FEATURE:
Taking It Back to the Start…
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
Looking Ahead to Madonna at the BBC
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LATER tomorrow evening…
BBC Two is dedicating a series of programmes to Madonna. I am especially looking forward to Madonna at the BBC. It is a selection of Madonna’s performances at the BBC through the years. I was thinking of what to do to mark a special night focusing on the Queen of Pop. Instead of concentrating on her live performances or ranking her studio albums, I wanted to look back at her debut single. Next year, Everybody turns forty. Not many people know about Madonna’s first single, as people tend to look at the bigger hits like Holiday and Material Girl. The anniverssary is not until 8th October but, as the BBC is giving us a career-spanning spotlight of Madonna, I thought I would focus on a song that you do not hear much. Even in the low-budget video for Everybody, you can tell that Madonna was different to her peers. Shaping up to be a future star in 1982, this artist in her early-twenties was already looking ahead. Her eponymous debut album came out in 1983. I like Everybody, as it is a song that did not make a big chart impact. Written by Madonna and recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in New York, I think that Everybody is one of Madonna’s most underrated tracks. Although the Michigan-born artist knew that she would be a big name, I wonder how many people listening to Madonna’s debut single in 1982 realised it. It wouldn’t be long until her debut album came out and more eyes were starting to turn her way!
Prior to moving along, there is a Wikipedia article where we learn some reception and reaction to one of the most important Pop debut singles:
“Author Rikky Rooksby, in his book The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, noted that the song closed the Madonna album on a flat note. He called the music artificial, repetitive and uninspired. Don Shewey from Rolling Stone commented that "At first, it ["Everybody"] doesn't sound like much at all. Then you notice its one distinguishing feature, a girlish hiccup that the singer uses over and over until it's irritating as hell. Finally, you get hooked, and you start looking forward to that silly little catch in her voice." Author J. Randy Taraborrelli in his biography on Madonna commented that the song was a rhythmic call to party.
Author Santiago Fouz-Hernández in his book Madonna's Drowned Worlds, complimented the chorus of the song, saying that "Everybody" and "Music" are the two Madonna singles which define her artistic credo – that music has the power to overcome divisions of race, gender, and sexuality. Matthew Lindsay of The Quietus praised the song, calling it "spectacular" and "hard to resist." Lindsay added "with its breathy spoken word passages and invitation to dance, Madonna's debut single was a template that would be revisited throughout her career.” In 2012 Louis Virtel of The Backlot listed "Everybody" at number two on his list of "100 Greatest Madonna Songs," commenting that the song is an example of Madonna's undeniable talents. Virtel goes on to say through the song Madonna shows she is "a commander, the Baryshnikov of pop chutzpah, and a rightful disco empress." In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked as the 18th greatest dance song of all time”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Corman
I know that there is a Madonna biopic in the offing that Madonna is directing and co-wrote. I wonder whether she is going to go back to 1982 and the years before when she was heading to New York and making her first moves. It seems that, with her debut single, there wasn’t huge belief that she would make it. In 2015, Rhino discussed the mixed reaction to Everybody:
“33 years ago today, a certain Material Girl released her debut single on Sire Records, and now “Everybody” knows her name. (Did you see what we did there?)
Even before Madonna was anybody, she walked around New York with the attitude that she was somebody, perhaps hoping that it was only a matter of convincing everyone else. Having written and recorded a handful of songs, she carried around her rough tapes in hopes of being able to catch a break, which is what happened the night she convinced the DJ at Danceteria - a gentleman by the name of Mark Kamins - to play one of those songs: “Everybody.” Its reception was sufficient for him to decide to try and help Madonna get a record deal, and although he struck out on his first try - Chris Blackwell of Island Records declined to sign her - he came up a winner at Sire Records which signed her for a two-song deal.
IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Laura Levine
As it happens, label exec Michael Rosenblatt was underwhelmed by what he heard of “Everybody” and changed it to a one-song deal, and even at that, the artwork for the single pointedly showed no picture of Madonna, providing the label with the opportunity to promote the soulful track to R&B radio. That's right: the woman whose visage was one of the most identifiable images of the '80s wasn't even shown on the cover of her own debut single. Even more surprisingly, the song wasn't a pop hit, but it did hit #3 on the Dance Singles chart, and the video secured a certain amount of airplay, positioning Madonna to begin her breakthrough in earnest when she released “Burning Up” a few months later”.
Without Madonna on the single cover and with little kudos in terms of the mainstream charts, other artists might have faded and have been forgotten. As it was, Madonna had the tenacity and talent to fast become one of the most important artists of her time. Listening back almost forty years after her debut single was released, Everybody is a fantastic and fun song that ranks alongside her very best. I might seem a little dated now, though one can sense in the song an artist who wanted to separate herself from the crowd and keep going. Luckily there was a demand for her music! I wonder if Madonna herself thinks back to 1982 and a year when Pop music would change. As the BBC is dedicating a big chunk of their schedule to the amazing and legendary Madonna, I wanted to head back to the song that started everything. It is a minor hit in her cannon, though it is a song that started a spark that would soon turn…
INTO a wildfire.