Like a Virgin (song)

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"Like a Virgin"
Single by Madonna
from the album Like a Virgin
B-side(s)	"Stay"
Released	November 6, 1984
Format	12" single CD single
Genre	Pop
Length	3:38 (Album Version) 3:11 (Edit Version) From "The Immaculate Collection"
Label	Sire Records Warner Bros. Records WEA International
Writer(s)	Billy Steinberg Tom Kelly
Producer(s)	Nile Rodgers
Certification	Gold
Chart positions
#1 (Australia, U.S.) #3 (UK)
Madonna singles chronology
"Lucky Star" (1984)	"Like a Virgin" (1984)	"Material Girl" (1985)
Audio sample
Play "Like a Virgin" (in browser) (help·info)

"Like a Virgin" is the first number-one single from American singer Madonna, topping the charts at the end of 1984, and the beginning of 1985. "Like a Virgin" was also the first single from Madonna's second album Like a Virgin. It also appears, slightly remixed, on her best-selling 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection.

Contents 1 Song information 2 Production 3 Music video 4 Live performances 5 Tributes and cover versions 6 References in Pop Culture 7 Chart performance 7.1 Charts

[edit] Song information

Madonna wears a wedding gown in the music video, which was directed by Mary Lambert.

"Like a Virgin" was honored by Rolling Stone and MTV in 2000 as the fourth song on their list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs".

"Like a Virgin"'s hook has been known to be similar to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," and though Jackson's song is about a man denying parental responsibility and Madonna's is about a reality-altering love.

Madonna also performed "Like a Virgin" at the first MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in 1984.

[edit] Production

"Like a Virgin" was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly (who also wrote Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors") and was produced by Nile Rodgers. Other credits on the song are as follows:

• Bass by Bernard Edwards.
• Guitar by Nile Rodgers.
• Drums by Tony Thompson.
• Assorted synthesizers and bass synthesizer by Rob Sabino.

[edit] Music video

The music video, directed by Mary Lambert, was shot in Venice and partly in New York City. It shows Madonna dancing on a gondola and running around in a wedding dress, with a few interspersed shots of a panting lion. The video premiered on MTV on July 12, 1984, and became an instant hit.

[edit] Live performances

Like a Virgin made its debut at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1985, where Madonna appeared on stage atop a giant wedding cake dressed in a wedding dress (adorned with the infamous "Boy Toy" belt buckle) and veil. The climax of her risqué performance found her humping and rolling around on the stage.

Madonna's performance of Hollywood at the 2003 Video Music Awards recreated the 1985 performance of Like a Virgin, with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera dressed in the wedding costume and singing the song atop a wedding cake with Madonna as her groom. Following in the controversial footsteps of the original performance, Madonna created another stir by kissing Spears and Christina Aguilera on the lips.

The song has also been included in five of Madonna's seven tours.

For 1985's The Virgin Tour, Madonna again donned wedding attire and performed a straight version of the song featuring a quotation from Michael Jackson's similar-sounding Motown-style single, Billie Jean. In 1987's Who's That Girl Tour, the song was given a lighthearted comedic theme and included quotations from The Four Tops' I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).

For the 1990 Blond Ambition Tour, the song was re-invented with a middle-eastern arrangement and risqué (and utlimately infamous) choreography which found Madonna simulating masturbation on a bed. The explicit performance garnered a lot of attention, particularly when police in Toronto Canada threatened to arrest Madonna and charge her with indecency unless she altered the performance. Madonna refused and the show went on unaltered. She was never arrested. (This sitatuation was documented in she singer's 1991 documentary, Truth or Dare.)

Madonna swapped the wedding dress for a tuxedo and adopted a Marlene Dietrich-like persona for 1993's The Girlie Show Tour, singing the song with a thick German accent and including a quotation from Dietrich's signature tune, Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It).

In 2006's Confessions Tour, the song was given a horseriding theme. Madonna performed the song atop an studded leather S&M carousel horse while x-rays of her broken bones (the result of a horse-riding accident on her 47th birthday) flashed on the screens behind her.

[edit] Tributes and cover versions

The song was the subject of a famous exegesis in the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino's film, Reservoir Dogs. It was also the subject of a parody by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Like a Surgeon", and was performed by Jim Broadbent in the film Moulin Rouge! (2001) as a comic piece sung in the third person singular ("She made it through the wilderness...").

In 2001, MTV gay punk rocker Nick Name performed a punk cover version for the Madonna tribute at the historic El Rey Theatre.

Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera paid a tribute to Madonna's performance at the MTV Video Awards show nineteen years later at the same awards show, [[Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards finishing the performance with a kiss. The kiss generated months of discussion in celebrity magazines.

Japanese pop singer, Hitomi, performed a shortened cover of it during her LOVE LIFE tour in Japan, recorded on the tour dvd.

Winnipeg death-folk outfit The Horribly Awfuls recorded an ironic cover on their 2003 record, "We Fight Like the Crips and Bloods."

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this as a swingin' Lounge version on their 2006 album "Silent Nightclub".

Lords of the New Church covered it on the 1985 IRS's "Best of" Album

In the Shrek in the swamp "Karaoke Dance Party" extra on the original Shrek film Fiona can be heard singing this song.

[edit] References in Pop Culture

In the movie Reservoir Dogs, the song comes up in a conversation amongst a group of gangsters, Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino) raises the theory that the song is actually about an oversexed woman who meets a man who is so well-endowed that the woman experiences pain during intercourse with him - reminding her of the pain accompanying the loss of her virginity. (Madonna would later meet Tarantino after "Reservoir Dogs" was released and when giving him her autograph wrote "Quentin, it's about love, not dick. Madonna.")

In the short story La Bamba, by Gary Soto, a boy is at a talent show. While describing the lineup of the event, he mentions there are three young girls singing "Like a Virgin".

[edit] Chart performance

"Like a Virgin" became Madonna's first of 12 number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the top for six consecutive weeks and eventually earning gold certification. The single also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play, and was her first top-ten hit on the R&B chart.

"Like A Virgin" slammed onto the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart the week of November 17, 1984 at #48, and shot up the chart rapidly, reaching #1 by its sixth week, December 22, 1984. "Like A Virgin" was the first of four Top five singles from Madonna's album of the same name. "Like A Virgin" remained in the Top 10 for nine weeks, in the Top 20 for eleven weeks, and in the Top 40 for fourteen weeks.

Internationally, the story was similar, the song was in the top five in the United Kingdom (behind million sellers Band Aid and Wham!) and reached the top spot in numerous countries. It was her first number one single in Australia and Canada. The song would be her biggest selling and top-charting single worldwide until "Like a Prayer" in 1989.

[edit] Charts

Chart (1984)	Peak position
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	9
U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
Chart (1985)	Peak position
U.S. Adult Contemporary	29
UK Singles Chart	3
Canadian Singles Chart	1
Australian Singles Chart	1
Austrian Singles Chart	8
Japan Singles Chart	1
German Singles Chart	4
French Singles Chart	8
Swiss Singles Chart	9
Swedish Singles Chart	15

Preceded by "Out of Touch" by Daryl Hall and John Oates

Billboard Hot 100 number one single December 22, 1984- January 28, 1985

Succeeded by "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner