True Blue

"True Blue"
Single by Madonna
from the album True Blue
B-side	"Ain't No Big Deal"
Released	September 29, 1986
Format	7", 12", CD Single
Recorded	1985
Genre	Dance-pop
Length	4:18
Label	Sire, Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Madonna, Stephen Bray
Producer	Madonna, Stephen Bray
Certification	Gold (RIAA) Silver (BPI)
Madonna singles chronology
"Papa Don't Preach" (1986) "True Blue" (1986) "Open Your Heart" (1986)

"True Blue" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was released as the third single from her third studio album, True Blue, on September 29, 1986 by Sire Records. Originally written by Steve Bray, the song deals with the feelings of Madonna for her then-husband Sean Penn. A dance-pop song, it features instrumentation from a rhythm guitar, a synthesizer, keyboards, and drums. The main chorus is backed by an alternate one incorporating a chord progression generally seen in doo-wop type of music.

Received by the critics as a light-hearted and cute retro song, "True Blue" topped the charts in UK, Ireland and Canada and became another consecutive top ten song in U.S. for Madonna by reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The original music video portrayed her again with a new look, leaner and sporting platinum blond bushy hair. An alternate video was made through the "Make My Video" contest on MTV. The final selected videos had a similar theme of 50s inspired setting and the storyline following the lyrics of the song. "True Blue" was performed only once on the subsequent Who's That Girl World Tour.

Writing and inspiration

The song was written and produced by Steve Bray with a co-writing credit by Madonna.^[1] According to Madonna, "True Blue" takes its title from a favorite expression of her then husband Sean Penn and to his very pure vision of love^[2] and was a direct tribute to him as well as the album, which was as a whole inspired by her "unabashed valentine" for Penn.^[3] In an interview, Steve Bray said, "She (Madonna) was very much in love. It was obvious if she's in love she'll write love songs. If she's not in love she definitely won't be writing love songs."^[4]

Composition

	"True Blue" A 26 second sample from "True Blue", featuring Madonna singing part of the first verse, which includes the use of the archaic love word "dear", and a backing track that employs a chord progression commonly used in doo-wop.
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"True Blue" is a dance-pop song inspired by the Motown's girl groups from the 1960s which are considered the direct antecedents of Madonna's musical sound.^[2] It emotionally and harmonically resembles Whigfield's 1999 song "Be My Baby".^[5] The song is composed in the key of B major. It is set in compound quadruple meter, commonly used in doo-wop, and has a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute.^[6] "True Blue" features instrumentation from a rhythm guitar, a synthesizer, keyboards, and drums for the bassline,^[5] with a basic sequence of I-VI-IV-V (B-G♯ minor-E-F♯ major) as its main chord progression.^[7]

Madonna's vocal range spans a bit less than one and a half octaves, from F♯₃ to B₄.^[6] The chorus is backed by sounds of bells ringing, an alternate verse—"This time I know its true"— which is sang by three back-up singers during the interlude,^[8] and a bass counter melody which introduces her vocals during the second chorus.^[7] The lyrics are constructed in a verse-chorus form, with the theme being Madonna's feelings for Sean Penn; it even uses the archaic love word "dear" in the line "Just think back and remember, dear".^[9]

Reception

Critical response

Davitt Sigerson from Rolling Stone magazine in a review of the album True Blue said that the song "squanders a classic beat and an immensely promising title",^[10] LAUNCHcast's Bill Holdship said that "True Blue" is "Madonna's wonderful tribute to the late '50s/early '60s "girl groups".^[11] In his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography, journalist J. Randy Taraborrelli described the song as "the light-hearted, fun track of the whole True Blue album project having a retro 1950's feel to it".^[12] In the book Rock 'n' Roll Gold Rush which contains information about various artists and their singles, author Maury Dean said that the song as a "masterwork of simplicity interwoven with secret complexity" adding that "on one hand, it's just a basic steetcorner ditty, with four basic chords. In another context, it's a counterpoint harmonic blanket, twirling with star-spangled timbre and dynamic drive."^[9] Rikky Rooksby, in his book The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, said that "True Blue" is "a song that is merely cute and not really up to being the title track of an album".^[7]

The Wichita Eagle did not like the song, believing that it was "sassless and neutered" as compared to the other songs on the record.^[13] However, Daniel Brogan of The Chicago Tribune believed the song was good, calling it "impressive" like the rest of the album,^[14] and Jan DeKnock of the same paper believed it was "charming".^[15] Steve Morse of The Boston Globe, when describing the song, said that it was a "bid to be an '80s Helen of Troy".^[16]

Chart performance

"True Blue" was released in the United States in October 1986. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number forty,^[17] six weeks later it reached its peak of number three for three consecutive weeks, and spent sixteen weeks on the chart.^[18] The song performed equally well on the other Billboard charts on which it appeared, peaking at number five on the Adult Contemporary chart,^[19] and number six on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.^[20] In October 1998, the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[21] In Canada, the song debuted at the eighty-four position of the RPM singles chart on September 27, 1986,^[22] reached the top for one week in November 1986,^[23] and stayed on the chart for twenty-three weeks.^[24] It ended at the thirty-seventh position of the year-end chart.^[25]

