The series of 40th anniversaries of iconic songs continues.
On Tuesday we marked the 40th anniversary of Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon being released, and yesterday it was time to celebrate Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Today we note four decades have passed since Madonna released Holiday.
The song where Madonna proclaims that we all need a holiday has remained in the singers set list for most of her concert tours, often as a closing number. It is sure to be featured when he first ever Greatest Hit tour gets underway in London in mid-October.
When Madonna was recording her debut album back in 1983 when of the tracks she’d planned to record was suddenly no longer available. So she had to find one more song.
Then boyfriend DJ John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez came to the rescue with Holiday. The song was written by Curtis Stevens and Lisa Hudson from the band Pure Energy.
They’d already pitched the song to several artists but it had been rejected. The Supremes’ Mary Wilson, Phyllis Hyman and The Ritchie Family are among the artists who passed on the track. They’d always envisaged it being sung by a black artists, but they agreed to let Madonna record the tune after they had a meeting with her.
Madonna made some alternations to the song and it was the final track to be recorded for the album. It’s considered Madonna’s breakout track, giving her higher chart success than any of her previous releases.
Despite it being one of Madonna’s biggest hits of her career, it never really got an official video.
Clips of the singer appearing on various music programs around the world performing the track were used to promote the tune. Australian audiences often saw a video of Madonna performing the song on British music program The Tube, while American audiences are more familiar with her appearance on Solid Gold.
There was actually an official clip where Madonna is seen dancing with brother Christopher Ciccone and friend Erica Belle, but nobody saw this version back in the day.
OIP Staff
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