I'll Remember...1987

You Can Dance US Album Promotion

For the Record...You Can Dance

Released: November 17, 1987
“You Can Dance” by Madonna is released. Produced by Madonna, Stephen Bray, Nile Rodgers, Reggie Lucas, Mark Kamins, and John “Jellybean” Benitez, it is recorded from May 1982 - September 1987. The seven track compilation is the first remix album from Madonna and features tracks from her first three albums remixed by John “Jellybean” Benitez, Shep Pettibone, Bruce Forest, and Frank Heller and Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero. The set is filled out by the track “Spotlight” which is an outtake from the “True Blue” sessions. The album is sequenced so that the tracks are mixed together in a continuous sequence on both sides to emulate a DJ’s club set. A promotional version of the album will be released to radio that features edited versions of the tracks with cue banding between the songs. Warner Bros will also issue three promo 12” singles to club DJ’s that will become heavily sought after by collectors. “You Can Dance” will peak at number fourteen on the Billboard Top 200, spending one week at number one on the Club Play chart, and is certified Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

'You Can Dance' TV Commercial 

And You Can Dance...

Hmmmm, so what exactly happened to You Can Dance to delay it so much? Madonna's album discography reads:

Album / Catalogue Number / Date Entered Chart

True Blue - WX54 - 12 June 1986

Who's That Girl - WX102 - 1 August 1987You Can Dance - WX76 - 28 November 1987

...as those of us old enough remember, from purchasing the albums as they came out, that is the correct order of release. However, take a look at the catalogue numbers. Something's wrong there, eh? Logically, following the sequence of the (above) or the general European/US one - (TB - 925 442-2, WTG - 925 611-2, YCD - 925 535-2) - shows clearly that You Can Dance was completed and ready for release far far before Who's That Girl. Why was it held back so long? No-one knows. What we do know is that 'Spotlight', the lead single from 'You Can Dance', was a rejected song from the 'True Blue' album. Strange to lead a new compilation with a song not considered strong enough even as a mere album filler track almost two years previously.

The Liner notes for 'You Can Dance' were dated September 1987, a full two months before the album reached the shops, but also a month after the 'Who's That Girl' album had been released. The liner notes, however, talk of 'Where's The Party' being taken from Madonna's 'most recently released album, 'True Blue''. The cover photo shoot used for the 'You Can Dance' album was completed early enough for the various countries around the world to use different shots from it as their 'La Isla Bonita' single art. The remixes contained on the album must have been completed by at least March 1987 as the mix of 'Into The Groove' which features on the album was included in the set of the Who's That Girl Tour... the costumes were a hint of what was to come too.  Back to the supposed 'contemporary' liner notes - Brian Chin, in discussing the remix of 'Into The Groove' states it is 'the mix she currently performs on tour. She certainly wasn't still on tour in November 1987! LOLDid Sire hold 'You Can Dance' back to allow sales of the 'Who's That Girl' soundtrack to flourish without confusing the public? Was there some contractual restraint stalling a full Madonna album coming out a certain amount of time after the 'Who's That Girl' soundtrack? We know this has been the case with other Madonna film vs music projects - the 'I'm Going To Tell You A Secret' vs 'Re-Invention Tour' debacle has shown that can happen! Was 'You Can Dance' a pre-planned stalling product purely put out to reinvigorate sales of her back catalogue and to fill the planned 1988 gap caused by the 'year out from music' Madonna filled with acting work? Cynics would suggest so, and with the 'unique remixes' only being available on the cassette and different ones only on the CD it can been seen as a general money-generating project, albeit a pretty high quality one.So, just how soon after the 'True Blue' album was 'You Can Dance' completed? Well, one way to guess would be to look at the release date of the record with the catalogue number before it. That would be Falco's 'Emotional' album - catalogue number WX75. Release date? 1986. Hmmm. Answers on a postcard....

Thx MadonnaTribe

I'll Remember...1987

In November 1987, Warner Bros. Records commissioned the release of You Can Dance—Madonna's first retrospective—which was aimed at the dance segment of her audience It was an album containing seven of Madonna's songs in remixed format, which was still a revolutionary concept in the 1980s. By the mid-eighties, post-disco dance music was extremely popular and the concept of remix was widely regarded as a new direction of music. Several artists were remixing their tracks and compiling them to create new albums. Mixing was an interpretative process, where the artist was usually involved, but the development was generally looked after the record producer. The different parts of a song, including the lead vocals, background vocals, guitars, bass, synths, drum machine—all went through the process of mixing to sound considerably different from their original counterpart. Mixing determined how loud these instruments were going to sound in relation to each other and what particular sound effects should be added to each instrument. Improvements in studio technologies meant the possibility of shaping the sound of a song in any way, after it has been recorded. The arrangements were it created at the mixing stage, rather than being created previously. A particular vocal phrase could be endlessly copied, repeated, chopped up, transposed up and down in pitch and give them more echo, reverberation, treble or bass.

It was this concept, which intrigued Madonna, while she was developing her third studio album True Blue (1986). She said, "I hate it when people do master mixes of my records. I don't want to hear my songs changed like that. I don't know that I like it, people screwing with my records. The jury is out on it for me. But the fans like it, and really, this one was for the fans, for the kids in the clubs who wanted to hear these songs in a fresh new way." She went to Warner with the idea of releasing her songs by remixing them in a complete dance tune. From Warner's point of view, the rise of remix was a commercial boon, because it meant making more money out of the same piece of music. Instead of paying Madonna to go to studio and record different tracks, they found that allowing her to record the same tracks in different formats was much less costly. Hence they decided to release the album, but gave full freedom to Madonna to choose the producers with whom she wanted to develop the remixes.

I'll Remember...1988

"Spotlight", written by Madonna, Stephen Bray and Curtis Hudson, was originally recorded during the 1986 True Blue album recording sessions, but not included because it was too similar in composition and structure to "Holiday".  When she decided to make 'You Can Dance', she asked Shep Pettibone to remix "Spotlight" to included it on the album.  John "Jellybean" Benitez, who had recorded the original demo during the True Blue sessions, assisted Pettibone in remixing the song.  Madonna has said that she was inspired by the song "Everybody Is a Star" by Sly and the Family Stone as the theme of the song.

The song was released commercially in Japan on April 25, 1988. "Spotlight" peaked at number 68 on the Oricon weekly singles chart, remaining on the chart for five weeks.  It was also featured in the last of a series of Japanese TV commercials Madonna filmed for electronics company Mitsubishi.

Oh how I wish she would have released this as a single world wide.  It would have probably pushed the 'You Can Dance' album into the top ten and I am sure 'Spotlight' would have fared well on the charts aswell.  They could have used footage from the commercial above and incorporate scenes from the 'Who's That Girl' tour.  What do you think?