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March 8, 1994 - "I'LL REMEMBER (Theme From With Honors)"


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20 years ago today, one of my favorite Madonna singles was released, "I'll Remember" b/w "Secret Garden".

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Though the b-side was a previously available Erotica album track, I remember being excited that, due to the success of IR, people who'd skipped out on the Sex/Erotica era would now hear one of her finest recordings.

And the single still felt very much a part of the Erotica era. The sleeve utilized a photo taken by Melodie McDaniel on the set of 1993's "Rain" music video (Melodie would go on to direct Madonna's follow-up video, "Secret"). Internationally, the sleeve used an even older photo taken by Steven Meisel for the October 1992 issue of Vogue which had also been featured in the "Deeper And Deeper" video clip.

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It was also timed for release around both the home video and book of The Girlie Show, and the maxi single featured a live track from the tour, "Why's It So Hard". Or, as first pressings titled it, "Why It's So Hard".

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"I'll Remember" is one of Madonna's biggest chart hits. It spent 26 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 with 4 of those weeks FRUSTRATINGLY stuck at #2 behind All-4-One's nauseating "I Swear". Every week it felt like it was going to push through to pole position yet never quite did. :(

It did however reach #1 on the adult contemporary chart.

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The tracklisting order is odd, to stick a live why it's so hard among the remixes.

I'll Remember = One of the best songs for me.

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I love this song so much. Very overlooked by many people, because it was quite a different record for Madonna at the time of it's release and it gets lost somehow between the whole Erotica/Sex-era and the Bedtime Stories-era. It's one of the many "forgotten" gems that are extremely underperformed, because of the lack of a BS or ROL tour.

Didn't she rehearse this for the DWT, though? It seems likely. She has never performed this song live, hasn't she? It's about time tbh. BRING IT ON, madge! Don't wait until your farewell tour.

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I love this song so much. Very overlooked by many people, because it was quite a different record for Madonna at the time of it's release and it gets lost somehow between the whole Erotica/Sex-era and the Bedtime Stories-era. It's one of the many "forgotten" gems that are extremely underperformed, because of the lack of a BS or ROL tour.

Didn't she rehearse this for the DWT, though? It seems likely. She has never performed this song live, hasn't she? It's about time tbh. BRING IT ON, madge! Don't wait until your farewell tour.

Absolutely. I think this might be my forerunner for most wanted classic on the next tour.

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Guest eroticerotic

truly one of her best songs. I get chills when i hear the strings. so much that i'm only just thinking about the strings and get chills as i type loll :p

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US Sheet Music:

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One of the few instances where Madonna is credited second as songwriter.

Richard Page was the lead singer of 80's group Mr. Mister ("Broken Wings", "Kyrie").

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Icon magazine cover:

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Pretty sure they just took a photo of their television for this cover. :lol:

We've never seen a proper photograph of her on the video set have we?!

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i ADORE this.

The intro alone, is reason enough for a live version.

Oddly, it's one of her biggest flops in continental Europe ever. It's completely forgotten here...

The German 5" has the wrong live track printed on the inlay. They switched ITL with WISH.

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LIKE AVERSION:

Madonna's shocking David Letterman interview -- The pop-star's interview on the ''Late Show'' produces the show's highest ratings

The most shocking thing about Madonna's appearance on Late Show With David Letterman-a night that will live in infamy for, oh, at least another 15 minutes-wasn't that she said ''f -- -'' 14 times or that she resorted to an incredibly corny that-microphone-looks-like-a-penis joke. No, what was more unnerving was that, for the first time in this brazen hussy's tough-minded, frequently revolutionary career, the primary emotion she inspired was pity.

Here, after all, is the '80s star who, more than any other, built her inescapable image around notions of power and control. She gleefully exploited herself as a sex object, coming on to us at various times as everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Marlene Dietrich to all-purpose shot-on-video porn star. Yet the point of every persona was that she was mistress of her own destiny. Madonna was not about to be used-by men or by the media-and she was hell-bent on making every garish pose a witty hoot set to catchy dance-pop melodies.

