Madonna – Into The Groove
#quotefromthe80s
Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free
At night I lock the doors, where no one else can see
I'm tired of dancing here all by myself
Tonight I want to dance with someone else
#Madonna #IntoTheGroove
The roads of dance and cinema met several times in the 1980s. It was quite common to include in a blockbuster movie a special song that would make it unforgettable, as happened with Duran Duran’s A view to a kill, or John Taylor’s I do what I do for 9 1/2 weeks. Other times it happened that a successful song was later included in the soundtrack of a great film.
The story of Into the Groove, however, is a bit halfway between these extremes. Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, we can say that the song was born when Madonna sees from her balcony a Puerto Rican boy dancing in a street. And she starts writing the lines and sketching the music. A song that naturally speaks of dance, of the desire to dance, of discos. Madonna originally planned to donate this song to another artist from her record company, because she wasn’t very convinced of her chances of making it successful.
But Madonna always knew she didn’t have a great talent for figuring out in advance what would work or not, and so she was really doubtful about what to do with this song. She eventually decided to keep the song, not least because she was also working on the soundtrack of her first role as an actress, in the famous movie Desperately Seeking Susan. And so the song was mainly destined for the film, without great expectations of success. Madonna has said several times that she often felt a little embarrassed in singing this song, because the song did not completely convince her.
The song was certainly easy to listen to, but it was also quite simple: besides Madonna’s voice, synthesizer sounds and a drum machine, there isn’t much left. And so the song was first heard in cinemas, starting from the end of March 1985, when the film was released.
The sensations were good though, and the production decided to release it in the US as the B-side of another song, Angel, which made it to the top of the charts. Actually it turned out that people bought the record because they wanted to hear Into the groove!
And so, at the end of July of the same year, Into the Groove was released as the fourth single taken from the album Like a virgin, after Like a virgin, Material girl, and Angel. To tell the truth this song was not even present in the original version of the album, but it was inserted in a reissue of 1985, because after the release of the film it was becoming one of Madonna’s main hits, and therefore would certainly have contributed to the second wave of album sales as well. Few days before launching it as a single, Madonna sang it on the most prestigious stage in the world, Live Aid.
However, the song remains inextricably linked to the film: not only is the cover of the single taken from the poster of the film, with Rosanna Arquette and Madonna, but the video itself is made up of various scenes and footages from the film. As if to say, if you liked the movie, buy the record. If you liked the record or the video, go to the cinema.
The film, however, had a very interesting plot: Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) notices in the newspaper ads a series of messages exchanged by a couple of lovers, and she becomes passionate about the story until she gets on the trail of Susan. And she will go much further, because she will be mistaken for her, and their lives and destinies will then be couple in a crescendo of adventures. maybe not an epic movie, but certainly enjoyable, which you would gladly see again.
In short, cinema or disco, Into the Groove has truly become one of the symbolic songs not only of Madonna’s career, but certainly of the entire 80s decade!
Madonna on Wikipedia
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