GHV2

GHV2
Greatest hits album by Madonna
Released	November 12, 2001
Recorded	November 1991 – January 2000
Genre	Pop, electronica, dance
Length	68:26
Label	Maverick Warner Bros.
Producer	Madonna Shep Pettibone Dave "Jam" Hall Dallas Austin Nigel Wright Alan Parker Andrew Lloyd Webber David Caddick Nellee Hooper William Orbit Patrick Leonard Babyface Mirwais Ahmadzaï Guy Sigsworth Mark "Spike" Stent
Madonna chronology
Music (2000) GHV2 (2001) American Life (2003)

GHV2 (an abbreviation of Greatest Hits Volume 2) is the second greatest hits compilation album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 2001, by Maverick Records. It contains a collection of songs from 1992 to 2001, selected by Madonna who mentioned that she only wanted "songs that I could listen to five times in a row" included on it. As a result, the album includes several singles which were not big hits, like "Bedtime Story", "Human Nature", "What It Feels like for a Girl" and "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", and omits other releases like "American Pie", "I'll Remember", "You'll See" and "This Used to Be My Playground". It was a follow-up to The Immaculate Collection (1990) and was released to coincide with the live home video, Drowned World Tour 2001. The album did not contain any new recordings, but a promotional single "GHV2 Megamix" was released to promote it with mixes by Thunderpuss, John Rocks & Mac Quayle and Tracy Young.

The album was originally titled Greatest Hits: The Second Coming but was changed prior to its release as Madonna wanted it to have a title which was memorable. The RIAA certified it Gold and Platinum on December 12, 2001, denoting one million shipments in the United States. Worldwide, the album has sold more than seven million units.^[1] A promotional only remix album, GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991–2001, was released to accompany it.

Background

The album was originally titled Greatest Hits: The Second Coming,^[2] but Madonna decided to name it change the name to GHV2 just before it was released as "it's a title you will remember" and also because of "laziness", due to the fact that she had just finished the Drowned World Tour and was about to begin filming Swept Away.^[3] Other titles considered were Hit Lady – Greatest Hits Volume 2 and The Immaculate Collection Part Deux. The compilation was released on the eleventh anniversary of The Immaculate Collection, featuring a selection of hits ranging from "Erotica" (1992) to "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (2001). Madonna felt that because it was a "greatest hits", it should only contain previously released hit songs.

In an interview with BBC's Jo Whiley, Madonna said about the selection of the GHV2 tracks, "I only wanted songs that I could listen to five times in a row." Like The Immaculate Collection, there were many other popular singles excluded. "American Pie", which was a big hit, was excluded as a "punishment", because Madonna regretted putting it on Music. "It was something a certain record company executive twisted my arm into doing, but it didn't belong on the album so now it's being punished," she said.^[4]

The cover picture is from a 2001 photo shoot for the Drowned World Tour, by Regan Cameron. The logo in the right corner says "Madonna", and "GHV2". The Japanese lettering (モヂジラミミヂ) is the result of typing the letters 'M-A-D-O-N-N-A' on an English keyboard but with the keys re-mapped to their positions on a Japanese 'kana' keyboard. It can be pronounced as "Mo-Ji-Ji-Ra-Mi-Mi-Ji" and does not mean anything in Japanese. The proper translation for Madonna is: マドンナ.^[5] "GHV2" can also be seen on the cover picture on Madonna's eye. Kevin Reagan contributed artwork to the inner sleeve. A special edition of GHV2, featuring the same track listing, but some additional artwork, was released in December 2001. Hidden in the inner sleeve album artwork of both editions of GHV2 is a quote from "Human Nature": "Express Yourself, Don't Repress Yourself."

