I'll Remember... 1992

This Used to Be My Playground

The theme for the movie 'A League of Their Own' was written and produced by Madonna and Shep Pettibone, and recorded as one of the last songs during the sessions for her 1992 studio album Erotica. Released in the summer, the single was a worldwide hit, spending one week at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in August 1992, and became Madonna's tenth chart topper, breaking her tie with Whitney Houston to become the female artist with the most number one singles at that time. It entered the charts in the UK top five, peaking at number three for two weeks and was another top five hit for Madonna in numerous other markets. The song earned Madonna a Golden Globe Award nomination for "Best Original Song".

Though featured in the film, it was not available on the soundtrack album, due to licensing restrictions that prohibited Madonna material from mixed or compiled with other singers on albums.  In spite of its commercial success, Madonna has never performed it in any of her concerts or media appearances. It also does not appear on succeeding greatest hits albums GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009). According to The Official Charts Company, the song has sold 275,000 copies there.

I'll Remember...1999

Fire and Ice Ball

Strike a Pose...1987

Strike a Pose...1997

I'll Remember...2006

"Get Together" produced by Madonna and Stuart Price, was released as the third single from the “Confession On a Dancefloor” album on June 6, 2006. Initially the song "Jump" was to be released as the third single from the album but a decision was made to release “Get Together” instead of “Jump” spurred by the fact that "Get Together" was the third best-selling digital single from the Confessions on a Dance Floor album. Its digital sales stood at 20,000 at that time, whereas digital sales for "Jump" were only 9,000. It was also released to coincide with the start of Madonna's Confessions Tour. 

Contemporary critics appreciated the song, calling it fluid in nature and a wonderful dance track. They complimented Madonna's ability to turn cliché comments into pop slogans with the song. After its worldwide release, the song became a success on the dance charts of the United States but failed to enter the official Billboard Hot 100 chart. It reached the top ten in the countries Canada, the United Kingdom and Italy and topped the chart in Spain.

The music video was an animated version of Madonna's live performance at the Koko Club in London on November 15, 2005 during her promotional tour for the album.  It was inspired by the work of Italian comic-book artist Milo Manara and retro science fiction.

Madonna also performed the song on her Confessions Tour in 2006.  In 2007, the song was nominated in the category of Best Dance Recording at the 49th Grammy Awards but lost to Justin Timberlake's 2006 single "SexyBack".

The cover artwork for the single features Madonna and her Confessions Tour crew members, including the song's producer Stuart Price. The photo alternatively can also be found on the inlay cover of the I'm Going to Tell You a Secret DVD.

10 Things You Never Knew About... Madonna

An insight to the Queen of Pop beyond her unwavering drive & famous reinventions

A hit-making icon and feminist force of nature, Madonna has created a legacy of shimmering dance-pop since getting her start in New York. Here’s an insight to the Queen of Pop beyond her unwavering drive and famous reinventions.  




1. Contrary to her rebellious persona, Madonna was a straight-A student and cheerleader as a teenager at high school in Bay City, Michigan. Her first aspiration was to be a nun, viewing the ones who taught her at school as “superstars”. She remembered them as “superhuman, beautiful, fantastic people”.

2. Madonna has referred to arriving in New York at nineteen-years-old with only thirty-five dollars in her pocket as the “bravest thing I’ve ever done”. However, she would get robbed in her dodgy Corona neighbourhood and worked many tedious jobs, including at Dunkin’ Donuts where she was sacked “for squirting jelly over all of the customers”.

3. Her first band was dance-rock act The Breakfast Club in 1979, where she began playing drums. When they started getting gigs at legendary rock club CBGB’s, she would beg to get up and sing one song. After convincing them to do so, she got “a standing ovation” and soon became the lead singer.

4. Madonna was paid five million dollars (two and a half million pounds) for a sentimental Pepsi advert featuring ‘Like A Prayer’ which only aired twice because of the music video’s religious overtones. She explained to Interview magazine in 1989 before the controversy: “It’s probably going to touch a lot of nerves.”

