May 27, 20214 yr Author This photo popped up on my Facebook feed and it's instantly one of my favourite Madonna photos. A stunning, classic Hollywood look. :heart: Stunning photo! Every photo from this era is "iconic" in every sense of the word - I know that gets thrown around a lot, but she literally looks like a timeless icon in them.
May 28, 20214 yr Yeah 'timeless' is definitely the word, that whole look will never get old. I've found a full photo here along with other gorgeous shots from the era: @1398047688395001859
June 30, 20214 yr Author Happy 35th anniversary to this incredible album! :cheer: @1410274164041265155 "Get ready for more ‘True Blue’ surprises coming soon!" :o - I hope this is something in terms of physical formats such as vinyl re-releases and not just the rest of the singles being upgraded to HD videos etc. :w00t:
June 30, 20214 yr Happy 35th to 'True Blue'! :heart: A couple of anniversary articles here: @1409870382417461249 @1410191521106862080
June 30, 20214 yr Author She has changed some of her profile pictures on her social media accounts to the album cover! 💙
June 30, 20214 yr "Get ready for more ‘True Blue’ surprises coming soon!" :o - I hope this is something in terms of physical formats such as vinyl re-releases and not just the rest of the singles being upgraded to HD videos etc. :w00t: I'm not expecting anything as significant as that but I could maybe see them uploading a 35th anniversary digital edition like they did for 'Like a Prayer'.
July 1, 20214 yr Surely one of the greatest album covers of all time?!!! The word 'iconic' gets overused, but in this case, the True Blue album cover is truly .....ICONIC
July 1, 20214 yr Author Surely one of the greatest album covers of all time?!!! The word 'iconic' gets overused, but in this case, the True Blue album cover is truly .....ICONIC Absolutely!! It's an icon image of pop culture for sure and represents not only the music on the album and its era perfectly but Madonna as an artist throughout the first few decades of her career.
July 2, 20214 yr Patrick Leonard talks to USA Today about 'True Blue': “The music got more serious, so I think she got taken more seriously,” Leonard, who also co-wrote five of the album’s songs, told USA TODAY. “It was different, and to her credit, she took some chances that I don’t know most people would have. There were things in there that weren’t normal in pop music at the time.” Leonard was 30 at the time “True Blue” was recorded, and previously served as the music director for Madonna’s “The Virgin Tour” in 1985. But their collaboration at a backyard barbecue on “Love Makes the World Go Round,” which would debut later that year at Live Aid before landing on “True Blue,” marked their first songwriting pairing. Two of the album’s five singles – the string-laden teen pregnancy drama “Papa Don’t Preach” and sweet “True Blue” – were produced by Bray, who also co-wrote “Where’s The Party,” “Jimmy Jimmy” and the title track. Leonard said he and Bray would assist each other, but the two producers primarily “kept to our own little worlds.” But even with different captains, the songs shared a common throughline. “There’s a chemical thing that contributes to that ‘thing’ and why those records are what they are,” Leonard said. “They were relatively spontaneous for the most part. As legend has it, most of those vocals are the only time Madonna sang (the songs in the studio) and I can attest to that. It helped that neither she nor I are second guessers. Period.” Calling from his home studio in Connecticut, Leonard shared memories of making the iconic work. The first single, “Live to Tell,” was Madonna’s second ballad and followed the spirited hits “Into the Groove” and “Dress You Up”: “I know that there were some concerned parties, such as management, who thought it was a bit of a mistake as a first single. At that point in my career I wasn’t thinking about singles. I never really did think about singles. And there were other agendas in there, like Sean’s movie coming out, that conspired at the time. But it was a (gutsy) move for a first single coming off (dance hits). (The longer story) is that I was trying to score a movie and my then-managers set me up with a director for his first movie and the music I had was ‘Live to Tell.’ I asked Madonna as a favor if she could write the lyrics because I figured it would give me a leg up (to get the job). As she was on her way to my house, my manager called and said they hired someone else. When she got there, I told her and she said, ‘Oh, well, Sean just made a movie so maybe it can be used in his movie.’ She sat on the floor with a legal pad, wrote the lyrics and we recorded it on an 8-track in my house… Sean Penn’s director, James Foley, loved the song. Madonna said, ‘Who is going to sing it?’ and we said, ‘You are!’ We just transferred the demo (and that’s the version on the record). Madonna also said, ‘And you can score the movie.’” “Open Your Heart” was the fourth single from “True Blue” and became Madonna’s fifth No. 1 hit: “The demo of that song couldn’t be more different than how it ended up. It wasn’t aggressive 16th note synths. I don’t remember what it was, but I remember Madonna gave me the demo and I worked on it and she said “No, no, no.” So I redid the sequencing on the bass line because she wanted something aggressive. It was much better than where I was going with it.” “La Isla Bonita” – the fifth and final single from the album - marked a stylistic shift for Madonna: “Quincy (Jones) called me and said, ‘I want to do something like Sade for Michael Jackson.’ He didn’t like (the song) so I showed it to Madonna and she liked it. I know that we sat around talking on the phone to a Hispanic housekeeper to get the translations correct. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to do anything like that with her. But she liked it. My take on this stuff is it’s a more visceral response than an intellectual one. In this moment, this feels good, let’s put a vocal on it, and you get this thing that works so well.” “Where’s the Party” wasn’t an official single, but the fan favorite garnered plenty of radio play: “We probably could have kept going (with singles). There were four of us who made that record – Michael Verdick recorded and mixed it and he had great instincts about how it should sound – and it was so unified. If people bought the sound of the record and where she was going (musically), you were going to like (all of it). We wrote (‘Party’) while making the record. I think at that point we were all having fun.”
July 24, 20213 yr Agony to see this album cover, it looks like she's going to break her neck at any moment for pushing her head too far back.
July 29, 20213 yr Agony to see this album cover, it looks like she's going to break her neck at any moment for pushing her head too far back. Funnily enough I'm in agony every time Gaga opens her fleshy neck to sing.... funny old world isn't Adelita ! True Blue is probably one the most iconic album covers of all time. Scrap that, it is the most iconic for me. Love it.
July 29, 20213 yr Author You were spot on! I'm not expecting anything as significant as that but I could maybe see them uploading a 35th anniversary digital edition like they did for 'Like a Prayer'.
