Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
THE MATERIAL GIRL (MATERIAL WOMAN?)
One more batch of reader e-mails about
Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
‘MDNA’: HIT OR MISS? DEPENDS (ON WHERE’S THE PARTY?)
Hi Gary,
I, too, am writing to add my two cents on Madonna’s latest CD, “MDNA.” I’m not here to agree or disagree with anyone, being that everyone is entitled to their opinion, so here goes mine. A little over a month since “MDNA” was released, I have to say that it follows the same vein as most Madonna releases post-“Ray of Light”: it’s hit or miss.
For me, it could’ve been a much stronger album if the mid-section of songs (“Give Me All You’re Luvin’,” “Some Girls,” “Superstar,” “I Don’t Give A” and “I’m a Sinner”) were replaced with the disc-two bonus tracks (“Beautiful Killer,” I F***ed Up,” “B-Day Song” and “Best Friend”), making for a solid, single CD. I’m still scratching my head over the releases of “Luvin’ ” and “Girls Gone Wild” as singles. It would’ve been wise for Madonna’s camp to release “Masterpiece” back in January to bank off its Golden Globes award and give her film, “W.E.,” a little extra push. But coulda, woulda, shoulda.
As for any upcoming single releases, “Turn Up The Radio” and “Love Spent” seem like the obvious choices.
Personally, I feel that Madonna should go back to basics. The songs she’s written with Patrick Leonard (“Live to Tell,” “Like a Prayer,” “Frozen”) have endured. She should definitely consider working with him again. I am not expecting another “Like a Prayer” or “Ray of Light,” just an effortless and unquestionably great Madonna record.
Thank You,
Michael Pineiro
New York, New York
Gary,
Can you stand one more comment on Madonna’s current career path?
I think arguing about seeing this single or that on the Hot 100 is almost a moot point by now. Madonna is a savvy businesswoman and had to realize that it would become increasingly more difficult for her to place music on pop radio. Instead, she’s creating music for venues where her fans are likely to hear it: at clubs and in concert.
I don’t think she wrote “Give Me All Your Luvin’ ” for radio. She wrote it for the Super Bowl (and it sounded great!) The same applies to the rest of the album. Some may hate “Girls Gone Wild” today, but I bet they will be dancing their butts off to it at her concert.
Thanks for a great column!
Bill Olver
Baltimore, Maryland
Hi Michael and Bill,
Great point: I agree that “Luvin’ ” and “Wild” shouldn’t be judged solely on their less-than-overwhelming radio receptions. They already have made impacts, and will continue to, in other platforms.
Being drawn more to pure pop than dance, I’ve always liked Madonna’s co-writes with Patrick Leonard. (She wrote several of her more dance-leaning ’80s/’90s hits with Stephen Bray, including “Causing a Commotion,” “Express Yourself” and “Keep It Together.”) Other songs that Madonna and Leonard co-penned include “Open Your Heart,” “La Isla Bonita,” “Who’s That Girl,” “Cherish,” “Oh Father,” and “I’ll Remember.”
Apart from Madonna, Leonard has crafted songs with artists including Bon Jovi, Peter Cetera (“One Good Woman”), Fleetwood Mac, Jewel (“Hands”), Elton John (“Someday Out of the Blue”) and even Pink Floyd.
And, how about two Patrick Leonard fun facts? His daughter Jessie inspired the Madonna song “Dear Jessie,” from “Like a Prayer”; and, his former wife? Olivia D’Abo, aka, Karen Arnold of TV’s beloved “The Wonder Years.”
Ask Billboard is updated every week. As always, submit your questions about Billboard charts, sales and airplay, as well as general music musings, to askbb@billboard.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as your city, state and country, if outside the U.S.
‘EVERYTHING’ YOU NEED TO KNOW
Hey Gary,
How cool is it that your favorite album is ‘Til Tuesday‘s “Everything’s Different Now.” It’s one of my faves, too. I like it much more, track-for-track, than their previous albums that actually produced hits. Other favorite albums from that era, and from all-time (I still listen often), include Tears for Fears’ “The Hurting” and Icehouse’s (sorely underrated in the U.S.) “A Man of Colors.”
(Oh, as for the Madonna discussion, it’s a crime that “Masterpiece” isn’t a hit. Absolutely gorgeous song. Her best ballad since “This Used to Be My Playground.” Then again, my favorite Madonna track of all time is “Oh Father.” How many people say that?)
Pat Thomas
Sparks, Nevada
Hi Pat,
What good taste you have in music! Most people surely think of “Voices Carry” when thinking of ‘Til Tuesday, and with good reason, as the song rose to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.
But, the group’s third album, “Everything’s Different Now,” marked an astronomical artistic leap forward, although seeds of the set’s folk/rock tendencies had first been sown (to tie in a Tears for Fears reference) in the band’s sophomore 1987 release “Welcome Home,” which yielded the No. 26-peaking “What About Love.” Collaborators on “Everything’s” include Matthew Sweet, Jules Shear and Elvis Costello, the latter of whom co-wrote and sings on “The Other End (Of the Telescope),” which Costello himself later recorded.
Sadly, “Everything’s” peaked at only No. 124 on the Billboard 200. First single “(Believed You Were) Lucky” spent three weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 95 in early 1989.
I even remember hearing the song on then-WVBF (105.7) Boston and a bemused, and impressed, DJ noting how few pop hits (it did reach No. 32 on Adult Contemporary) sport the word “acquiesce.”
Following ‘Til Tuesday’s early ’90s breakup, lead singer Aimee Mann has become a renowned and accomplished solo singer/songwriter, earning an Oscar nomination for her song “Save Me” from the film “Magnolia.” Phil Collins‘ “Tarzan” theme “You’ll Be in My Heart” won for that year (1999), prompting Mann often to joke in concert that she can’t believe that her track lost to Collins’ “monkey love song.” She’s also made a hilarious guest appearance, with Sarah McLachlan, on IFC’s “Portlandia.”
One of Mann’s latest honors? Playing New York’s Carnegie Hall earlier this year. Not bad for an artist likely best-known for one top 10 hit 27 years earlier.