True Blue (song)

True blue
Madonna
publication	September 29, 1986
length	4:17
Genre (s)	pop
Author (s)	Madonna, Stephen Bray
album	True blue

True Blue is a song by the American singer and songwriter Madonna . It was released on September 29, 1986 on Sire Records as the third single from their third studio album, True Blue . The song was composed by Steve Bray. The play is about Madonna's feelings for her husband at the time, Sean Penn . True Blue is a dance pop song that was played and recorded with a rhythm guitar , synthesizer , keyboard and drums . The song was in the doo-wop - music style set to music. It's 4:17 minutes long.

True Blue was rated well by the critics , with many describing the song as the “highlight of the album” and a “well-done pop song”. The single was a huge success, with the song becoming a number one hit in the UK , Ireland and Canada . In the United States, the single was also successful and reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 . In the original music video , Madonna has a new image : slimmer, sportier and with platinum-blonde, curly hair. Another music video was shot for the Make My Video contest on MTV . Both videos were inspired by the 1950s and visually showed the theme and content of the song. True Blue was only presented live by Madonna on the Who's That Girl World Tour .

Origin and inspiration

The song was written and produced by Steve Bray , with Madonna co- wrote and produced the song . According to Madonna, the title True Blue came to her mind as her then-husband Sean Penn often mentioned the word in connection with their relationship. True Blue is intended to be a metaphor for "perfect and true love that never ends". In addition, Madonna wanted a song that sums up the content and impressions of the entire album and expresses them in one song. That's why Madonna called the track True Blue , just like the album of the same name. In an interview, Steve Bray said, “She [Madonna] was really that much in love. It was clear to us that when she is so deeply in love she writes love songs. If she's not in love, she definitely doesn't write love songs. "

Musical

True Blue is a dance pop song that was inspired by the Motown girl groups of the 1960s, who are considered to be the direct precursors of Madonna's musical style. The song was composed in the key of B flat major . In a musical doo-wop style, the song is about 120 bpm .

Madonna's vocal range is one and a half octaves , from F ₃ to B ₄ . The chorus is played with bells ringing . The bells are always played according to the verse "This time I know it's true", which is sung by background singers during the bridge . A bass melody on which Madonna sings on the second chorus also uses bells. The lyrics are in a simple verse-chorus form that Madonna uses to explain her feelings and impressions about Sean Penn; it contains a personal salutation to Sean, this is made clear by the salutation "dear" in the line "Just think back and remember, dear".

reception

criticism

From music critics was True Blue largely well received.

Rolling Stone magazine's Davitt Sigerson said in his feedback on True Blue that the song "wastes a classic beat and an immensely promising title." Bill Holdship from Yahoo! said True Blue was "a beautiful tribute from Madonna to the girl groups of the 50s and 60s". In his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography , journalist J. Randy Taraborrelli describes the song as "the best, cutest, funnest track on the entire True Blue album that has a 1950s feel to it." In the book Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush , which contains various information about different artists and their songs, the author Maury Dean describes the song as a “masterpiece of simplicity, interwoven with secret complexity” and adds “on the one hand it is just a basic street song, with four basic chords. In another context it is a harmonic machine that is driven romantically and melodically . "

The The Wichita Eagle did not like the song because they thought it would be "neutral" compared to the other songs on the album. Daniel Brogan of The Chicago Tribune noted the song was good and called it "impressive" as the rest of the songs on the album, Jan DeKnock of the same newspaper said the song was so "adorable and magical". Steve Morse of The Boston Globe said when describing the song, "the song is just wonderful".

Commercial win

True Blue was released in the United States in October 1986. The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 40, six weeks later it reached a top ranking of number 3 for three weeks and spent a total of 16 weeks in the top ten. In October 1998, the single went gold in the United States . True blue debuted in Canada at number 84 in the week ending September 27, 1986, and in November 1986 the song became a number one hit for Madonna in Canada and stayed in the top ten for a total of 23 weeks. The single reached number 37 in the annual charts.

