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Crazy For You on Geffen


Shane

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I've always wondered whether Warners was ticked off that Geffen released CFY as a single. I know that the song was in the top 5 at the same time as Material Girl, and Madonna's popularity in 1985 meant that anything she released would be a smash. But do you think Warners was aggravated?

There never seemed to be an issue with Warners acquiring Crazy For You for TIC, STR, Celebration etc. Sometimes when a song is on a different label, there are issues acquiring for greatest hits, such was the case with Janet Jackson's label only allowed to feature one song from Janet.on Design of A Decade.

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Guest bluejean

Crazy For You would be the reason why Like a Virgin didn't get as many singles as it should have so it definitely effected the success of other Warner singles from Madonna. But at that time she was so popular I doubt anyone at Warner were losing sleep over it.

I don't know what the deal was with Janet's contract but I do know it's a totally different situation you are comparing it to. It really would depend on what the agreement was but I imagine Madonna had control over all her music from the beginning, In most cases its not that difficult for songs to be included on a compilation, they just have to pay for it.

Janet's situation seems different because I do know that she did a one album deal for janet, then released DOAD on A&M then went back to resign with Virgin for The Velvet Rope. It seems like an unusual situation to me hopping back and fourth from label to label. Kind of like she does with cocks.

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Guest Rocco Papa

On my CD, the soundtrack says Geffen Records, but it also says Copyright Warner Bros. The film was also released through Warner Bros. The different artists featured are credited to their various record labels. So, my guess is that Sire/Warner licensed over the songs for use on the soundtrack. So the songs technically belong to Warner Bros, but they gave Geffen permission to use them.

The thing I don't get about Deisgn of a Decade, is that they couldn't license over If and Again, but they were able to include The Best Things In Life Are Free (released after Janet signed to Virgin) and Whoops Now on the international release. Why not pay the money for If and Again and include them on all editions of the album instead? It would've made it a decent collection. Basically, Design of a Decade is only good if you're into Control and Rhythm Nation. Thank God for her Number Ones album. I never though that would happen.

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Yeah, especially back in the '80s, labels were very possessive and territorial of artists. Apparently Chaka Khan sang on Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love but Warner wouldn't allow it to be released because he was on Island Records.

And movie songs can be a pain to license (look at the number of films and TV shows unreleased on DVD/blu-ray because of licensing issues). The film "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (a.k.a. an inspiration for the "Bad Girl" video) has many songs that are difficult to license which may the reason the film has never been released on DVD.

Design of a Decade was such a strange greatest hits package.

Some artists resort to using live versions of songs if they are not able to license the original.

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Got this from the timeline:

May 1984 she tells MTV's Mark Goodman:

"She also says shes been working on a soundtrack and film called Vision Quest. She says shes singing 3 songs on the soundtrack (so far) and that she has a minor part as a club singer in the film. The movie is directed by Harold Becker and produced by the people who did Flashdance. She says it will be out hopefully in August. She says she is singing what will be hopefully the theme song and two other songs."

That was before the LAV singles but it kinda sounds like the plan was always to release a single for Vision Quest

The movie ended up coming out in february 1985 according to the timeline

I remember reading Madonna didn't really like the song...

In the end, it became her second #1 hit and her first Grammy nod, and also took the top spot from we are the world wich was huge

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Crazy For You would be the reason why Like a Virgin didn't get as many singles as it should have so it definitely effected the success of other Warner singles from Madonna. But at that time she was so popular I doubt anyone at Warner were losing sleep over it.

Was there ever any talk or plans to release any of the other songs off LAV?

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"Over and Over" might have been released as a single, but given how massive Madonna was, if they'd really wanted to, they would have gone ahead with a single release anyway and it would have been a hit. I think the only thing that might have "bothered" them about CFY was the fact that in their opinion, it prevented them from filming a video for "Angel" (since they felt that there were already enough Madonna videos in high rotation, but they contributed to that themselves with ITG). Ultimately, it gave their hottest artist even more exposure, which was only a good thing back then.

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I don't think there are singles left on LAV. We had MG, LAV, Angel, DYU, ITG... The rest of the songs are great, but not up there with the singles.

"Over and Over" was released in Italy, but it didn't really do anything at all....

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Over and Over would have been a hit if released, but to be fair Madonna knew better and Live To Tell was waiting.

