True Blue

A lot happened for Madonna between the years between her 1984 smash album <i>Like a Virgin</i> and its 1986 follow-up, <i>True Blue</i>. The singer appeared in her first two movies: The young-love drama <i>Vision Quest</i>— for which she recorded “Crazy for You”, her second No. 1 single—and the smartly fizzy comedy <i>Desperately Seeking Susan</i>, which produced an all-time classic with “Into the Groove”. As if that wasn’t enough, she delivered her <i>third</i> chart-topper, the ballad “Live to Tell”, for her then-husband Sean Penn’s bleak crime film <i>At Close Range</i>. “Live to Tell”, which would become the first single off <i>True Blue</i>, was the first in a string of era-defining hits that Madonna would co-write and co-produce with Patrick Leonard. You can hear the singer maturing as both a lyricist and a vocalist on “Live to Tell”—but it’s hardly the only moment of artistic growth to be found on <i>True Blue</i>. The second single, “Papa Don’t Preach”—yet <i>another</i> No. 1 hit—found the Material Girl tackling social issues for the first time. And “Open Your Heart”, fittingly, finds Madonna at her most open-hearted, with one of her most vulnerable vocals. It’s also one of several <i>True Blue</i> tracks in which Madonna goes deeper into the 1960s girl-group groove, along with “Where’s the Party”, “Jimmy Jimmy” and, of course, the title track. Elsewhere on the album, “White Heat”—one of a handful of tracks featuring her <i>Like a Virgin</i> collaborator Stephen Bray—feels like a precursor to Madonna’s role as Breathless Mahoney in the 1990 film <i>Dick Tracy</i>. Meanwhile, the Latin-flavoured “La Isla Bonita” inspired everything from her 1987 song “Who’s That Girl” to Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro”.