Dress You Up ● (1985) ● 'Like a Virgin'

 

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Background

Fifth and final single from Like a Virgin, Dress You Up was written by Andrea LaRusso and Peggy Stanziale and produced by Nile Rogers (who produced all songs on the album). At the time, both writers had busy schedules so Dress You Up took a while to write, which meant it almost missed the tracking list as Rogers thought there would be no time to record or produce it. However, Madonna pushed towards the track's completion as she liked the lyrics.

 

Dress You Up was a success worldwide, reaching the Top 20 in all countries it charted in and the Top 10 in most, including #3 in Ireland, #5 in Australia, UK and US, #7 in New Zealand and #10 in Canada. In the UK, it has sold over 210,000, allowing it to be certified 'silver' by the BPI.

 

No video was recorded, however her performance of Dress You Up from The Virgin Tour was used instead. Madonna has also performed this on her Who's That Girl Tour and Sticky and Sweet Tour. Also, despite being outstanding from The Immaculate Collection, Dress You Up was selected as one of the songs on the tracking list to Celebration.

 

Opinion

I can remember hearing this for the first time on Celebration and I instantly loved it. I think I listened to Disc 2 first so was still unfamiliar with Madonna's pre-Noughties stuff aside from some obviously classics, and Dress You Up started off my discovery of 80s Madonna perfectly! I love The Virgin Tour performance, it's one of my favourites that I've seen so far. Brilliant way to open the tour and I think her vocals are actually quite strong.

 

Versions

Album Version [4:01]

12" Formal Mix [6:15]

Casual Instrumental Mix [4:36]

 

Videos

Audio version from the album 'Like a Virgin'

 

The Virgin Tour performance

 

If you have any requests for Song of the Week, feel free to PM me or SweetCandy! Also, I've added links to previous Songs of the Weeks below, so if you missed one, please do comment in them.

 

Songs of the Week

Week 1: I Know It

Week 2: Bad Girl

Week 3: Jump

Week 4: Sky Fits Heaven

Week 5: Causing a Commotion

Week 6: Die Another Day

Week 7: Dress You Up

I have to be in the mood to play it, not one of my favourites saying that I do love the Sticky & Sweet Tour 2009 version pardon the pun but it rocks. I don't care for it otherwise. I don't think it should of been on Celebration - if that was much of a GH it should of been in the immaculate collection instead.

I tried to find the Stick & Sweet performance but I could only find ones people in the audience filmed, so the quality wasn't very good. I guess there are many songs missing from Celebration which were bigger than Dress You Up, but since I really like it, I'm not too bothered that Dress You Up is on the album.

That's cool, one live version with other songs might be a good idea rather than having about 10 versions of one song lol.

 

I love thus track it's certainly one of my favourites ! I have watched the performance from the VT countless times ! Was pleased she included it on celebration as it is kinda a forgotten hit