In the United Kingdom , True Blue was released on September 29, 1986. It debuted at number 3 on the UK singles chart before becoming a number one hit for Madonna the next week, making True Blue Madonna's third number one hit there. In Europe , True Blue became a number one hit on the European charts in October 1986. It reached the top 5 in Belgium , Italy and the Netherlands , as well as the top ten in Austria , France , Germany and Switzerland .

Music video

Two music videos have been released for True Blue , the official original music video for True Blue is described in the next section. The second music video filmed for a competition by MTV is described below.

Official music video

The original music video for True Blue was filmed in New York City in September 1986, directed by James Foley . David Naylor and Sharon Oreck acted as producers. For the photography was Michael Ballhaus responsible. In the video, Madonna is in a blue environment (the video was shot using the blue screen method) with three dancers and a typical American car from the 1950s. The video contains many dance scenes in three different locations each. In the first dance scene, a choreography is danced, Madonna and the dancers are in front of a blue screen wall. The second dance scene involves dancing on the car. The last dance scene is dancing near a bar that is completely surrounded by the blue screen, so the viewer does not find out whether the event could take place in a pub , for example . The music video changes several times between all dance scenes. The blue screen technique was mainly used for the music video so that the audience's imagination is stimulated and they can get an idea of ​​a possible environment for themselves.

The text line "The sun is bursting right out of the sky" makes it clear that the blue background is supposed to represent a sky with a sun, so the meaning of the song's content is retained in the video. Two of Madonna's best friends, Erika Belle and Debi Mazar , star in the music video. The music video was released around the time Madonna fell in love with actor Sean Penn in late 1986 . During this time period, Madonna focused in a traditional way and wanted her fans to see her as more respectful of traditional gender roles. After her toy boy image in the last music video for Live to Tell , Madonna designed the image described above for this music video. Madonna took extra gymnastics lessons at Hollywood's The Sports Connection Center so she could sport her new image in the video.

Make My Video Contest Video

Sire Records decided to make a promotional music video for True Blue to enter a competition on MTV that allowed fans to submit their own True Blue music videos . In late 1986, MTV held a competition asking viewers and fans to shoot their own True Blue video for the competition. The competition became known as Madonna's 'Make My Video' contest .

The winner won a trip to New York City to the MTV studio where the original True Blue video was shot. The winner was also able to meet Madonna in this studio, who then personally handed the winner the prize money of $ 250,000. The whole action was broadcast on MTV Live in America. Thousands of viewers then sent their own music videos to MTV, most of them home videos in which several people were recreating the True Blue music video in a rather amateurish manner. MTV's Peter Danielson said that many teenagers were impersonating Madonna in the videos . All videos received were broadcast on an extra broadcast on MTV. True Blue was played all the time, but with a different music video each time. Writer Lisa A. Lewis said this event showed how popular, successful and glorious Madonna was, everyone who posted a video wanted to act like Madonna to win the award. MTV finally selected ten finalists after several weeks.

Most of the candidates tried to change the meaning of the song with their various videos. Only the last three candidates sported a 50s style and showed exactly the content of the original video in their videos. Only after the videos were selected for the semifinals should the semifinals deepen the topic of love. Most of the videos submitted were from men's groups, closely followed by the group of teenage girls. The winners were Angel Gracia and Cliff Guest, whose music video showed a female protagonist who drives with her friends to the male protagonist. Upon arrival, both main characters fall in love. The girl goes to the boyfriend's front door and gives him flowers and gifts. The male protagonist is shown in the video as the perfect partner, he has everything a best friend needs (this scene begins after the line “You're my best friend”, which describes the whole situation in one sentence). There were no sexual innuendos in the winning video either . The video was inspired by Tina Turner's music video for the 1984 number-one hit What's Love Got to Do with It . Madonna then recorded the winning video on True Blue herself and released both videos, that of the winning couple and her own version of the winning video.

