Madonna

electrosamurai

electrosamurai

Ok I found the piece from the album timeline from Madonnanation (when Madonnanation was good, but that's another story)

January 15: Warner Brothers is denying rumors that they have asked Madonna to re-record some of the material on the album. The speculation came after French producer Mirwaïs flew to L.A. this week to assist Madonna with the final mixing of the album. Inside sources say the “electro-pop” album is too over the top and “avant garde” to be a commercial success. They claims she has used too many electronic synthesizers on her voice and morphed the vocals into sounding like a robot.
 
Raichu

Raichu

electrosamurai said:
Ok I found the piece from the album timeline from Madonnanation (when Madonnanation was good, but that's another story)

January 15: Warner Brothers is denying rumors that they have asked Madonna to re-record some of the material on the album. The speculation came after French producer Mirwaïs flew to L.A. this week to assist Madonna with the final mixing of the album. Inside sources say the “electro-pop” album is too over the top and “avant garde” to be a commercial success. They claims she has used too many electronic synthesizers on her voice and morphed the vocals into sounding like a robot.
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I love how the last sentence could be a grumpy fan review of Madame X.

Thank you so much for finding this though! This is exactly what I read.
 
Vasilios

Vasilios

Cherish is a great song but was a weak single. Especially compared to what was big / released that month.

You can love a song and also judge it’s commercial value.

It all worked out in the end because latter Like A Prayer singles not really popping off meant Vogue made a bigger splash. And let’s not forget it started life as a Keep It Together B side because label felt it wasn’t strong enough on its own.
 
theelusivechanteuse

theelusivechanteuse

electrosamurai said:
Ok I found the piece from the album timeline from Madonnanation (when Madonnanation was good, but that's another story)

January 15: Warner Brothers is denying rumors that they have asked Madonna to re-record some of the material on the album. The speculation came after French producer Mirwaïs flew to L.A. this week to assist Madonna with the final mixing of the album. Inside sources say the “electro-pop” album is too over the top and “avant garde” to be a commercial success. They claims she has used too many electronic synthesizers on her voice and morphed the vocals into sounding like a robot.
Click to expand...
The throughline with Madame X is fun here.
 
Future Lover

Future Lover

Going through the actual singles run of "Like a Prayer", only "Oh Father" was a semi-flop in its designated markets? I think it's more of a testament of how big and important "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself" were more than anything. "Cherish", "Dear Jessie" and "Keep It Together" are amazing pop songs in their own right, and were all Top 10 singles in either UK or the US, and she would kill for that these days.
 
dodoriazarbon

dodoriazarbon

The Like A Prayer single run is iconic and perfect. The album is eclectic as hell, and having

Like A Prayer
Express Yourself
Cherish
Oh Father
Dear Jessie
Keep It Together

in a row shows the breadth of the album itself, while keeping some excellent tracks as deep cuts still to discover. It's kind of every side of her on display. The only flaw in the singles run is that Keep It Together needed a video. The whole run was over within 10 months, which is impressive for 6 singles, territory-locked or not.
 
IEngineered

IEngineered

Vasilios said:
Cherish is a great song but was a weak single. Especially compared to what was big / released that month.

You can love a song and also judge it’s commercial value.

It all worked out in the end because latter Like A Prayer singles not really popping off meant Vogue made a bigger splash. And let’s not forget it started life as a Keep It Together B side because label felt it wasn’t strong enough on its own.
Click to expand...
I like Cherish, but I don’t love it. I agree that the second half of the Like A Prayer campaign fizzled out somewhat. I remember reading that the album was the biggest seller in the first half of 1989 - essentially, the first two singles did their job. However, sales momentum started to fade with Cherish and never really recovered from the decision to release Oh Father. Keep It Together didn’t really bring it back on track - a Madonna single missing the top 5 back then was nothing short of a travesty. Express Yourself missing the top spot was a nasty surprise in itself.

To me, Like A Prayer remains the better album relative to True Blue. But from a singles perspective, True Blue had much more to offer. Ironically, that was also a common criticism - that True Blue should’ve been more than a mere collection of potential singles. It’s also why, I believe, Like A Prayer continues to be held in much higher regard despite selling less.

Apologies - that’s a very long winded way to say I agree with @Vasilios wholeheartedly. But for most of us who lived through the era, that was how it felt like. For a brief moment, it did seem like her momentum was slipping. Then came Vogue, which changed everything.
 
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