Madonna
Papa Don’t Preach (Edit)
Lucky Star (Single Version)
A few months back I promised to finish the long-delayed third part of my guide to Madonna’s remixes, covering the 2000s. (Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 if you’re interested). But that proved to be much harder than I anticipated thanks to the utterly confusing of digital-only, promo-only and (possibly) streaming-only remixes. I do still plan on getting it done, but I have no idea when that will be.
I also have to update the first two parts of my guide, thanks to (usually very polite) commenters pointing out small mistakes and lesser-known remixes that I missed. But even that’s been a bit of an issue since a lot of them don’t site their sources or provide any evidence for their claims.
For example, many have told me that there’s an exclusive remix to “Open Your Heart” that’s only on the 7″ single to that song. Make sense, a lot of Madonna tracks have 7″ single remixes, and many of those single mixes have yet to find their way to any CD at all. I went ahead and bought the “Open Your Heart” seven inch a few months back, which even has “(Remix)” in the title.
I had to listen to it several times before I was able to pinpoint any differences between that mix and the mix on the Immaculate Collection. From what I can tell, the main difference is that the ending fade out is a little different. The actual mix/master of the song might be different too, but that’s hard to judge when comparing a vinyl rip to a CD version. It’s so similar that I’m not comfortable sharing it here unless someone can’t point out another worthwhile difference I’m missing.
I had the same problem when I picked up a very rare promo 12″ single for “Papa Don’t Preach.” Again, I read that it had an exclusive remix, but I couldn’t figure out exactly how it was different until I listened to it and the album version back-to-back. Turns out that, once again, it’s nearly identical to the album version until the very end, where the fade out is different. However, unlike the “Open Your Heart” remix, it’s a pretty radical difference so I’m sharing it here.
The B-Side to the “Papa Don’t Preach” single is just the album version of the track. However, the B-side to the 7″ single of “Open Your Heart” is “Lucky Star.” Thankfully, it’s also the 7″ version, which has never been released on any Madonna CD. Unlike the “Open Your Heart” remix, it’s easier to hear how this one is different, as it is substantially shorter than any other mix of the track.
It absolutely maddening to me that Madonna has never bothered with a proper re-issue campaign of her classic albums with at least a few of these mixes included. Sure, remixes like the promo edit of “Papa Don’t Preach” are minor and only the die-hard (i.e. gay) fans like me really care about them, but there are plenty of other rare cuts and mixes that regular people would probably care to hear.
There are rumors about that a new 4CD deluxe edition of Like A Prayer is in the works, with a supposed catalog number being leaked a while back. If that does come to pass, it’ll be interesting to see what is included on it. I can imagine that some of those demos that were shared online would be part of it. But what remixes would be included? There are at least 10 remixes of “Like A Prayer” and while I can’t possibly imagine all of them would be there (some of the differences are just too minor to care about) I think that at least half of them are different enough to warrant inclusion. Same goes for “Express Yourself.” An entire CD could be filled of remixes of just those two tracks, but would they even bother with the effort?
Are they looking for someone to help? Yo, Madonna people, I’m available and I work for 12″ promo singles.
The difference between the seven inch “Open Your Heart” mix and the one on /The Immaculate Collection/ is that it, like every other song on that compilation, (except for “Justify” which is an error in your guide) was remixed by Shep in Q-Sound.
Listen again to the “Watch out!” in the opening seconds of each mix. The original seven inch has Madonna heavily reverbed or echoed, and almost sounds like she’s double-tracked. The /Immaculate/ mix, in contrast, has her vocal clearer and straightforward.
Okay, but the remix on the Immaculate Collection is not the original version. So how does the 7″ version differ from the True Blue version?
Thanks for sharing the Papa Don’t Preach Edit!
If the “Remix” of Open Your heart is the same version as the one known as “Edit of Extended Remix” then I would suspect it’s different from the one on the Immaculate Collection. In the Edit I hear more of the sonic elements of the Extended Remix, for example this kind of recurring “swishing” sound (check the roughly the 30 seconds mark, following “you make me wanna hang my head down and cry”). That sound is present in the edit but not in the IC version and also not in the album version.
I thought you were comparing the /Immaculate/ and seven inch versions. The differences between the seven inch and LP versions are similar, however.
The “watch out!” on the LP is straightforward, the one on the seven is heavily effected.
But an obvious an audible difference between the seven and the LP & /Immaculate/ versions is the Linn-sounding claps:
“and you walk on by” (clap-clap-clap, clap-clap) “hang my head down and cry” (clap-clap-clap, clap-clap). The seven has the claps, the /Immaculate/ and LP do not.
It should be noted, though, at this point the /Immaculate/ departs from both the LP and seven. Right after “cry” both the seven and LP have a loud vocal breath/sigh that is not present in the /Immaculate/. The /Immaculate/ has other differences from the LP and seven, too.
But back to where the seven differs from the LP and /Immaculate/ versions: there are claps throughout the seven that aren’t in the other versions.
Did “Madonna’s people” ever contact you for help?
I’m sure they are REALLY in need of assistance from some self-deluded rando that can’t tell the difference between a mix WITH claps and a mix WITHOUT claps.
Dumbass!