Lucky Star – I’m the luckiest by far
Lucky Star was the last single to be released from Madonna‘s first album and the first one to enter the US Top 5, reaching number 4 in August 1984. Last but not least, it was the opening track from the album- a pop tune written by Madonna herself and produced by Reggie Lucas (Physical Attraction, Burning Up…) where Madonna is fascinated by her Lucky Star, but… what or who exactly is her Lucky Star? Some old romance? Or maybe just her first album (actually dedicated to her father) as being her lucky moment to start an amazing career to stardom? Whatever it was, it did make her the luckiest girl by far and arises the question- How much of luck is Madonna’s success? Maybe she was just meant to be famous, as she once said: “With a name like mine, you either become a nun or famous“.
The song includes the famous nursery rhyme “Starlight, starbright, the first star I see tonight”, but this is not stated anywhere in the album credits…
The lyrics to the “Starlight Starbright” rhyme are believed to be oflate 19th century American origin and the words allude to the fantasy that you can wish upon a star.
Simple as it is, the video for Lucky Star was chosen as one of the best videos ever made by the MTV (ranking number 50). In it, Madonna dances on a white background along with brother Christopher and friend Erica. It is the Madonna’s video which made her famous for her belly-button, showing several close-ups of it during the video. It was then said to be “the sexiest belly-button in the Industry”.
Madonna has performed Lucky Star live three times. For her first tour she basically used the same dance routine as seen in the video, descending this time from the top of the stairs in the middle of the Virgin Tour stage. Only two years later she sang it again for her Who’s That Girl Tour, in a privileged position within the set list, right after she would greet the audience. This time it was a more rock drum driven version. Finally she brought it to life again for her Confessions Tour in 2006, smartly mixing it with Hung Up, where it was very interesting to hear the first keyboard sounds of Lucky Star giving way to Abba’s gimme gimme sample as if it was one only sound. She would actually sing the whole song with a bassline and beat from Hung Up.
The original cover of the single showed a photo taken from the same photo session of the album cover. It came with “I know it” on the b-side, a song bounded to be a b-side where Madonna sings in her well-known funny voice for the first time.