The same with Where's the Party, could have been a hit, but Who's That Girl was waiting.

And Keep it Together could have been a hit, but Vogue was waiting

This woman knows very well when to move on from a project, even though some gems have been left on the road, like NRM, Amazing...

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Guest Pud Whacker

Geffen was a subsidiary of warner.

TRULY the reason bitter Joni Mitchell hated madonna. She was on geffen. All the attention and money for promo was going to madonna.

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In the UK the releases of CFY and Gambler were timed to fit between the LAV singles. Warner UK seemed to be much more switched on with how to manage the situation.

Releasing ITG and putting it on the LAV album was so much better than what the US did by sticking it on the b side of Angel which is a much weaker song.

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Carta, wasn't Over and Over a promo only release in Italy?

Love Don't Live Here Anymore also got a single release in Japan back in the day.

Great to see you around again!!! To the best of my knowledge, it was an official release (on 7" and 12"). It peaked at #42 on the charts.

I hope this helps!!

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Great to see you around again!!! To the best of my knowledge, it was an official release (on 7" and 12"). It peaked at #42 on the charts.

I hope this helps!!

Yes the Italian releases for this single are highly collectable picture sleeves and very rare. The 12" will cost you a couple of hundred pounds at least!

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Well, first of all we have to think that when "Crazy for you" was released Madonna had her contract with Sire Records, so maybe Warner didn't had all her attention on her.

On the other hand, "Crazy for you" was recorded before the "Like a virgin" album was released and I think they didn't know how important Madonna and this album was going to be. In fact, what I've always heard is that "Vision Quest" was recorded at the end of 1983 or in the beginning of 1984 so I guess the songs were recorded between "Madonna" and "Like a virgin".

If you listen to the songs used in the movie they have very different versions compared to the ones released. Maybe the Sire and Geffen deal was made at that time, when the movie was filmed and not when it was released in 1985.

And now some rumours (I've read them in lots of places but I don't know if it's true or not) but the story goes this way:

01. Madonna sang "Crazy for you" and "Gambler" for "Vision Quest". They filmed the scene in the bar the way we see it on the film and some takes of her singing the full songs (on the bar) because maybe they could need them to add different angles in the final montage of the film.

02. Madonna reléase "Like a virgin" and it became a worldwide sensation.

03. Geffen decided to released the "Crazy for you" single to promote the movie now that Madonna was so popular but they never thought that it would become such a great hit. "Sire" doesn't like the idea but they think that "Crazy for you" have nothing to do against "Material girl".

04. When "Crazy for you" becomes a hit Geffen decided to reléase worldwide "Gambler" but after the "Crazy for you" and "Into the Groove" success, Sire think that that's not a good idea for them so they refuse. Finally they made a deal to reléase "Gambler" in Europe but not in the USA.

I don't know if it's true but it could be posible that the videos were made using images recorded while they shot the movie for the parts where she sing the songs and the rest it's just a montage.

I hope I've explained right, my English is not as good as I'd wish....

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, first of all we have to think that when "Crazy for you" was released Madonna had her contract with Sire Records, so maybe Warner didn't had all her attention on her.

On the other hand, "Crazy for you" was recorded before the "Like a virgin" album was released and I think they didn't know how important Madonna and this album was going to be. In fact, what I've always heard is that "Vision Quest" was recorded at the end of 1983 or in the beginning of 1984 so I guess the songs were recorded between "Madonna" and "Like a virgin".

If you listen to the songs used in the movie they have very different versions compared to the ones released. Maybe the Sire and Geffen deal was made at that time, when the movie was filmed and not when it was released in 1985.

And now some rumours (I've read them in lots of places but I don't know if it's true or not) but the story goes this way:

01. Madonna sang "Crazy for you" and "Gambler" for "Vision Quest". They filmed the scene in the bar the way we see it on the film and some takes of her singing the full songs (on the bar) because maybe they could need them to add different angles in the final montage of the film.

02. Madonna reléase "Like a virgin" and it became a worldwide sensation.

03. Geffen decided to released the "Crazy for you" single to promote the movie now that Madonna was so popular but they never thought that it would become such a great hit. "Sire" doesn't like the idea but they think that "Crazy for you" have nothing to do against "Material girl".

