More True Blue Tidbits
MadonnaTribe keeps celebrating the 20th anniversary of True Blue with another collection of tidbits from our collaborator GAM, a long time Madonna fan.
• LA ISLA BONITA
The original title of La Isla Bonita was El Rico Bonito. It was written by Pat Leonard and his wife along with Bruce Gaitsch. The song was apparently been offered to Michael Jackson but he turned it down. Then Madonna heard it and wrote completely new lyrics while she was shooting Shanghai Surprise in China. In the summer of 1986, La Isla Bonita was already getting huge airplay despite the fact the album’s single was Papa Don’t Preach.
A couple of dance covers were also released in Italy before the original song became a single.
• WHERE’S THE PARTY
The song’s working title was Working My Fingers To The Bone and it was meant as a homage from M and Steve Bray to the first songs they wrote in the early 80’s to make the dance floor explode.
• LIVE TO TELL
Live To tell came out of the blue. Pat Leonard had just completed the score to the James Foley film At Close Range. They day before it was time to send the tapes, Madonna heard the music and started writing the lyrics right there on the spot. She took a mic and recorded the vocals just once, the same vocals we can hear on the True Blue album. Leonard says that if you listen carefully , you can hear Madonna turning the pages of her block notes.
• MIXED TIDBITS
The True Blue album was originally to be called Live To Tell, as Madonna herself explains during her press conference for Shanghai Surprise on March 06 1986 in London.
The songs that didn’t make the final cut of True Blue are Spotlight and Each Time You Break My Heart (given to Nick Kamen)
True Blue has very special backing vocalists. One is Siedah Garret who later worked with Madonna again during the re-Invention Tour, another one is Richard Marx who had a successful solo career in the late 80’s
Click on the banner below to read MadonnaTribe‘s exclusive interview with Jeri Heiden, the artist in charge of the True Blue album design.
