07/27/1983

Sire Records released ‘Madonna’ on July 27th, 1983. It entered the Billboard 200 chart at Number 190 over a month later. The album has since been certified five times platinum.

Lou Beach, designer, “Everybody” 12“:
I’d never heard of Madonna before then, and I didn’t get to listen to the music. Warner Brothers told me, “Do a scene of everyday people in the street.” So I clipped images from magazines, and threw them together for the collage. I do remember being a little nervous about using the photo of the black-and-white dog from LIFE magazine, but finally I said, “Fuck it, it’ll be fine.”

ROLLINGSTONE

Ok, so where did time go?
Yesterday I kinda understood for the first time the idea that time is very relative. Yeah, I know. It took me awhile. But that Rolling Stone lead took me by surprise. So this record I listen to regularly is thirty seven years old? That's why the queer kids today think Madonna is old. For one, they get their education from the internet, their attention span lasts as long as the latest TikTok and cannot read to save their lives. Well, some do. But yeah, you get my drift.

Reggie Lucas:
She was poor. She borrowed Jean-Michel Basquiat’s apartment while he was in Paris, and so I spent a good hour and a half during the record meeting with her at Basquiat’s place. He had his art up there, nobody knew who he was.

I believe we think the same about the music our parents used to listen to, don't you think? It did not make sense to us. For us was just old-fashioned stuff. But if someone is let's say, forty, Madonna is part of their cultural references and they'll recognize her music right away, but their children would not know what Holiday is or the impact that first Madonna album had. To tell you the truth, my favorite Madonna is 80's Madonna. What can I say? To this day, I still wear a gazillion bracelets. And I really don't care if I get away with it.

Michael Rosenblatt:
During the making of the album, we would walk down the street and people would just stop and gawk. This is before she was famous. She just had that look and that vibe; there was no stylist working with her. It was all her. We’d walk into a restaurant and people would stop eating and just stare.

I was listening to the songs in the album and they still sound fresh to me. Everything old is new, am I right? Maybe it's because I've listened to those songs dozens of times. Still, when I'm listening to the radio in the car (which I didn't do often before the pandemic, because I commute I listen mainly to podcasts) and her songs come up, I sing. Oh yeah. I sing in the car. So sue me.

Carin Goldberg, art director:
There was no discussion of what she would wear. On the day of the shoot, she showed up at the studio in her “Madonna outfit” and danced to her music while the photographer, Gary Heery, shot. I zeroed in on her bracelets, and borrowed more from Gary’s girlfriend, added those to her wrists and told Gary to focus on them. They were clearly her unique trademark. The shoot took no time at all.

Madonna is one of those artists that for me, has crossed that moment of fame where she's just recognizable. She's more than just recognizable. In this age of flash-in-the-pan influencers and reality tv 'celebrities', she still stand up. it's a crowded field, that's for sure. But think about it. Her first album came out more than thirty years ago and she's still running around, irking people and causing a commotion: she's part of the zeitgeist and nobody can deny that.

Michael Rosenblatt:
I remember telling Seymour, when he was giving me grief for being in the studio every day, that Madonna was going to be the biggest act he ever worked with. He laughed and said, how big is she going to be? My line was “Seymour, she’s going to be bigger than Olivia Newton-John!”

Madonna released her self-titled album 37 years ago today. Read our oral history on the superstar's debut LP here https://t.co/B7KNZzDmnn pic.twitter.com/3hlCA9XEBd

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 27, 2020

She holds the record for the second most top 10 hits Billboard. She's got 38. Not too shabby for a Michigan girl with one name, no voice and all the odds against her. Yeah, yeah. Some people can't stand her, yadda, yadda, yadda. Some people couldn't stand her back then, thirty seven years ago and look at her now. Like that stopped her. That's the attitude I wanna have.

I think it's more than the music, though. Yeah, I love Into The Groove and Ray of Light and Medellín, but it's just that Madonna MEANS more to me. It's the whole package. And just like we do with old friends, we take them with all their imperfections. So here's for that first record, that always gets some playing on my trusty turntable. Here's for Madge, still creating music. Here's for an artist who's made me dance for years and years and shows no sign of stopping, no matter how 'old' people think she is.

So do yo think there'll be someone writing about Drake and his musical and cultural influence in thirty years?

Do you?

XOXO

.@Madonna holds the record for the second-most top 10 hits on the #Hot100, with 38 top 10s. https://t.co/fqGWBG6t4n pic.twitter.com/aSskacOjQc

— billboard (@billboard) July 27, 2020