This past year Madonna put out her fifth collection- now there are three greatest hits, a ballads CD (Something to Remember), and a remix collection (You Can Dance).
Her greatest hits collections have been disappointing to some of her fans. The first one, The Immaculate Collection left out songs, such as "True Blue" and "Who's That Girl". Celebration, from 2009, leaves out soundtrack songs like "This Used To Be My Playground" and "I'll Remember". Plus, like Prince's The Hits/The B-sides, the sequencing makes no sense- it's one thing not to go along chronologically, but there's got to be some kind of rhythm or flow.
My own complaint is the album artwork, specifically the cover shot. Of all available photos they had to go with that one? It's not so much that it's a lesser photo, but the album is called Celebration- yes, she looks high, but not high and happy.
The thing is, an album like Celebration has to include "Material Girl" and "Dress You Up". I've seen interviews where Madonna says she hates "Material Girl" and these aren't even recent interviews. The song is dated, but even worse, it sucked when it came out.
What Madonna should put out, as opposed to a greatest hits CD, is a best of collection. That way, the usual suspects can be dropped and better, lesser-known songs can get the spotlight.
Luckily for everyone, I've already selected the songs and put together a tracklisting. Here's what I'm thinking: two discs, 27 songs.
The Best of Madonna
Disc One
1. Secret Garden
2. Angel
3. Into The Groove
4. Crazy For You
5. Ain't No Big Deal
6. Open Your Heart
7. Who's That Girl
8. Live To Tell
9. Like A Virgin (Blond Ambition Tour Version)
10. I'd Rather Be Your Lover
11. Lucky Star
12. Stay
13. Like A Prayer
Disc Two
1. Supernatural
2. Express Yourself (Remix)
3. Till Death Do Us Part
4. Secret
5. Justify My Love (Remix)
6. Vogue
7. Don't Tell Me
8. Erotica
9. Rain
10. Ray Of Light
11. Nothing Fails (Edit)
12. I'll Remember
13. Erotica (William Orbit Remix)
14. Beautiful Stranger
"Secret Garden", the closer from Erotica, is an excellent, overlooked song and would make the perfect opener for a collection like this. "Angel" has always been overshadowed by other Like A Virgin singles and even by its B-side, "Into The Groove". "Crazy For You" would lead into one of Madonna's earliest songs, "Ain't No Big Deal", which finally came out as the B-side to "True Blue". Yes, it's very dated, but it's fun, and it's something new and different. Also, it's no worse than "Dress You Up".
"Like A Virgin" was never one of my favorite songs but I love the way she did it on the Blond Ambition tour; it's exciting, especially the intro. "I'd Rather Be Your Lover" from Bedtime Stories is a great song, and if Madonna wasn't, at the time, trying to present a less sexual side after Sex and Erotica and Body of Evidence it probably would've been released as a single and been a huge hit.
"Stay", the closer of Like A Virgin, has held up well and is a good example of Madonna at her best in the mid 1980s. Disc One would close with "Like A Prayer", a song that was probably the biggest change in Madonna's career. It signaled a whole new direction for her music.
To open Disc Two, I chose "Supernatural", the B-side to "Cherish" with its Jimi Hendrix-style intro. The Like A Prayer-era is my favorite period in Madonna's career. I think that's when she made her best songs and really put music first. Then Warren Beatty made her dye her hair blond again and everything back-slided. Still, there'll always be "Till Death Do Us Part". The real instruments, as opposed to keyboards, really stand out on this track. It's too bad she didn't do more songs like it.
Then again, there's "Secret", which wouldn't be the same without the guitars. Both Justify My Love" and "Erotica" would be better represented by remixes- for "Erotica" I'd go with the WO Remix; it combines the best of the album version and the Sex version.
"Nothing Fails" is one of my favorite of Madonna's songs from the past decade. I would, however, edit out the swollen gospel chorus towards the end. Too much.
"Beautiful Stranger" from the first Austin Powers sequel is an excellent song and features all the best qualities of Madonna's greatest songs.
Anyway, maybe I left out some good songs from the past ten years; maybe I could reconsider. But the basic idea- that Madonna's back catologue would be better represented by a "best of" collection- is a sound one. There are a lot of good songs that don't get the attention that they deserve and Madonna is, as a musician, underrated.
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