No more. Madonna's career in the '90s has stalled and sagged. Once she was the Last Pop Superstar-Bruce Springsteen had abdicated the position; Michael Jackson never grew up enough to accept the responsibility; it's doubtful Axl Rose could even spell it-but she stopped making music that mattered. After she appeared in a string of uneven films, the movie industry just chewed her up; tough Tinseltown wasn't about to allow her to exert the same control she'd had over her albums. Heretofore a deep-dish provocateur, she's been reduced to superficial media stunts: the flaccid Sex book, the sapphic frisking with Sandra Bernhard.

The Letterman appearance was another such stunt, a way to keep her name in the papers in lieu of actually producing some sort of creative work. And it was a shrewd choice, since, for better or for worse, David Letterman is mass America right now. (Looking at Letterman's Madonna ratings-his highest since his premiere week-NBC must have been mortified that it had just banned naughty-talking Martin Lawrence from The Tonight Show.) But Madonna made a crucial mistake: She didn't seem to realize that her public feels increasingly alienated from her at exactly the moment when Letterman is really connecting with his own huge audience. She strode out on March 31 assuming the audience wanted to see her kick Letterman's butt, but quickly found out the crowd was cheering for Dave to kick hers.

At a time when one of the hottest songs in the country carries the refrain ''I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me,'' Madonna's perennial stance as an indomitable winner seems outdated, if not deluded. As a feminist culture hero, she can't muster a critique of sexism that's as cogent as the ones offered by the women in bands like the Breeders and Bikini Kill. Face it, Madonna: Riot grrrls are tougher than material girls.

Letterman has a running joke, one he repeated this night: ''I have a theory about Madonna: I think that Madonna loves to shock us!'' This is a perfect '90s remark, since it reduces the notion of shock, of creative disruption, to something worthy of ridicule. The confidence and power that Letterman so effortlessly exudes these days are precisely the qualities Madonna now lacks. Her once-exhilarating bravado and impudence have curdled into a sullen, crude rebelliousness.

Besides, what was most offputting about her Letterman appearance wasn't the obscenity spew that supposedly rattled Dave but, rather, Madonna's adamant refusal to converse-there was no content to her dirty, ditzy blather. Who'd have thought we'd ever see the day when Madonna turned into Shelley Winters with a Susan Powter hardbody?

To me, nothing better symbolized Madonna's feelings of betrayal by, and antagonism toward, her fans than the fact that this star, who during her brilliant 1985 Like a Virgin tour used to ask her audiences if they wanted to marry her, refused to give an admirer in the Letterman studio crowd the kiss on the forehead he was begging for.

The next night, CBS ran prime-time promos with Dave crowing happily, ''You can tune in safely-she's not on tonight!'' Which goes to show that when she wasn't looking, Madonna missed the zeitgeist boat: In the mid-'90s, her notions of danger and controversy are a lot less hip than Letterman's idea of safety.

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i ADORE this.

The intro alone, is reason enough for a live version.

Oddly, it's one of her biggest flops in continental Europe ever. It's completely forgotten here...

The German 5" has the wrong live track printed on the inlay. They switched ITL with WISH.

I know... they were getting their 3 track CD ready for The Girlie Show book and fucked up the "I'll Remember" single in the process. :lol:

Madonna+-+The+Girlie+Show+-+5%22+CD+SING

("Why's It So Hard" and "In This Life" match the IR singles, "Like A Virgin is a special edit that removes "Falling In Love Again". :americanlife:)

It's largely forgotten in the US, too, though it does receive recurrent play in grocery stores.

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Guest Sweet Tooth

Personally prefer the single cover of the USA version over the European pic. She's stunning with short dark hair :flirt:

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That single came out at an odd time for Madonna, especially after the backlash. It was nice to see her recording again after the media rumors that she was retiring. :)

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Personally prefer the single cover of the USA version over the European pic. She's stunning with short dark hair :flirt:

I prefer it, too. Though I think that Vogue '92 Meisel shoot is gorgeous as well.

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