An interesting detail that many people overlook is that the first version people heard was the 7'' version, which came out long before the album version. For the general public back then, the 7'' was essentially the original. However, after 30 years, this has mostly been forgotten, and now most people assume the album version came first, followed by the single.
For me, it was a letdown when I bought the album and heard 'Like A Prayer.' Figuratively speaking, it felt as if half the instruments were missing compared to the 7'' version. The same thing happened to me with 'Open Your Heart' three years earlier (my mother bought the cassette when all the singles had been released). Situations like these are what turned me into a collector of her singles and remixes rather than her albums when I became a fan.
https://requiem4adream.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/celebration-a-retardation/
Here is what is included on Celebration.
There are 16 previously released songs featured in their full-length, original album versions.
BURNING UP
HOLIDAY
MATERIAL GIRL
INTO THE GROOVE
LIVE TO TELL
PAPA DON’T PREACH
LA ISLA BONITA
WHO’S THAT GIRL
LIKE A PRAYER
JUSTIFY MY LOVE
TAKE A BOW
FROZEN
BEAUTIFUL STRANGER
MUSIC – MASTERING ERROR: multiple digital pops and clicks that are not part of the original recording can be heard throughout this song.
DIE ANOTHER DAY – MASTERING ERROR: Track fades up late due to the incorrectly placed track index on the American Life album. This is ridiculous. The unaffected album version appears on both the US Promo CD single and the Die Another Day film soundtrack, all Warner Bros. releases.
HOLLYWOOD – MASTERING ERROR: Track starts abruptly and end of “American Life”‘s fade out is audible.
Of these, ten were released as singles in versions that differ from these LP mixes. I would have much preferred the inclusion of the difficult to obtain single mixes, but I’m in therapy and have mostly moved on. Mostly.
Fortunately, five tracks do appear in their official single versions.
SECRET (Edit)
RAY OF LIGHT (Edit)
SORRY (Single Edit)
4 MINUTES (Edit)
MILES AWAY (Radio Edit)
…and one more is a rarity from a US promo CD:
HUNG UP ([Unblended] Album Version)
Next up, there are five remixes lifted directly from The Immaculate Collection.
BORDERLINE (1990) (Q Sound Mix)
LIKE A VIRGIN (1990) (Q Sound Mix)
CRAZY FOR YOU (1990) (Q Sound Mix)
OPEN YOUR HEART (1990) (Q Sound Mix)
VOGUE (1990) (Q Sound Mix)
And now we pause to ask ourselves why.
The remaining nine tracks are unique to the collection. The first two are new recordings.
CELEBRATION
REVOLVER
One appears to be a from-the-vault rarity, likely included by mistake.
LUCKY STAR – ALTERNATIVE Q SOUND MIX
Virtually identical to the version heard on The Immaculate Collection, though there is noticeably more reverb on the “ee-yeah“‘s at the foot of each chorus. The music leading into the first verse is different (on TIC is was edited to match the original 7” version, on here it is not.) The most obvious difference is right at the fade, instead of the chorus it edits to a set of adlibs heard on longer versions of the song, but not heard on the Q Sound version. Odd, but inoffensive as it seems to be a genuine unreleased variation.
As for the rest, quality control has reached an all time low:
EVERYBODY – FAKE EDIT
This uses the full length, original 12″ version as its starting point (as did the official 7″ single version), but is structured differently. While the overall idea for this edit wasn’t horrendous, whoever was placed in charge of actually executing the edits needs to be tortured. Slowly… painfully.
DRESS YOU UP – FUCKED UP INTRO
What the hell happened here? This isn’t a mix variation so much as a mastering error… the album version started late with severe tape pinch/phasing issues right at the top. Of the four beats on the intro, all but the fourth are missing.
EXPRESS YOURSELF – FAKE FUCKING FUCK.
The most offensive. In a failed attempt to kindofsortof recreate the video version, they have taken the complete intro straight off of the Local Mix, “zipper” included. The actual, official video version starts at the percussion and is specially mixed to have echo on the line “Do you believe in love…” which is dry on the Local Mix and therefore not present here. This new monstrosity then incorrectly cuts to the 7″ Remix/Edit version and then again where they have BUTCHERED the song right at the bridge. A bad edit jumps the track from the end of the chorus to the repeat of the bridge which kills the structure of the track. This version is unlistenable.
CHERISH – FAKE EDIT
The original album version cut to the length of the super-short Immaculate Collection version. AMATEUR doesn’t begin to describe how bad these edits have been executed. Poor edits result in creating entirely new lyrics! How about this chestnut… “Can’t get away, I won’t let to” ?! They render all prior complaints about bad edits on Madonna’s releases void. Again, unlistenable. In the cases of “Express Yourself” and “Cherish,” why not just use the fucking Q Sound remixes?! They’re the exact same length as the fake edits and it’s not like there aren’t 6 others from that release present here.
EROTICA – FAKE Radio Edit
The edit points are around the same places as the OFFICIAL radio edit, but are poorly executed. The worst is around 3:30… they cut a beat late making for one of the sloppiest moments on this royalfuckupofacompilation. I don’t understand why this needed to be recreated as the official edit appears on countless singles and 2001’s GHV2 compilation. Oh. And the “surface noise” on the end of “Erotica” overlaps the beginning of “Justify My Love”.
DON’T TELL ME – FAKE Radio Edit
The least offensive/noticeable fake edit, but incorrect nonetheless. The true radio edit was a unique mix for the very last second that does not feature the “whimsical strings” tag. For Celebration, they have chopped off the end, but the first millisecond of this tag is audible.
Regarding the mastering: It sounds as though noise reduction was used to remove “tape hiss” which is unnecessary on most recordings post 1980. This process kills part of the high end of recordings. In addition, the entire album has a smear of bass over it. I really wanted to like it, but it sounds like a cheap “bass boost” EQ effect was applied to the songs, not proper remastering.
I had accepted the slightly shoddy sequencing, several major omissions and overall lack of consistency and attention to detail with the mixes chosen for this release. I love the look of the entire project, but I cannot understand the use of newly created, butchered versions of songs.
I think I'm the only one that loves Celebration compilation... I even love the clicks on Music, makes it different from the main album version haha! But at the time of it's release I thought it was too much 80's representation, leaving important hits from 90's and 00's.
Johann Delebarre. He ran ICON, and is the webmaster of madonna.com + social media.
But I think people put the blame on him when it comes to errors and problems with streaming and remastering, when he's most likely not the one to be blamed.
I didn’t click the link, so I don’t know what it fully says, but this is the tracklisting with tracklengths:
Silver Screen Single Mix 4:00
Silver Screen Mix 6:33
Dub 7:04
Movie House Mix 9:40
Sophie’s revenge was never officially released.
If there ever was a ROL Super Deluxe Box Set Edition (fantasy), I’d want there to be a version with both Sophie & Madonna. Would be an amazing single!
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