Madonna (180 Gram Vinyl)

Includes rare 12" dance remixes previously unavailable on CD. Personnel: Madonna (vocals, cowbell); Reggie Lucas (guitar, programming); Ira Siegel, Curtis Hudson, Paul Pesco (guitar); Bobby Malach (tenor saxophone); Fred Zarr (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Moog synthesizer, drums); Dean Gant (piano, electric piano, synthesizer); Ed Walsh (synthesizer); Raymond Hudson (bass); Anthony Jackson (electric bass); Bashiri Johnson (percussion); Leslie Ming (programming); Gwen Guthrie, Norma Jean Wright, Brenda White, Chrissy Faith, Tina B. (background vocals). Producers include: Reggie Lucas, John "Jellybean" Benitez, Mark Kamins. Engineers include: Jim Dougherty, Michael Hutchinson, Jay Mark. Recorded at Sigma Sound Studios, New York, New York. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Punk and disco were the major musical innovations of the '70s. No one utilized these sources as shrewdly as Madonna, whose 1983 self-titled debut still sounds sharp 15 years later. A CBGB-era band waif who also loved the N.Y. dance club scene, Madonna Ciccone brought the brash, self-determining ethos of punk rock to the ecstastic melodic lift of Chic-style dance music. That other N.Y. sex symbol, Debbie Harry of Blondie, also had her biggest hits ("Heart Of Glass," "Rapture") when she flirted with disco and rap, but a winking flirtation is all it remained. Her reputation as a master of imagemaking notwithstanding, Madonna never had much use for irony. Songs like the soulful "Borderline" and the celebratory "Holiday" were heartfelt stabs at commercial pop success in which the singer never condescends to the listener. Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers produced her next album, and the rest is history.