General Questions thread!

[Alpha 1,834]

Since most topics go...uh...off topic figured start a topic where we can ask questions etc

 

My question is...why wasnt Fever released in the US and why was it released without a video in the UK and then why did they finally do a video after it was a single!? And did the video air in the US?

[Adonna 19,862]

Bad Girl was released shortly before w/ Fever as the B-Side in the U.S. I think since the song caught on internationally, they decided to film a video for it as well.  And yes, the video was aired in the U.S.  Vh1 played it a lot that year.  I think I saw it more than the Bad Girl video.

[Aiwa08 17,900]

27 minutes ago, Alpha said:

My question is...why wasnt Fever released in the US and why was it released without a video in the UK and then why did they finally do a video after it was a single!? And did the video air in the US?

Short answer: The singles from Erotica were failing, and they didn't know what to do to boost sales in different countries. Fever (Edit One/Video Version) is an attempt to improve single sales in Europe.

[Alpha 1,834]

15 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

Short answer: The singles from Erotica were failing, and they didn't know what to do to boost sales in different countries. Fever (Edit One/Video Version) is an attempt to improve single sales in Europe.

But at that point Erotica and Deeper & Deeper had done well, it was only Bad Girl had done modestly. Idk it still doesnt make sense because obviously it was gonna be the plan since like u said the US had the Fever mixes while Bad Girl had Erotica/D&D. 

[Aiwa08 17,900]

2 minutes ago, Alpha said:

But at that point Erotica and Deeper & Deeper had done well, it was only Bad Girl had done modestly. Idk it still doesnt make sense because obviously it was gonna be the plan since like u said the US had the Fever mixes while Bad Girl had Erotica/D&D. 

You have to see the bigger picture and what Madonna was in the '90s. Erotica did relatively well because it was the first single, but it sold far less than what Madonna usually sold. From Deeper and Deeper onwards, the sales were nowhere near what was expected from Madonna.

[Alpha 1,834]

1 minute ago, Aiwa08 said:

You have to see the bigger picture and what Madonna was in the '90s. Erotica did relatively well because it was the first single, but it sold far less than what Madonna usually sold. From Deeper and Deeper onwards, the sales were nowhere near what was expected from Madonna.

I mean D&D was still top 10, i think had Fever been released as 3rd US single it would've prob been top 10 as well probably boosting Rain as well. Also going to assume video play wasn't  much since she mentioned it in Girlie Talk saying the videos didnt get played except for the "last one" which was Rain and why that made her on the fence whether or not she was going to shoot one for Bye Bye Baby which...I'm SO curious as to what her idea was for it

[Adonna 19,862]

6 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

You have to see the bigger picture and what Madonna was in the '90s. Erotica did relatively well because it was the first single, but it sold far less than what Madonna usually sold. From Deeper and Deeper onwards, the sales were nowhere near what was expected from Madonna.

In the U.S., the sales for the single EROTICA was the major reason for it's success, but radio really didn't play much of it as well as the follow up singles. I felt in the U.S. "Rain" got the best exposure on radio of all the singles. Its chart success was mostly because of radio which was the opposite of the previous singles.

[deathproof 11,027]

I imagine that the label always planned to have Fever as the b-side to Bad Girl, as a way to help boost sales for the single release. In the US, the maxi went #1 for 2 weeks. And with the Rain single coinciding with the Girlie Show Tour announcement in July, I wouldn't be surprised if Fever as a standalone single was a last minute choice, especially in the UK, as a way to quickly keep Madonna afloat on the radio after Bad Girl didn't go higher than #10.

[Aiwa08 17,900]

13 minutes ago, Adonna said:

In the U.S., the sales for the single EROTICA was the major reason for it's success, but radio really didn't play much of it as well as the follow up singles. I felt in the U.S. "Rain" got the best exposure on radio of all the singles. Its chart success was mostly because of radio which was the opposite of the previous singles.

That's what I mean. The problem with Erotica singles was global. Warner didn't know what to do (e.g., Waiting Rap as a B-side for the US and Japan, Fever Edit One for Europe, Open Your Heart for the UK...). The single sales were so low by Madonna's standards and the alarms at Warner started to sound very loudly. Erotica/Sex almost destroyed Madonna's career, and I don't mean that figuratively. Madonna was hated like never before.

You are analyzing this only from a musical standpoint, forgetting the damage certain sectors were doing to single sales due to the release of SEX.

[Alpha 1,834]

4 minutes ago, deathproof said:

I imagine that the label always planned to have Fever as the b-side to Bad Girl, as a way to help boost sales for the single release. In the US, the maxi went #1 for 2 weeks. And with the Rain single coinciding with the Girlie Show Tour announcement in July, I wouldn't be surprised if Fever as a standalone single was a last minute choice, especially in the UK, as a way to quickly keep Madonna afloat on the radio after Bad Girl didn't go higher than #10.

But the Fever mixes already existed that that point since they were on the US maxi so it still doesnt make sense. They could've easily put those same Erotica/D&D mixes onto Bad Girl and they could've easily put those Fever ones onto the UK one because how would they know if it was doing well or not without the single first? 

[Aiwa08 17,900]

9 minutes ago, Alpha said:

But the Fever mixes already existed that that point since they were on the US maxi so it still doesnt make sense. They could've easily put those same Erotica/D&D mixes onto Bad Girl and they could've easily put those Fever ones onto the UK one because how would they know if it was doing well or not without the single first? 