04. When "Crazy for you" becomes a hit Geffen decided to reléase worldwide "Gambler" but after the "Crazy for you" and "Into the Groove" success, Sire think that that's not a good idea for them so they refuse. Finally they made a deal to reléase "Gambler" in Europe but not in the USA.

I don't know if it's true but it could be posible that the videos were made using images recorded while they shot the movie for the parts where she sing the songs and the rest it's just a montage.

I hope I've explained right, my English is not as good as I'd wish....

Your English is fine!

Thanks for all this info. I wish Mads would release more non-LP songs.

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Over and Over would have been a hit if released, but to be fair Madonna knew better and Live To Tell was waiting.

The same with Where's the Party, could have been a hit, but Who's That Girl was waiting.

And Keep it Together could have been a hit, but Vogue was waiting

This woman knows very well when to move on from a project, even though some gems have been left on the road, like NRM, Amazing...

KIT was a Top 10 hit in USA..

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Well, first of all we have to think that when "Crazy for you" was released Madonna had her contract with Sire Records, so maybe Warner didn't had all her attention on her.

On the other hand, "Crazy for you" was recorded before the "Like a virgin" album was released and I think they didn't know how important Madonna and this album was going to be. In fact, what I've always heard is that "Vision Quest" was recorded at the end of 1983 or in the beginning of 1984 so I guess the songs were recorded between "Madonna" and "Like a virgin".

If you listen to the songs used in the movie they have very different versions compared to the ones released. Maybe the Sire and Geffen deal was made at that time, when the movie was filmed and not when it was released in 1985.

And now some rumours (I've read them in lots of places but I don't know if it's true or not) but the story goes this way:

01. Madonna sang "Crazy for you" and "Gambler" for "Vision Quest". They filmed the scene in the bar the way we see it on the film and some takes of her singing the full songs (on the bar) because maybe they could need them to add different angles in the final montage of the film.

02. Madonna reléase "Like a virgin" and it became a worldwide sensation.

03. Geffen decided to released the "Crazy for you" single to promote the movie now that Madonna was so popular but they never thought that it would become such a great hit. "Sire" doesn't like the idea but they think that "Crazy for you" have nothing to do against "Material girl".

04. When "Crazy for you" becomes a hit Geffen decided to reléase worldwide "Gambler" but after the "Crazy for you" and "Into the Groove" success, Sire think that that's not a good idea for them so they refuse. Finally they made a deal to reléase "Gambler" in Europe but not in the USA.

I don't know if it's true but it could be posible that the videos were made using images recorded while they shot the movie for the parts where she sing the songs and the rest it's just a montage.

I hope I've explained right, my English is not as good as I'd wish....

This ties in with Into The Groove not being released as an A-side in the US. Warner's were unhappy with it detracting interest from the LAV album so they stuck it on the B-side of Angel which is one of the biggest mistakes in pop history. If they'd done what Europe did and released it as an A-side and added it to the LAV album, she would have had another number 1 single and shifted more albums!

Record companies were more interested in selling albums than singles as they're more profitable.

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On the other hand, "Crazy for you" was recorded before the "Like a virgin" album was released and I think they didn't know how important Madonna and this album was going to be.

Well, according to this book:

9780786881543.jpg

WB had to hold LAV album release back 'cos the self-titled album was still selling like a hotcakes.

They had already realized how good she was.

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Well, according to this book:

9780786881543.jpg

WB had to hold LAV album release back 'cos the self-titled album was still selling like a hotcakes.

They had already realized how good she was.

I don't think they did. Nile Rodgers said a while back that even after the success of the first album, they didn't know what to do with her. I think they thought it was a one-off success.

As discussed recently here, LAV was ready for summer of 84 but Borderline was still doing well and they decided to release LS after that even though M wanted to release LAV which can be seen in video on youtube .

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This ties in with Into The Groove not being released as an A-side in the US. Warner's were unhappy with it detracting interest from the LAV album so they stuck it on the B-side of Angel which is one of the biggest mistakes in pop history. If they'd done what Europe did and released it as an A-side and added it to the LAV album, she would have had another number 1 single and shifted more albums!

Record companies were more interested in selling albums than singles as they're more profitable.

I agree with everything you said! I don't think they were prepared for how popular she became and how much music she was putting out. They couldn't catch up, so they made some stupid decisions.

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