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Robert Christgau	(B+)[7]
PopMatters	(favorable)[8]

The compilation received generally positive reviews. Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "During the '90s, Madonna was a true album artist, even as she was making singles as tremendous as "Take a Bow," "Deeper and Deeper," "Ray of Light," "Don't Tell Me," and the non-LP "Beautiful Stranger". Taken on their own, most of these are still pretty tremendous, but tossed together on GHV2, the end result is less than the sum of its parts, even if this is a good way to get all of Madge's '90s hits at once."^[6] Robert Christgau said that "she gleans goodies from the overrated Bedtime Stories and Ray of Light, mixes in the glorious soundtrack-only "Beautiful Stranger" and the dismal soundtrack-only "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," and hands it all over to Mirwais for sonic tweaking I'm not interested enough to pin down", while calling it as "an essential package."^[7] PopMatters said "Chronological sequencing would have made it easier to follow the course of Madonna’s musical evolution. But would these changes have made GHV2 a significantly better album? Probably not. As it stands, it’s the best summary of Madonna’s second decade as a performer we’re going to get—at least until a massive box set appears."^[8]

Promotion

Madonna made an appearance at the 2001 Turner Prize award ceremony and mentioned that she "had a new record out called GHV2". She gave the award to Martin Creed^[9] and gave a controversial speech and said, "At a time when political correctness is valued over honesty I would also like to say right on motherfuckers!"^[10] This was on live TV before the 9 p.m. "watershed", and an attempt to "bleep" it out was too late. Channel 4 were subsequently given an official rebuke by the Independent Television Commission.^[11]

Track listing

Charts, sales and certifications

Notes:

• ^ * As of August 2009, the album has sold 1,385,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan,^[31] with an additional 90,000 sold at BMG Music Clubs.^[32] Nielsen SoundScan does not count albums sold through clubs like the BMG Music Service.^[33]

Radio promotional samplers

In 2001, six and five track CD samplers were released to radio stations to promote the release of GHV2. The samplers contained some of Madonna's biggest hit singles from 1991–2001.

GHV2 Megamix

In November 2001, Maverick released a promotional megamix to promote the album. It was never released commercially.

History

The "Thunderpuss GHV2 Megamix" was the most common version used by radio stations and the version used in the music video. The songs featured (in chronological order) were: "Don't Tell Me", "Erotica", "Secret", "Frozen", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", "Take a Bow" (these included on the Thunderpuss Club Mix Part I), "Deeper and Deeper", "Music" and "Ray of Light" (these included on the Thunderpuss Club Mix Part II). Other remixes were produced by Johnny Rocks & Mac Quayle and Tracy Young.

The remix went to #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 2001 and charted under the title "Madonna Megamix". The original Thunderpuss version has some spoken words at the beginning of "Deeper and Deeper": this was a recorded message used on the early Internet to promote the album Bedtime Stories. The "Thunderpuss GHV2 Megamix" video is compiled of images of live performances and 23 Madonna videos. It was directed by Dago Gonzalez of Veneno Inc.

GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991–2001

In December 2001, Maverick Records also released a promotional album GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991-2001, featuring remixed versions of tracks from the greatest hits compilation GHV2. Like the promotional megamix single release, it was not made commercially available.^[34]

Album History

This compilation contains a remix of every song from the album GHV2, except "Take a Bow", "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", and "The Power of Good-Bye". The album was released as a double CD and a triple 12" set. It contains songs remixed by Victor Calderone, Junior Vasquez, BT, Sasha, Timo Maas, and Hex Hector.

Shep Pettibone was given writing credits for "Secret" for the first time in the liner notes. The collection contained two previously unavailable remixes; the "Luscious Dub Mix" of "Bedtime Story", produced by Mark Picchiotti and Teri Bristol, previously appeared only on the "Bedtime Story: Chapter II" promotional 12" single that was released in 1995. The album also contains a previously unreleased remix of "What It Feels Like for a Girl" produced by Chris Staropoli.

The artwork for the collection contained a collage of small images of Madonna, also used in the liner notes for GHV2. The title includes the year 1991 but does not include any recording from that year, the first being the 1992 single "Erotica". The only releases in 1991 by Madonna were from the 1990 The Immaculate Collection greatest hits collection; "Rescue Me" (February 26, 1991), "Crazy for You (Remix)" (February 18, 1991, UK release) and "Holiday"/The Holiday Collection (June 4, 1991, UK release).

Track listing

Notes

• all remixes were previously released except "What It Feels Like for a Girl" which was exclusive to this album and "Bedtime Story" which was only available on the promo-only 12" vinyl release "Bedtime Story (Chapter II)" (Maverick, PRO-A-7600)

References

External links

• GHV2 at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
• "GHV2". Mad-Eyes. link – last accessed on August 10, 2007.