Here are the latest entries in the "albums that influenced me" series I started writing in May 2020.
Note: Just because an album appears on this list doesn't mean I give it a blanket endorsement. Many of the secular albums on this list are mainly there because they wound up being spoofed by ApologetiX.1458. I'm Breathless (Music From and Inspired by The Film Dick Tracy) - MadonnaI was a big fan of Dick Tracy as a kid. In fact, the first book I ever purchased with my own money was a big 1970 hard-cover anthology of his adventures in cartoon strips from 1931-51. Consequently, I was somewhat interested when the long-awaited Dick Tracy film finally came out in mid-June 1990. Warren Beatty starred as the titular detective, and one of his co-stars was Madonna, as the femme fatale Breathless Mahoney. The movie received mixed reviews from critics (and yours truly) but was the ninth highest-grossing film of America that year. Released several weeks in advance, on May 22, 1990, Madonna's
I'm Breathless LP comprised jazz, swing, and pop songs, including a duet with Beatty ("Now I'm Following You," Parts I and II) and another with Mandy Patinkin ("What Can You Lose"), who played one of Tracy's celebrated foes, piano player 88 Keys. Three years earlier Patinkin had immortalized the role of Inigo Montoya in
The Princess Bride. A number of the tracks sound like they could have come from a stage musical, and famed Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim even wrote three of them: "Sooner or Later," "More," and "What Can You Lose." Tunes like "Cry Baby" and "I'm Going Bananas" also have a showtune feel, so it shouldn't be surprising that Madonna would go on to star in the cinematic version of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Evita in 1996. Two of the songs from
I'm Breathless became Top 10 hits for Madonna — "Vogue" (#1 U.S. and U.K.) and "Hanky Panky" (#10 U.S., #2 U.K.). The album itself reached #2 on the
Billboard 200, selling three million copies in the United States and seven million worldwide.
1459. The Immaculate Collection - MadonnaAfter getting her foot in the door with "Everybody" (#107 pop, #3 dance) in 1982 and "Holiday" (#16 pop, #1 dance) in '83, Madonna put that foot on the gas with 17 straight Top 10 pop singles from 1984-89. In fact, after the first, "Borderline" (#10), the next 16 all hit the Top 5. Then came a slight speed bump with "Oh Father" (#20), followed by an additional eight straight Top 10s from 1990-93. And there would be 13 more non-consecutive Top 10s between 1994 and 2012. Released on November 13, 1990, this was her first greatest hits collection, and it featured 15 tracks from 1983-90, plus two new ones, "Justify My Love" (#1) and "Rescue Me" (#9). As for the rest, there were seven #1 hits ("Like a Virgin," "Crazy for You," "Live to Tell," "Papa Don't Preach," "Open Your Heart," "Like a Prayer" and "Vogue"), three #2 hits ("Material Girl," "Express Yourself," and "Cherish"), two #4 hits ("Lucky Star" and "La Isla Bonita"), and the #1 dance hit "Get Into the Groove," which was never released as a commercial single in the States, although it got tons of airplay here and went to #1 in the United Kingdom. The remaining two tracks were the aforementioned "Holiday" and "Borderline." That's an astonishing number of legit hits for an artist's entire career, let alone the first act, but what's equally impressive is the number of smash singles from 1983-90 that
didn't make the cut: "Who's That Girl" (#1), "Causing a Commotion" (#2), "True Blue" (#3), "Angel" (#5), "Dress You Up" (#5), and "Hanky Panky" (#10). Imagine having so many hits in an eight-year span that you had to omit six Top 10 singles, five of which hit the Top Five, and three of which hit the Top Three!
The Immaculate Collection sold 11 million copies in the United States and 30 million worldwide but stalled at #2 on the
Billboard 200. Why? We'll see when we get to our next entry.
1460. To the Extreme - Vanilla IceAs you might imagine, it took a blockbuster album to keep Madonna's first greatest hits collection out of the top spot. However, it wasn't the work of an established artist but a previously unknown 21-year-old rapper. No one gave a rip about Robert Van Winkle until he wound up with the sleeper hit of the year. Despite his origins in the sunny climes of Dallas and Miami, he took the name Vanilla Ice and took the charts by storm, becoming the first rap artist ever to have a #1 U.S. pop single, "Ice Ice Baby," on November 3, 1990. Some music historians consider that to also be the first rap song to hit #1 on the Hot 100. Others might point to "Rapture" by Blondie, almost a full decade earlier, although only a portion of that song included rapping. "Ice Ice Baby" stayed at the plateau for just one week, but its parent album,
To the Extreme, topped the
Billboard 200 for 16 straight and sold seven million copies stateside in the process. Two other cuts were released as singles: "Play That Funky Music" (#4) and "I Love You" (#52). Unfortunately, Ice's day in the sun melted away quickly. What a shame, because the last track on
To the Extreme, "Havin' a Roni," showed such promise. His next studio LP,
Cool as Ice, stalled at #89 and spawned only one Hot 100 single — his last — "Cool as Ice (Everybody Get Loose)" (#81). Nevertheless, he remains an icon, bemoaned by some but beloved by many. ApologetiX spoofed "Ice Ice Baby" in 2013. We also spoofed "Play That Funky Music" in 2000 and 2010, but we imitated the Wild Cherry version. No matter what you think of the Thrilla in Vanilla, you have to admit he performed well under pressure.
