Produced By: Reggie Lucas for Kalisa Inc.
* John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez for Jellybean Productions Inc.
** Mark Kamins
Recorded: Sigma Sound Studios New York City, NY (Jul 82 - Jun 83)
Available on vinyl, cassette, CD and 8-track.
Side 1
1. Lucky Star (5:30)
(Madonna)
2. Borderline (5:18)
(Reggie Lucas)
3. Burning Up (3:41)
(Madonna)
4. I Know It (3:45)
(Madonna)
Side 2
1. Holiday* (6:08)
(Curtis Hudson/Lisa Stevens)
2. Think Of Me (4:53)
(Madonna)
3. Physical Attraction (6:35)
(Reggie Lucas)
4. Everybody** (4:57)
(Madonna)
---Some versions of the LP (namely the Australian and Japanese releases) had a slightly different mix of Burning Up running at 4:48.
After Mark Kamins produced Madonna’s first single, Michael Rosenblatt brought in Reggie Lucas to produce the next one and the resulting album.
Reggie Lucas:
When Warner Brothers called me about working with Madonna, I was the big score. I signed on to do the record, and then “Everybody” came out and it made a little noise. It sold 100,000 copies, so I was like, “All right!
We had this really fun guitar thing on ”Lucky Star,“ and then she had a meltdown about guitarists – she related an experience where a rock guitarist she was sharing the stage with turned up his guitar, and upstaged her with volume. So we never completed that version.
"Borderline" was the first record I ever used a drum machine instead of a drummer. And the bass on ”Borderline“ is an ARP 2600 synthesizer, but the great Anthony Jackson is playing along on an electric bass guitar, and they’re playing so tight you can’t tell the difference.
Most of the people around Madonna at the corporate level did not get her and for the most part did not like her. You could see them recoil from her bohemianism. Everybody thought she was crazy and gross.
We had a fun experience. There was no committee rendering judgment from on high, because she was brand new and frankly nobody cared about her that much. And she had a sense of direction.
Michael Rosenblatt:
It was great – there wasn’t any infighting or any of that kind of shit. Reggie wrote two of the songs, Borderline and Physical Attraction. The rest were Madonna songs. While Reggie was making the record, nobody at Warner Brothers gave a shit at all. Madonna was just a little dance girl.
The album was to be finished by April, but Ain’t No Big Deal, one of the tracks from Madonna’s demo was signed over to its collaborator Stephen Bray for sole credit, in exchange for Everybody (with Madonna getting sole credit for that song), Stephen then sold Ain’t No Big Deal to July 4 music. It was then picked up by the band Baracuda and recorded and eventually released. Madonna was now a song short. Enter John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez. A young DJ at The Fun House.
Michael Rosenblatt:
I needed to get more money to finish the record. So Seymour said, "Take her down to L.A., have her meet the executives at Warner Brothers." Once she went out to L.A., everybody started buzzing. I said to Lenny Waronker, "I need an up-tempo song; will you give me 10 grand?” He said yes.
That trip to L.A., Madonna didn’t have a manager. We decided to get somebody based in L.A. to deal with Warner Brothers. So we met with Freddy DeMann. At the time, Freddy was managing Michael Jackson. So we go into Freddy’s office and we’re having this great meeting, his assistant comes in, and says, “Freddy, you have a call. Can you take it?” He says, “You guys stay here, watch this video, let me know what you think. It’s premiering on MTV in about two weeks.” Freddy puts in a video, presses play, shuts the door. Madonna and I watch the “Beat It” video. As soon as the video ends, I say, “This guy’s your fucking manager.” She says, “Yeah.”
So I went back to New York with the money in hand and went to Jellybean [Benitez] and Reggie Lucas and maybe two other guys, and said, “Whoever comes up with an up-tempo dance song gets to produce it.” Literally three days later, Jellybean comes into the office and plays me a demo of “Holiday,” and it’s like, “You win.”
Probelm solved, however another problem arose; Madonna was not completely happy with Reggie Lucas’ production on the album.
John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez
“She was unhappy with the whole [album], so I went in and sweetened up a lot of music for her, adding some guitars to ’Lucky Star’, some voices, some magic… I just wanted to do the best job I could do for her. When we would playback ’Holiday’ or ’Lucky Star’, you could see that she was overwhelmed by how great it all sounded. You wanted to help her, you know? As much as she could be a bitch, when you were in groove with her, it was very cool, very creative.”
With production pushed back to June, Holiday was added and the album remastered with Jellybean’s touch. As a result of the delay the original album design was scrapped. Michael Rosenblatt sent Madonna back into the photo studio, this time with photographer Gary Heery for the now iconic photoshoot.
A month later the album came out with little fanfare. Billboard gave it a favourable review, while the few print media that did review it hedged their bets, enjoying the production but unsure of Madonna’s voice and artistry. It took months before the album got noticed, but it still remains Madonna’s seminal piece, the one that started it all.