Not so easily. Remember the 20-minute limit for a maxi in Europe.

[Adonna 19,862]

5 minutes ago, Aiwa08 said:

That's what I mean. The problem with Erotica singles was global. Warner didn't know what to do (e.g., Waiting Rap as a B-side for the US and Japan, Fever Edit One for Europe, Open Your Heart for the UK...). The single sales were so low by Madonna's standards and the alarms at Warner started to sound very loudly. Erotica/Sex almost destroyed Madonna's career, and I don't mean that figuratively. Madonna was hated like never before.

Yeah, I remember it so well.  By 1993, people were so sick of her especially in the U.S.  It's pretty incredible to look back at it now, because while selling 2 million copies of Erotica seemed like a complete bomb then, many artists today would just be happy to sell half that.  

Rain sorta soften things up for a little while, until the next year when she appeared on David Letterman and people were back at hating her again.  Oddly, "I'll Remember" which was just released really didn't suffer much.  After the Letterman appearance, I expected the song to tank, but radio kept playing the hell out of it all summer until the release of "Secret" and "Take A Bow". 

[Alpha 1,834]

1 hour ago, Aiwa08 said:

Not so easily. Remember the 20-minute limit for a maxi in Europe.

Meaning they could've just put a few. Obviously if that many mixes were commissioned it wasnt for shits and giggles then adding them to the US instead of the Erotica/D&D dubs. It just makes no sense to me...Obviously they left them off because the single was planned yet why not the US. I know the US got it as a club single with the Bad Girl art but would've made more sense to make Fever a US single instead of that huge gap between Bad Girl and Rain. I wonder if Fever got radioplay here in the US instead of Bad Girl 

[deathproof 11,027]

2 hours ago, Alpha said:

But the Fever mixes already existed that that point since they were on the US maxi so it still doesnt make sense. They could've easily put those same Erotica/D&D mixes onto Bad Girl and they could've easily put those Fever ones onto the UK one because how would they know if it was doing well or not without the single first? 

You're forgetting that a single release strategy was already planned out from the get go. Things changed after October 21st 1992.

"Bad Girl" was originally suppose to be the 2nd single, with a video VHS video single to coincide with the single release. I imagine the label didn't plan on putting out a 2nd single until early 1993. But once Sex and the album came out, "Erotica" quickly started to loose steam and popularity on the radio in the US. A lot of stations in the US had started to spin "Deeper & Deeper" and "Rain" instead, in favor for a more "traditional" Madonna pop song. Warner caught on to this and switched gears by releasing "Deeper & Deeper" as the 2nd single.

[Alpha 1,834]

1 hour ago, deathproof said:

You're forgetting that a single release strategy was already planned out from the get go. Things changed after October 21st 1992.

"Bad Girl" was originally suppose to be the 2nd single, with a video VHS video single to coincide with the single release. I imagine the label didn't plan on putting out a 2nd single until early 1993. But once Sex and the album came out, "Erotica" quickly started to loose steam and popularity on the radio in the US. A lot of stations in the US had started to spin "Deeper & Deeper" and "Rain" instead, in favor for a more "traditional" Madonna pop song. Warner caught on to this and switched gears by releasing "Deeper & Deeper" as the 2nd single.

But that doesnt explain why Fever wasnt released in the US! Lol they obviously made the conscious decision to NOT release Fever in the US by putting those mixes on Bad Girl and already planned a UK release if they omitted them on that version of  Bad Girl. At that point they didnt know how Bad Girl would perfom as you say the strategy was pretty planned out.

[deathproof 11,027]

1 hour ago, Alpha said:

But that doesnt explain why Fever wasnt released in the US! Lol they obviously made the conscious decision to NOT release Fever in the US by putting those mixes on Bad Girl and already planned a UK release if they omitted them on that version of  Bad Girl. At that point they didnt know how Bad Girl would perfom as you say the strategy was pretty planned out.

But as I said earlier, having the Fever remixes on Bad Girl in the US was a tactic to boost sales. It's most likely that Fever was originally planned as a later single, possibly after Rain. But when Bad Girl was not a big success in UK, they rushed Fever out in the UK.

The Daniel Abraham remix of Fever (aka edit one aka video mix) was commissioned and completed AFTER his remix of Rain.

Again. Last minute.

The music video for Fever was released May 11th. The Rain video was released June 21st. The single was released July 17th.

[Alpha 1,834]

39 minutes ago, deathproof said:

But as I said earlier, having the Fever remixes on Bad Girl in the US was a tactic to boost sales. It's most likely that Fever was originally planned as a later single, possibly after Rain. But when Bad Girl was not a big success in UK, they rushed Fever out in the UK.

The Daniel Abraham remix of Fever (aka edit one aka video mix) was commissioned and completed AFTER his remix of Rain.

Again. Last minute.

The music video for Fever was released May 11th. The Rain video was released June 21st. The single was released July 17th.

So strange! They still should've released Fever in the US but it still doesnt make sense to me like...i get what you're saying but at that point Bad Girl like u said was top 10 in the Uk without the Fever mixes and Bad Girl was barely top 40 in the US with Fever mixes. I was always a fan of Fever and i often forget it wasnt a single here. Such a huge gap between Bad Girl and Rain too especially with them being 2 ballads back to back! I could understand if it was a double A-Side but it wasnt. She even performed Fever on SNL so i don't get the strategy.