Live performances and cover versions

Madonna only presented the song on her Who's That Girl World Tour in 1987. Every time True Blue performed , Madonna came on stage in a blue dress and sang the song immediately after the song Lucky Star . In a similar relation to the original music video, Madonna is surrounded by dancers who represent her friends. At the end of the song, Madonna asked the dancers if a man should take on their role and then sang the song again, and a dancer actually came on stage. The choreographies of Madonna's dance during the performance (and the others on their tour) were done by Jeffrey Hornaday from Flashdance . Two different performances of the song are on the videos: Who's That Girl - Live in Japan , filmed in Tokyo , Japan on June 22, 1987, and Ciao, Italia! - Live from Italy , filmed in Turin , Italy on September 4th, 1987. The punk band Digger from Pennsylvania , took in 1996, a cover version of True Blue on. The cover version is included on their first LP Powerbait from 1996.

Contributors

• Madonna - songwriter , producer , vocals
• Steve Bray - drums , keyboard , songwriter, producer
• Bruce Gaitsch - rhythm guitar
• Fred Zarr - keyboard
• Steve Peck - Engineer
• Shep Pettibone - mixer
• Herb Ritts - Photography
• Jeri McManus - design / single cover

Charts and awards

Charts

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	6th (15 weeks)	15th
Austria (Ö3)	9 (14 weeks)	14th
Switzerland (IFPI)	6th (10 weeks)	10
United Kingdom (OCC)	1 (15 weeks)	15th
United States (Billboard)	3 (16 weeks)	16

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	platinum	70,000
France (SNEP)	silver	250,000
United States (RIAA)	gold	500,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	556,000
All in all	1 × silver 2 × gold 1 × platinum	1,376,000