5. Her former record label Warner Bros. only gave her permission to release her provocative Sex book on the basis that there were no photographs depicting bestiality, religion or children. However, Madonna “broke two rules” to prove her power over the executives, with “tongue-in-cheek” photographs of her straddling a dog and tied to a cross-shaped table.

6. Madonna famously called David Letterman “a sick fuck” on his chat show in 1994 for constantly talking about her “sex life”. While it gave Letterman his highest ratings, she later explained that she was “extremely angry” and “lashed out” in response to negative press attention. She has said since: “I’m not particularly proud of it.”

7. Although known for her liaisons with directors and musicians like Warren Beatty, Lenny Kravitz and Ingrid Casares, her most intriguing one was with John F Kennedy Jr in 1988. He later asked her to appear as his mother, Jackie O, for the cover of his magazine George in 1996.

8. When she was five-years-old, her mother, also called Madonna, died from breast cancer. Finding it hard to grasp at the time, Madonna has blamed her self-disciplined, uptight persona on her childhood pain and referred to it as “one of the hardest things I've faced in my life”.

9. A New Yorker at heart, Madonna found it difficult to adapt to British life after marrying Guy Ritchie in 2000. However, she became fascinated with English history, coming up with the subject matter of transatlantic love for her screenwriting and directing venture W.E. (2011). She admitted to The Advocate in 2012: “Like Wallis Simpson, I felt like an outsider.”

10. Controversy has always played a part in Madonna’s tours. During the Paris show of last year’s MDNA tour, Madonna superimposed a swastika onto the image of French far-right Front National leader, Marine Le Pen’s forehead. After the political party threatened to sue, Madonna changed the swastika to a question mark.  

Paparazzi...1985

Palladium, NYC with artist Marilyn.

I'll Remember...2003

Access Hollywood - Will And Grace

I'll Remember...1991

 The Royal Box

The Immaculate Collection, Madonna's the first greatest hits album, was released on November 9, 1990. It contains new remixes of fifteen of her hit singles from 1983 to 1990, as well as two new tracks, "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me". The title of the album is a loose pun of the Immaculate Conception, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain of the original sin. This name follows Madonna's religious-themed songs and videos, as well as the second section of her Blond Ambition World Tour, which also employed religious motifs. An extended play titled The Holiday Collection was issued in Europe to accompany the compilation and the re-release of the single "Holiday". It is the first album ever to use an audio technology called QSound.

The Royal Box (Original 1990 UK limited edition deluxe box set including 'The Immaculate Collection' 17-track CD album in a satin digipak picture sleeve, a 13-track/30-minute PAL video presented in a sealed picture slipcase, a 36" x 24" colour poster and 5 different picture postcards with a title belly band - all housed in a fabulous 12" x 12" x 1½" outer glossy card picture box.

It contained tracks omitted from this album: "Everybody", "Burning Up", "Dress You Up", "Angel", "True Blue", "Who's That Girl",  "Causing a Commotion"and "Keep it Together". 

Gives Good Face - 2005

Strike A Pose - 1994

I'll Remember...1989

In the spring of 1989, during an episode of The Cosby Show (I watched it live!), Pepsi ran an unprecedented 2 minute ad* debuting Madonna’s new single “Like a Prayer.” The video for the ad was designed as a Pepsi commercial, not a music video, but the music was the original song. It wasn’t edited into a jingle.

Madonna was paid $5 million dollars, with the plan of running a shorter 30-second version beginning the following day.

But the next day was also the debut of the music video for Like a Prayer. The video’s blending of sexuality, religion, and racial politics caused quite a stir. The pope actually had Madonna banned from Italy. Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, led the charge calling on Pepsi to abandon the ad or face a boycott. Pepsi caved in to the pressure, while Madonna walked away with the money.

When Madonna later won Video of the Year at the MTV Music Awards, she declared “I would really like to thank Pepsi for causing so much controversy.” Pepsi was a sponsor of the award show.They had done something similar in 1984 with Michael Jackson, but Jackson actually changed to “Billie Jean” into a song about Pepsi for the commercial. Pepsi ran Madonna’s song unchanged.

Paparazzi...2000

With Lola in London