prove me wrong because I do LOVE the song.  Also, I know you are someone who doesn't take things too personal and love a good civil debate! :)

And what's fascinating to contrast the love for this song, I've notice a lot of people (especially the younger generation) feel this song is long in the tooth.  It only proves that the younger generation have huge attention span issues. 

 

I should have said her first peak. :Madonna009:

I'm not surprised the younger gen don't appreciate "Live To Tell" that much, it's really very old school, cinematic and as 80s (in a good way) as it can be. Like a big, giant movie theme song.

And to be honest, I didn't even love it that much when I started discovering her back catalogue in the late 90s. I liked it, but not loved it as I do now. I think you need to be a little older and have experienced some life to truly appreciate it how deep and haunting it is.

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scamper

scamper 1,998

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On 7/25/2023 at 1:25 AM, tscott said:

 

And what's fascinating to contrast the love for this song, I've notice a lot of people (especially the younger generation) feel this song is long in the tooth.  It only proves that the younger generation have huge attention span issues. 

 

Hey! Don't call me young.... I never insulted you :tongue:

No, I have to admit that I'm of the ones that think it's too long... But is Madonna's fault. I remember in 1986 I loved the song the way it is but when I watched the "Who's that girl tour" was like,... Was this song soooooooo long? And don't know why, since then I hated to album version too. I love the edit, I love the "Blond Ambition" version, the "Confessions tour" is almost perfect but the album version still it's too long for me.

But I guess I have problems with long versions... same happens to me with "Holiday". I love the edits but the 6:08 song...

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Donna

Donna 16,499

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59 minutes ago, scamper said:

Hey! Don't call me young.... I never insulted you :tongue:

No, I have to admit that I'm of the ones that think it's too long... But is Madonna's fault. I remember in 1986 I loved the song the way it is but when I watched the "Who's that girl tour" was like,... Was this song soooooooo long? And don't know why, since then I hated to album version too. I love the edit, I love the "Blond Ambition" version, the "Confessions tour" is almost perfect but the album version still it's too long for me.

But I guess I have problems with long versions... same happens to me with "Holiday". I love the edits but the 6:08 song...

Thanks, love your sense of humor. 

I totally respect and understand where you are coming from. Thanks for explaining because while I've heard some say it's "too long", I really never heard an explanation of why they think that.  I guess if we were to be honest, a song like this probably would do as well as it did back when it was originally released. The 70's and 80's did bring on a lot of lengthy songs.  What really became a staple by the 80's was a long instrumental intros to a lot of songs.  I also believe songs were made longer for club use as well, which is why extended mixes and then remixes started to become very popular.  Of course, a lot of these longer songs, always got a radio edit, because even radio knew it was risky to play songs that were 5 to 6 minutes long.  Before the 70's, most songs were around 2 to 3 minutes long and perfect for radio.  By the late 80's, radio grew more accustom to playing longer songs and that really lasted well into the 90's and 2000's.  But of late, it seems were are reverting back to songs two to three minutes songs.  I guess like with everything, we go through cycles.  I'm sure in the near future, longer songs will grow popular again. :)

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