Now I’m Following Hanky Panky?
‘I’m Breathless‘ remains Madonna’s most under-represented full studio (non-remix) album in terms of singles released. Even ‘Evita‘ and ‘Who’s That Girl‘ managed three singles internationally whereas ‘I’m Breathless’ only had two, the phenomenally successful ‘Vogue‘ and the cheeky ‘Hanky Panky‘.
The reasons why the ‘I’m Breathless‘ promotion stalled are numerous. Time constraints regarding the release of ‘
Well, it transpires that there was a third single planned from the album. ‘Now I’m Following You‘ the rather odd duet with Dick Tracy himself, Warren Beatty, was to be the final single from ‘I’m Breathless’, in it’s full two-part glory.
Sire went to the trouble of commissioning remixes for the release and a host of 7″ Remixes were made to try and find a way of making the odd mix of styles that make up the album version(s) into a radio friendly mix. Five different ones were prepared, but in all honesty, they aren’t particularly inspiring and all that different from each other.
Apologies for the watermarking… paranoid collector here!
As you can see from this super rare Reference CD from September 1990, a Dance Mix was also prepared and considered for inclusion on the set. None of them have ever been released commercially. A further mix was commissioned – the Tiny Little Circles Mix which did slip out commercially, via the Razormaid DJ mailorder service where upcoming mixes are sent out to influential DJs to test reaction in clubs. The Mix was included on the 15th issue on lovely swirled mustard vinyl and a much rarer CD.
I think most fans would probably agree that of all the songs on ‘I’m Breathless’, ‘Now I’m Following You‘ would not be top of their list for release as a single. Many of us probably expected the Dick Tracy unofficial theme song ‘Sooner Or Later‘ to see a single release, to showcase Madonna’s lovely torch song vocals. Still, with ‘Now I’m Following You’ taking a full slot on the tour the video would have been easy to sort although whether MTV would have played a video with three pairs of gay trenchcoat and black y-front wearing Dicks prancing around on stage remains to be seen.
Once shelved, the next single couldn’t really have been more different to ‘Now I’m Following You‘ as Madonna went from wanting to ‘do a little two step’, to wanting ‘to make love in a train….cross country’! And in a strange way, ‘Justify My Love‘ almost has more in common with the preceding single ‘Hanky Panky’ than ‘Now I’m Following You’ when you think about their lyrics!