Skip to main content

Billboard #1s for the Week Ending October 29, 1983


This week sees one of the biggest chart performers of all time make her first appearance on the Hot 100. Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan in 1958. She moved to New York City in 1977 where she worked as a dancer and singer. She cut her first solo single, Everybody in 1982; it made it to #3 on the Dance chart but was a pop flop, bubbling under at #107. It was included on her eponymous debut album, which produced another Dance #3, Burning Up / Physical Attraction. The third time was the charm: Holiday, a charming, joyous pop confection, debuted on the Hot 100 at #88 this week. It had just finished an impressive five-week run atop the Dance charts. Holiday sneaked up to #16 in January, a decent start that hardly warned of the phenomenon that was to come.

























Madonna spawned two more hits: Borderline [#10, #4 Dance] and Lucky Star (#4, #1 Dance on the flip of Holiday]. The follow-up, Like A Virgin, was a monster hit with four top 5 hits (including the #1 [6 weeks!] title track)  and Madonna was off and running. In the subsequent 30 years, she’s been a stalwart chart presence, ranking as one of the top performers of the Rock Era. Her accomplishments include:
  • Longevity: Madonna had a hit on the Hot 100 every year from 1983 to 2006, a 24-year run bested only by Elton John (31 years); her Top 40 run is 23 years, three short of Sir Elton’s record. On the Dance chart, she reigns supreme, with a hit on the chart every year from 1982 to 2010 (and she came back in 2012.)
  • Chart Performance: Madonna ranks in the Top 30 on a number of charts. On the Hot 100, she comes in 3rd — after Elvis Presley and the Beatles. She ranked #2 in the 80s and #3 in the 90s. On the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart, she ranks #28 [#14 in the 80s, #11 in the 90s; she is #24 on the Adult Top 40. On the Dance Chart, she’s #1 overall, #2 for the 80s, #1 for the 90s, and #1 for the 2000s.
  • Hot 100 Hits: Madonna ranks 5th for most #1s with 12 [and with 32 weeks at the top, she comes in 10th]; she’s racked up 50 Top 40s [#5], and 38 Top 10s [tied for 1st with Elvis].
  • Dance Hits: The undisputed Queen of Dance, Madonna ranks #1 for most chart hits, most Top 20], most Top 10, most #1s , and most weeks at #1 This does not count the flips of her three double-sided hits.
  • Albums: With over 64.5 million certified units sold, Madonna ties with Bruce Springsteen as the 15th most successful album artist in the U.S. and the second biggest female artist (after Barbra Streisand). All fifteen of her studio albums (including three soundtracks) have gone Top 10, eight of them to #1.
 looks like Madonna will be extending these records for some time to come.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

September 24 1992, Madonna baring her breasts and blowing kisses, At The Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show.

September 24 1992,   Madonna baring her breasts and blowing kisses, Billy Idol in double leather... we explore the fashion show that raised $700,000 for AIDS research Jean Paul Gaultier  is renowned for many things – his exceptional tailoring, his conical bras, his impassioned approach to sociopolitcal causes in fashion – and, on September 2, 1992, all of these elements united for a show that definitely mattered. In honour of  amFAR  (The American Foundation for AIDS Research), Gaultier held a fashion benefit whose runway included everything from lip-synching to Dr Ruth dressed in rubber to raise money for a cause that devastated (and continues to devastate) communities around the world. "Tonight will be about protection... wear rubber and protect yourself!" – Jean Paul Gaultier "Tonight will be about protection... wear rubber and protect yourself!" explained Gaultier before the show. "I think fashion can make people thin...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Making of Madonna’s First Album Cover

Carin Goldberg — the art director behind Madonna’s debut album cover — spoke to  the Cut  about her first experience with the then-unknown pop star. It’s the first question that anybody asks me, even today: What was it like to work with Madonna? People think that maybe something dramatic or interesting or kind of wild might have happened, based on, you know, Madonna’s persona. But I would say that Madonna was probably the easiest job I ever had — the most cooperation from a recording artist I think I ever had. She was a true professional, even at that young age. It was ’83, and at that point I had my own small design firm. Warner Bros. called and asked me to do her cover as a freelance designer. When I got the call, I rolled my eyes, because it was another [musician with a] one-word name. At that time it had become cliché to have a one-word name, because of Cher, so I remember thinking, God, it’s going to be one of those. So I really went into it with very little expec...
Post a Comment
Read more

On July 10 1985, The Playboy magazine issue of nude Madonna photos was released !!

Playboy  publishes nude photos of  Madonna  taken before she was famous. The singer did a number of nude photo shoots from 1977-1980, starting when she was an 18-year-old student at the University of Michigan looking for some extra cash and trying to form a band. Now a huge star,  Playboy  publishes some of the shots taken in 1979 and 1980 in a revealing spread. A year earlier, the magazine turned down nude photos of Miss America winner  Vanessa Williams , which their rival  Penthouse  published. "We think Vanessa genuinely didn't know what she was doing, didn't know her photos might be published," the article states. "Madonna, on the other hand, posed repeatedly for two noted photographers who routinely publish what they shoot." One of the photographers, Lee Friedlander, says of the shoot: "She seemed very confident, a street-wise girl." Madonna has little to say on the matter, but doesn't shy away. "I'm not ashamed,...
Post a Comment
Read more