1461. Please Don't Hurt 'Em Hammer - MC HammerIf you're looking for somebody to thank (or blame) for the success of Vanilla Ice, consider Stanley Kirk Burrell, the former batboy for the Oakland A's whose resemblance to baseball slugger "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron lead to his eventual name change to MC Hammer. The rapper's second LP,
Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, spent 21 weeks atop the
Billboard 200 in the spring, summer, and fall of 1990, paving the way for when the Iceman would cometh. Hammer held the #1 spot for three weeks before being briefly interrupted for a week by the fourth New Kids on the Block LP,
Step By Step. Then he returned for 18 more before passing the torch to Ice's
To the Extreme. Released on February 12, 1990,
Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em sold over 10 million copies, thanks to three huge singles: "U Can't Touch This" (#8 pop), which sampled "Super Freak" by Rick James; "Have You Seen Her" (#4), a remake of the old Chi-Lites hit; and "Pray" (#2), which sampled "When Doves Cry" by Prince. If U can't believe "U Can't Touch This" wasn't a #1 hit, U need to know that it wasn't initially available as single, which is one of the reasons why the album sold so well. Albums generate a lot more money than singles, so I can understand the record company's strategy. "U Can't Touch This" did go to #4 on the
Cash Box chart, though, and it hit #1 on the
Radio & Records chart, which focused on airplay as opposed to sales. A fourth single, "Here Comes the Hammer," only went to #54. However, as the title of his '91 follow-up LP would state, Hammer was
2 Legit to Quit. The title track went to #5, selling a million copies, and the album went to #2, selling three million copies. Hammer had two more significant hits, both of which sold half a million copies: "Addams Groove" (#7 in ’92), from the movie
The Addams Family, and "Pumps and a Bump" (#26 in '94).
1462. Something to Remember - MadonnaAdvertised as "Madonna's greatest ballad hits,"
Something to Remember hit the market on November 3, 1995. Five of the songs had never appeared on a Madonna LP — "This Used to Be My Playground" (#1), from the movie
A League of Their Own; "I'll Remember" (#2 for four weeks), from the movie
With Honors; and three produced especially for this compilation, "You'll See" (#6), "One More Chance" (#11 U.K.), and two versions of Marvin Gaye's 1976 pop and R&B hit "I Want You" (with Massive Attack).
Something to Remember also featured a new remix of her 1984 cover of Rose Royce's "Love Don't Live Here Anymore," which was released as from this album and met with moderate success (#78 pop, #29 adult contemporary, #16 dance). Not all of the 14 tracks were hits, but most were, including: "Take a Bow" (#1 for seven weeks), "Crazy for You" (#1), "Live to Tell (#1), "Rain" (#14), and the poignant "Oh Father" (#20), one my favorite Madonna songs.
Something to Remember reached #6 on the
Billboard 200 and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
1463. GHV2 - MadonnaMadonna's second greatest hits album,
GHV2, covered singles from 1991-2000. Released on November 13, 2001 — exactly 11 years after
The Immaculate Collection — it also had the same number of tracks (15). Every one of them hit the Top 10 on either the U.S. or U.K. charts, and more than half did so on both. I sorted the songs in order of highest chart position on either chart, and here's how it shook out: "Music" (#1 U.S., #1 U.K.), "Take a Bow" (#1 U.S., #16 U.K.), "Frozen" (#1 U.K., #2 U.S.), "Ray of Light" (#2 U.K., #5 U.S.), "Beautiful Stranger" (#2 U.K., #19 U.S.), "Erotica" (#3 U.S., #3 U.K.), "Secret" (#3 U.S., #5 U.K.), "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (#3 U.K., #6 U.S.), "Don't Tell Me" (#4 U.S., #4 U.K.), "Bedtime Story" (#4 U.K., #42 U.S.), "Deeper and Deeper" (#6 U.K., #7 U.S.), "The Power of Good-Bye" (#6 U.K., #11 U.S.), "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (#7 U.K., #23 U.S.), "Human" (#8 U.K., #46 U.S.), and "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" (#10 U.K., not a single in the U.S.). There were no new tunes this time around, but two of the selections, "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Beautiful Stranger," had previously only appeared on soundtrack albums.
GHV2 reached #7 on the
Billboard 200 and #2 on the U.K. album chart, selling about a million and a half copies in the States and over seven million worldwide. ApologetiX released a parody pertaining to Madonna in 1996 and 2017. It's called “Maybe Madonna," although it's not a spoof of one of her songs. You can hear it, along with a brief spoken intro I did explaining the premise
HERE.
1464. The Best of Chairmen of the Board: Ten Best Series - Chairmen of the BoardWhen I purchased
The Best of Chairmen of the Board (part of the
Ten Best series), I figured the title might've been a little charitable. I only knew "Give Me Just a Little More Time," and I wasn't sure they had any other successful singles. As it turns out, the Detroit-based soul group had four U.S. Top 40 pop hits, eight U.S. Top 40 R&B hits, and eight U.K. pop hits from 1970-73. Each of the 10 tracks on
The Best of Chairmen of the Board made the Top 40 on at least one of those charts. In addition to "Give Me Just a Little More Time" (#3 U.S. pop., #8 R&B, #3 U.K.), there was "Pay to the Piper" (#4 R&B, #13 pop, #34 U.K.), "(You've Got Me Dangling) On a String" (#5 U.K., #19 R&B, #38 pop), "Finders Keepers" (#7 R&B, #21 U.K., #59 pop), "Chairman of the Board" (#10 R&B, #43 pop, #48 U.K.), "Everything's Tuesday" (#12 U.K., #14 R&B, #38 pop), "Try on My Love for Size" (#20 U.K., #48 R&B), "Hanging on to a Memory" (#28 R&B), "Everybody's Got a Song to Sing" (#30 R&B), and "Men Are Getting Scarce" (#33 R&B). None of them sound just like "Give Me Just a Little More Time," either. If you like early '70s R&B, as I do, you'd probably enjoy this collection. Chairmen of the Board also recorded the original version of the Clarence Carter hit "Patches" (#4 pop, #2 R&B, #1
Cash Box). As a matter of fact, it was written by their lead singer, General Johnson.