Main article: Madonna (artist) / Awards for music sales

Web links

• Madonna.com> Discography> True Blue
• Music video on YouTube

literature

• Carol Benson, Allan Metz: The Madonna Companion. Two Decades of Commentary. Schirmer Books, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-02-864972-9 .
• Carol Clerk: Madonna style. Omnibus Press, London 2002, ISBN 0-7119-8874-9 .
• Maury Dean: Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush. A Singles Un-Cyclopedia. Algora Publishing, New York NY 2003, ISBN 0-87586-207-1 .
• Lisa A. Lewis: Gender Politics and MTV. Voicing the difference. Temple University Press, Philadelphia PA 1990, ISBN 0-87722-942-2 .
• Dave Marsh: The heart of rock & soul. The 1001 greatest singles ever made. 1st Da Capo Press edition. Da Capo Press, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-306-80901-X .
• William McKeen (Ed.): Rock and Roll is Here to Stay. An Anthology. WW Norton & Company, New York NY et al. 2000, ISBN 0-393-04700-8 .
• Mick St. Michael: Madonna 'talking'. Madonna in Her Own Words. Omnibus Press, London 2004, ISBN 1-84449-418-7 .
• Andrew Morton : Madonna. St. Martin's paperback edition. St. Martin's Paperbacks, New York NY 2002, ISBN 0-312-98310-7 .
• James Robert Parish, Michael R. Pitts: Hollywood Songsters. Singers who act and Actors who sing. A biographical dictionary. Volume 2: Garland to O'Connor. Routledge, New York NY et al. 2003, ISBN 0-415-94333-7 .
• Lucinda Joy Peach (Ed.): Women in culture. A women's studies anthology. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge MA et al. 1998, ISBN 1-55786-649-X .
• Rikky Rooksby: Madonna. The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna. Omnibus Press, London et al. 2004, ISBN 0-7119-9883-3 .
• J. Randy Taraborrelli: Madonna. An Intimate Biography. Simon & Schuster, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-7432-2880-4 .
• Debbie Voller: Madonna. The Style Book. New edition. Omnibus Press, London 1999, ISBN 0-7119-7511-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Taraborrelli: Madonna. 2001, p. 119.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Benson, Metz: The Madonna Companion. 1999, p. 48.
3. ↑ Morton: Madonna. 2002, p. 789.
4. ↑ Michael: Madonna 'talking'. 2004, p. 43.
5. ^ ^{A b} Digital Sheet Music: True Blue . In: Musicnotes . Alfred Publishing Co. Inc . Retrieved March 30, 2009.
6. ↑ McKeen: Rock and Roll is Here to Stay. 2000, p. 234.
7. ↑ Dean: Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush. 2003, p. 523.
8. ↑ Davitt Sigerson : Madonna: True Blue: Music Reviews . In: Rolling Stone . RealNetworks, Inc. July 17, 1986. Retrieved March 29, 2009.
9. ↑ Bill Holdship: Album Review: True Blue . In: Yahoo! Music . Yahoo! Inc . January 1, 1986. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
10. ↑ Taraborrelli: Madonna. 2001, p. 53.
11. ↑ Madonna's 'True Blue' Leaves Bad Aftertaste . In: The Wichita Eagle , The McClatchy Company , November 23, 1986. Retrieved April 1, 2009. 
12. ↑ Daniel Brogan: Madonna Keeps Faith with 'Virgin' Cause in 'True Blue' . In: Chicago Tribune , Tribune Company , July 11, 1986. Retrieved April 1, 2009. 
13. ↑ Jan DeKnock: 'Higher Love' Takes Briton Steve Wiwood to a New Plateau on Charts . In: Chicago Tribune , Tribune Company , August 29, 1986. Retrieved April 1, 2009. 
14. ↑ Steve Morse: Madonna's Latest: Is She Serious? . In: The Boston Globe , The New York Times Company , July 1, 1986. Retrieved April 1, 2009. 
15. ↑ Hot 100: Week of October 04, 1986 - True Blue . In: Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc. October 4, 1986. Retrieved March 29, 2009.
16. ^ Adult Contemporary: Week of November 22, 1986 - True Blue . In: Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc. November 21, 1986. Retrieved March 29, 2009.
17. ↑ True Blue> Charts and Awards> Billboard Singles . In: Allmusic . Macrovision Corporation. Retrieved February 20, 2009.
18. ↑ ^{a b} Madonna - True Blue . In: Recording Industry Association of America . October 22, 1998. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
19. ↑ Top Singles - Volume 45, No. 1, September 27, 1986 . In: RPM . RPM Music Publications Ltd. September 27, 1986. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 29, 2009. 
20. ↑ Top Singles - Volume 45, No. 23 March 14 1987 . In: RPM . RPM Music Publications Ltd. March 14, 1987. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 29, 2009. 
21. ^ The Top Singles of '86 . In: RPM . RPM Music Publications Ltd. December 27, 1986. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 29, 2009. 
22. ↑ ^{a b} Clerk: Madonna Style. 2002, p. 49.
23. ↑ Peach: Women in Culture. 1998, p. 176.
24. ↑ Guy D. Garcia: People of Time . In: Time , Time Inc. , November 3, 1986. Retrieved March 31, 2009. 
25. ^ ^{A b c d} Lewis: Gender Politics and MTV. 1990, p. 206.
26. ↑ Lyndsey Parker: Most Memorable Madonna Moments: 46-50 . In: Yahoo! Music . Yahoo! Inc . August 7, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2009.
27. ↑ Voller: Madonna. 1999, p. 29.
28. ^ Parish, Pitts: Hollywood Songsters. 2003, p. 526.
29. ↑ Who's That Girl - Live in Japan, VHS by Warner-Pioneer Japan, 1987.
30. ↑ Heather Phares: allmusic (((Ciao Italia: Live in Italy (Video)> Overview))) . In: Allmusic . Rovi Corporation. Retrieved March 3, 2009.
31. ↑ allmusic (((Digger> Overview))) . In: Allmusic . Rovi Corporation . Retrieved April 1, 2009.
32. ↑ ^{a b c d e} DE AT CH UK US
33. ^ ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2001 Singles . Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
34. ↑ InfoDisc: Les Certifications (Singles) du SNEP (Bilan par Artiste) - Search for "Madonna" . Syndicat National de l'édition Phonographique . Retrieved August 24, 2010.
35. ^ BPI - Certified Awards Search . British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved September 18, 2014.
36. ↑ Justin Myers: Madonna's Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Singles. In: Official Charts Company. August 16, 2016, accessed on August 19, 2016 .