In the United Kingdom, "True Blue" was released on September 29, 1986. It debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart, before climbing to number one the next week,^[26] becoming Madonna's third number-one single there.^[27] It was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in October 1986.^[28] The song peaked at number one for two weeks in October 1986 in Ireland,^[29] making it her fourth number-one single on the Irish Singles Chart.^[30] In Europe "True Blue" also topped the Eurochart Hot 100 for one week in October 1986. It peaked in the top five in Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands,^[31][32][33] and in the top ten in Austria, France, Germany, and Switzerland.^[34][35]

Music video

Official version

Madonna sporting a blond bushy haircut, drives a Mercedes with her girlfriends in the back, in the 50s inspired blue themed video for "True Blue"

"True Blue" had two music videos to accompany it. Shot in early September 1986 in New York, Madonna's own video for the song was directed by James Foley and produced by David Naylor and Sharon Oreck with photography by Michael Ballhaus. The Foley version featured Madonna with three dancers and a 1950s car in an all-blue diner. Madonna changed her hairstyle from short-cropped in "Papa Don't Preach" to a bushy platinum blonde hairdo and sings the song in choreographed moves backed by her dancers. It displays a flashing back to fifties rock'n'roll youth culture.^[36]

The blue background changes to a sunny one as she sings "The sun is bursting right out of the sky" to go-along with the lyrical meaning of the song. Two of Madonna's close friends, Erika Belle and Debi Mazar appeared in the video. The video was released at a time when she was going through a failed marriage with then husband actor Sean Penn. During this period, Madonna focused on more traditional fashion and attitudes and tried to appear more respectful of traditional gender roles. After shedding her trampy sex-kitten and boy-toy image with the "Live to Tell" music video, Madonna again adopted a new look for this video.^[37] Madonna attended aerobics classes at Hollywood health centre The Sports Connection, which was responsible for her toned down look in the video.^[36]

"Make My Video" contest

Sire Records decided to opt for a promotional device in the United States that would involve MTV viewers to make their own videos for "True Blue". In the fall of 1986, MTV asked its viewers to submit their own videos. The contest was known as "Madonna's 'Make My Video' Contest". The winner was awarded a trip to MTV's New York studio where Madonna presented a $25,000 cheque live on MTV.^[38] Thousands of viewers submitted their recorded tapes which were mainly made using home-made video equipments and featured themselves or relatives as the actors.^[39] MTV publicist Peter Danielson said that many of the submissions featured teenagers imitating Madonna. All the entries were shown in a continuous run on MTV as promised. The same song was played over and over for the whole day, but each time with a different video made by the finalists.^[40] Author Lisa A. Lewis said that this event emphasized the effect Madonna had on different kind of audiences due to the popularity and response to the contest. MTV selected ten finalists based mainly on a standard of popularity rather than slickness of production or concept creativity.^[39]

However, the concepts used in the videos were wide ranging and included a number of different ideas to interpret the lyrical meaning of the song. The final three entries selected, portrayed a fifties-style production referring to the thematic content of the song. The song's narration about "True Love" formed the basis of the rest of the semi-finalist videos but was used in very different ways. The videos were choreographed featuring heterosexual romance, though no particular male or female protagonist was singled out. Some even adopted a kind of literal montage technique rather than structuring the video around a narrative line.^[39] The winning entry was by Angel Gracia and Cliff Guest and it showed the female protagonist being supported and guided by her girlfriends who introduce her with the male protagonist. The girl even goes to the boy's door to gift him flowers, thereby reversing the usual gender-directed pattern of gift-giving. The male protagonist is portrayed as a "perfect boy" having the sensibilities like attentiveness, cuteness, playfulness like a friend (after the lyrics "You're my best friend") and not sexual overtones. The video in-turn contrasts him with a self-centered boy who puts on sunglasses, throws his leather jacket over his shoulder and walks away from the girl. Other videos portrayed a girl pining for her sailor, U.S.-Soviet relations and an arguing couple with the girl in a scene inspired by the music video of Tina Turner's 1984 single "What's Love Got to Do with It".^[39]

Live performance and cover

Madonna performed the song only once on her 1987 "Who's That Girl Tour". She came up on the stage wearing a blue dress for singing the song after finishing a performance of "Lucky Star". In a similar setting to the original music video of the song, Madonna is backed up by her singers who play her girlfriends. At the end of the song Madonna is asked to dance again by the dancer playing her man in the performance.^[41] Her dance in the performance (and also some other performances in the tour) was choreographed by Jeffrey Hornaday from Flashdance.^[42]

Pennsylvania based pop-punk band Digger recorded a version for their first LP Powerbait in 1996.^[43]

Formats and track listing

Credits and personnel

• Madonna – lyrics, producer, vocals
• Steve Bray – drums, keyboards, lyrics, producer
• Bruce Gaitsch – rhythm guitar
• Fred Zarr – additional keyboards
• Steve Peck – engineer
• Shep Pettibone – remixing
• Herb Ritts – photography
• Jeri McManus – design/artwork

Charts

Notes

References

External links

• Madonna Official Site
• "True Blue" - Album Details
• "True Blue" lyrics