Vogue (song)

"Vogue" is a 1990 number-one hit single by Madonna from her album I'm Breathless. The song was originally slated to be released as a B-side to "Keep It Together" before becoming one of Madonna's biggest hits of the 1990s and of pop music history on its own.

Song information

In late-1989, after the album Like a Prayer had spawned three U.S. hits - the title track, "Express Yourself" and "Cherish" - and a top-five European single in "Dear Jessie" - its fourth domestic single, "Oh Father", stalled at number twenty in the charts. Perhaps to ensure that the last single release of "Keep It Together" would fare better on the charts, Madonna and producer Shep Pettibone decided to compose a new song to be placed on the flipside of "Keep It Together" and quickly produced "Vogue", partly inspired by a dance performed in New York clubs in which dancers used a series of complex hand gestures to imitate their favourite Hollywood stars (see the list of the names of the Hollywood stars below), as well as the cover models on the magazine Vogue. Madonna brought the hitherto underground "vogueing" culture into the mainstream with the release of her song. After presenting the song to Warner Bros. executives, all parties involved decided that the song was too good to be "wasted" on a B-side and should be released as a single. Although the song itself had nothing to do with Madonna's then upcoming movie Dick Tracy, it was included on the album I'm Breathless, which contained songs from and inspired by the film.

Chart success

Aided by both a single version and an extended remix, as well as a black and white video directed by David Fincher, the song shot to number one in several territories in which it was released. In the UK, the song knocked Snap!'s "The Power" off the number one slot and stayed there for four weeks, continuing a trend of club/pop crossovers going to number one. In the US, the single reached multi-platinum status. In Australia, it was released as a double A-side to "Keep It Together", and it went to the top spot. Massive airplay and sales demand in response to the popular music video (discussed below) in April 1990 made way for "Vogue"'s #39 debut the week of April 14. The song made it to #1 by its sixth week, knocking Sinéad O'Connor out of the top spot, where "Nothing Compares 2 U" had ruled for four weeks. "Vogue" went on to spend nine weeks in the top 40. The success of "Vogue" boosted the sales of the I'm Breathless album, and combined with Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour, generated massive publicity for the Dick Tracy movie.

Music video

Madonna in the black and white "Vogue" video.

The video, directed by David Fincher and shot at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California on February 9-10, 1990, is widely considered one of Madonna's best. In 1993, Rolling Stone magazine listed the video as the twenty-eighth best music video of all-time. It was the third time Fincher and Madonna collaborated on a video (the first being 1989's "Express Yourself" and the second being 1989's "Oh Father"). Filmed in black-and-white, the video recalls the look of 1930s Hollywood films with the use of artwork by the Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka and an Art Deco set design. Many of the scenes are recreations of photographs taken by noted photographer Horst P. Horst, including his famous "Mainbocher Corset". Some of the close-up poses recreate noted portraits of such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Veronica Lake and Marlene Dietrich. (Additionally, several stars of this era are name-checked in the song's lyrics.) There was some controversy surrounding the video due to a scene in which Madonna's breasts (though not her nipples) can be seen through her sheer blouse, as seen in the above picture. MTV wanted to remove this scene, but Madonna refused, and the video aired with the shot intact. The video features the dancers and back-up vocalists for Madonna's then-upcoming Blond Ambition Tour. The choreography was set by "Punk Ballerina" Karole Armitage. The video world-premiered on MTV on March 29, 1990. There are two versions of the video, the regularly aired television music video, and an extended version over three minutes longer.

• Director: David Fincher
• Producer: Vicki Niles
• Director of Photography: Pascal Lebegue
• Editor: Jim Haygood
• Production Company: Propaganda Films

A live performance of "Vogue" at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards also proved popular and was released as a music video on The Immaculate Collection compilation. It featured Madonna and her dancers dressed in an 18th-century French theme, with Madonna bearing resemblance to Marie Antoinette. The performance was considered risqué, as Madonna and her dancers flashed their undergarments during their routine, and at one point Madonna pushed the faces of two male dancers into her breasts, and one of her dancers also fondles her breasts. In 1993, Madonna performed "Vogue" on her tour The Girlie Show. During the song, she wore a large beaded headdress inspired by The King And I and the music was re-arranged with Middle-Eastern sounds. In 2004, Madonna opened her Re-Invention Tour with "Vogue", again using an 18th-century-influenced theme - 're-inventing' the set design of the 1990 VMA performance. That version is included on the track setlists of I'm Going to Tell You a Secret.

Trivia

• This video was ranked #28 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 100 Top Music Videos".
• This video was ranked #2 on MTV's "100 Greatest Videos Ever Made".
• This video was ranked #5 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's.

Official Versions

• Single Version (original master recording; originally intended as b-side of "Keep It Together") - 4:21
• Video/Album Version - 4:50
• 12" Version - 8:26
• Bette Davis Dub - 7:28
• Strike-A-Pose Dub - 7:36
• Q-Sound Mix/The Immaculate Collection Version - 5:18
• Shep's On The Fly Dub - 11:26 (Unreleased)

Hollywood star names

The lyrics of the song reference the names of several 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s stars, in this order:

• Greta Garbo
• Marilyn Monroe
• Marlene Dietrich
• Joe DiMaggio
• Marlon Brando
• James Dean
• Grace Kelly
• Jean Harlow
• Gene Kelly
• Fred Astaire
• Ginger Rogers
• Rita Hayworth
• Lauren Bacall
• Katharine Hepburn
• Lana Turner
• Bette Davis

Nine of the stars were alive at the time the single was released: Greta Garbo (who died less than a month after "Vogue" was released), Marlene Dietrich, Joe DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Hepburn, and Lana Turner. As of October 2007, Bacall is the only one alive.

Charts

External links

• Mad-Eyes.net - "Vogue" Single Page