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Into the Groove by Madonna
Topped the NZ chart: for 6 weeks from 11 August 1985.
Madonna was one of the best singles artists of the 1980s. Between 1985 and 1990, ‘Into the Groove’, ‘Like A Prayer’, and ‘Vogue’ all topped the NZ singles chart.
‘Into the Groove’ is from the film Desperately Seeking Susan. Madonna played a major role in the movie alongside Rosanna Arquette. Madonna had already written the song with then-boyfriend Stephen Bray and suggested it for the dancefloor scene.
Where you’d describe early hits like ‘Borderline’ and ‘Material Girl’ as pop/rock, ‘Into the Groove’ moves Madonna’s music onto the dancefloor. It’s provocative and propulsive. Madonna’s never been my favourite vocalist, but she has enough charisma to be engaging.
It’s a quibble I have with many pop songs, but the main hook confuses love and lust. “Get into the groove / Boy, you’ve got to prove / Your love to me”
Weirdly, ‘Into the Groove’ was never a single in the US, instead appearing as a B-side. It topped charts elsewhere in the world, including the UK and Australia.
If you don’t like Madonna, you may prefer Sonic Youth’s cover, recorded as Ciccone Youth Ciccone is Madonna’s surname. Thurston Moore explained to The Guardian.
Madonna was actually in a couple of no-wave bands that nobody ever talks about. She was in a band [Spinal Root Gang] with these two twins, Dan and Josh Braun, who were the first members of Swans, Michael Gira’s band. Nobody really knows about that part of her history; she was in a pre-Swans no wave band! There’s all that interconnected history in New York with Madonna and the no wave scene. […]
Eventually she started making really amazing dance records. “Into the Groove” was brilliant to the point where I thought it would be a great song to cover through the prism of Sonic Youth. Instantly fabulous. We took her record and put it on one of the channels in the studio and we would fade it into [our version of] the song once in a while, not thinking about the legalities of such a move. We made a single with Mike Watt from Minutemen on a label called New Alliance, a sub-label of Black Flag’s SST Records [“Into the Groove(y)”]. We wanted to break down any kind of barrier that was being set up between the underground and the people who had graduated from it to the mainstream.
We actually embraced Madonna’s joie de vivre, her celebrity. We did that record and everybody felt we were crazy, and some people lambasted us for giving her some kind of credibility in the underground. But she already had credibility, as far as I was concerned; she was already a part of the downtown scene. I don’t think she capitalised on it
Thurston Moore, The Guardian
There are Madonna songs I like even more, but ‘Into the Groove’ is a strong song from her peak era.
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She’s great.
My favourite is “La Isla Bonita “.
Yes, you picked out a great cover.
Best cover to me is “ Like a Surgeon” by Weird Al.
Genius.
My 13-year-old daughter likes Yankovic. My favourite so far is ‘I Need a New Duck’.
While I no longer pay attention to Madonna, I like some of her old songs, mostly from the ‘80s. “Into the Groove” isn’t necessarily my favorite but not certainly not a bad song.
Like A Prayer and Borderline are usually my two favourites – they’re a bit more pop/rock, ‘Into the Groove’ is more dance.
Like Christian, not my favourite early Madonna song, but still enjoyable. This was her first UK #1 too.
It’s kind of amazing that one of ‘Material Girl’, ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, ‘Borderline’, or ‘Like A Virgin’ didn’t hit the top of the charts. Lots of strong singles already by the time she released ‘Into the Groove’ (doing it off the top of my head, so I might have the chronology wrong).
‘Papa Don’t Preach’ was her 2nd number one, that was in 1986. The other ones yeah, big hits but never made it to the top.
Yes the lyric slightly flirts with double meanings but not sure I agree re. the ‘You’ve got to prove your love to me’ line – isn’t that just her wanting him to prove his love by getting up with her on the dancefloor? As she says at the beginning, ‘Come on… I’m waiting!’
Hate her or love her, there’s no denying that Madona is an icon. I actually really enjoy playing her music over the speakers of our shooting school and gun shop haha I get some weird looks here and there, but I like the music and it helps me get through the day. It might just be that Deadpool and Wolverine features “Like a Prayer”, but I will say I get fewer blank stares when that one comes on now.
I really only like one song by her…and that is one of her first ones…Borderline.
Just based on the singles, Like A Prayer and Borderline are my favourites. I should go through her early albums sometime – she’s not really known as an album artist, but she seems important sitll.
I have to admit she was very important although I spent the 80s avoiding her. When you think of the 80s she is there with Michael and others.
Like a surgeon was weird als second greatest song. The first was my daughter’s favourite. Living in an Amish paradise.
This song was very contentious and the subject of multiple lawsuits
I thought he normally got permission.
Have you heard “It’s Still Billy Joel To Me” – it’s nasty in a way that he normally isn’t.