Madonna - 'Like A Virgin & Other Big Hits!' (1985)

Versions:
CD

Tracklisting:
1. Like A Virgin (Extended Dance Remix)
2. Holiday
3. Lucky Star (Extended Dance Remix)
4. Borderline (Extended Dance Remix)

Best Tracks:
Holiday

Currently listening to: CD


If I'm to listen to every item in my collection, I'd really better get cracking on the singles. Especially, the Madonna singles. I have a lot. I am something of a completest. I like to get every album, every single, every everything of my favourites artists. In most cases, this is acquirable (over time). Collecting Madonna, however, is another story entirely. There's just so much out there. Like this curio from Japan.

I only got this one about a year ago. Most of Madonna's 80's singles are fucking expensive when you find CD copies. The 12" or 7" versions are usually easier to find, and cheaper. I've only been (obsessively) collecting Madonna vinyl for the last 7-8 years (aside from the small collection I'd amassed over the years), whereas CD's I've been collecting for over 20 years. So, I still have a bee in my bonnet about getting every Madonna single on CD. Generally, I keep my eye out to find them cheap (because I have so much Madonna shit, I have to draw the line somewhere) and I'm most of the way there. Along the way, you find odd releases, like this one, which I got cheap on eBay.

My main attraction to this, I must admit, is that fact that is it tackily titled, Like A Virgin & Other Big Hits! There were a surprising amount of Japanese only Madonna EP's from the early 80's, up until the early 90's. This may have been the first? (I'm too lazy to actually see if it is. I'm assuming it is, since there's none from the first album). Many of these Japanese EP's are of interest to collectors, as they usually contain an album's worth of material, as opposed to the usual CD single.

The 4 tracks on this one aren't that exciting, given that I already have them on multiple formats. Plus, every time 'Holiday' appears on one of these things, they shove the album version on. (Sure, it's already 6 minutes long, but I do wish they'd done a crappy 80's 12" version of it at some point. You Can Dance almost rectified this in 1987). This CD is, honestly, only for the devoted. However, there is something I love about it. Maybe it's that all the songs, aside from the then-new 'Like A Virgin', are remixes from Madonna's fantastic first record. Like many Japanese CD's from the 80's/90's, it does contain a booklet of photos and lyrics (in English and Japanese, of course). The whole affair is fairly tacky and, as far as Madonna's vast back-catalogue goes, pretty undignified.

For me, though, that's the appeal. This is a real curio from Madonna's early career, that would be a welcome addition to any obsessive fan's collection.