Cut Balearic Mike and he bleeds two things: Madonna and the dancefloor. Who better to extol the virtues of 12 Madonna 12-inches?

Before anything, Madonna was a dancer. This unbridled act of personal expression has always been central to Madonna Louise Ciccone the person and Madonna the persona. It follows then that the importance of the dancefloor – as a source of community, sanctuary and joy – has long been fundamental to her music.

Although originating from Michigan, Madonna the artist was really born in the downtown music and art scene of late-70s and early-80s New York City. Arriving in Manhattan she soon found herself in the creative centre of the most exciting city on the planet. A city where punk rock, disco and hip hop were all mixing with street art, and where uptown and downtown were coming together to turbo charge pop music and culture for the new decade.

From dating über-cool downtown New York DJs Mark Kamins and Funhouse resident Jellybean, and upcoming artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Futura 2000 (who took Madonna to the Roxy on a date) to appearing in the video for Konk’s disco-not-disco classic ‘Konk Party’ which was filmed at David Mancuso’s 99 Prince Street Loft and to her work as a defender and campaigner for LGBTQIA+ rights and HIV and AIDS awareness, Madonna has consistently been rooted in and drawn inspiration from club culture.

I fell in love with Madonna the first time she appeared on ‘Top of the Pops’ in 1984 (the night before her now legendary Haçienda gig on ‘The Tube’), performing her first UK hit ‘Holiday’, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted what was to come. Madonna has gone on to become the biggest selling female artist of all time, while consistently turning out club classic after classic. Over the decades when I’ve been lucky enough to play records to people, or when I’ve been a part of that sweaty mass of bodies, so many special moments have been soundtracked by her music. 

Here are just 12 of my favourite 12-inches (ok, so one is digital)! All hail her Madgesty!

‘Everybody’ (Original 12-inch Vocal or Dub Version) 1982

Madge’s debut is a bona fide New York electro-disco-style club classic. It was produced by her then boyfriend, legendary Danceteria and Mudd Club DJ Mark Kamins and was accompanied by a video filmed on the stage of the Paradise Garage (Madonna would also perform at the Garage, when she took to the stage for her friend Keith Haring’s first annual ‘Party Of Life’ in 1984). The track’s nine-minute dub version was so futuristic and visionary it soon became a staple of Levan’s. Nearly 20 years later it enjoyed a second act as the basis for the Norwegian cosmic disco epic from Erot and Annie, ‘The Greatest Hit’.

‘Into the Groove’ (UK 12-inch Version) 1985

By the summer of 1985 and the UK was in full Madonna-mania mode! Not only did the ‘Like a Virgin’ LP and subsequent singles rampage over the charts, but all the singles from Madonna’s debut album were reissued and charted. Every cool girl was now dressed like Madonna with bangles, cropped tops and tights. And then, a film arrived where Madonna basically got to play herself and be cool as fuck. This single was its centrepiece. This was the finest, most concentrated essence of Madonna committed to wax; a pop and dancefloor masterpiece which detonates the coolest underground warehouse party and your cousin’s wedding. There’s a Shep Pettibone remix of this as well, but the original 12-inch, produced by Madonna and Steve Bray, is the one which delivers. Astonishingly never released as a single in the US, it was her first UK number one.

‘La Isla Bonita’ (Extended Remix) 1987

From the clubs of downtown New York to the open-air dancefloors of Ibiza. With its breathy vocal and percussion intro, chugging 100bpm tempo and Spanish guitars-a-plenty, this 12-inch Extended version is undoubtedly Madonna’s most Balearic record. File next to other Balearic classics such as Linda di Franco’s ‘TV Scene’ or Sade’s ‘Paradise’, as essentials for that Adriatic boat party set.

‘Like A Prayer’ (Churchapella/12-inch Extended Remix/Mike Simonetti Edit) 1989/2014

When I landed in Manchester in 1991, Adrian and Mark LuvDup had just begun to host the LuvDup parties which would launch their careers. Adrian had this brilliant live mix he would perform as the end-of-night anthem (clubs mostly still closed at 2am back then) involving cutting between two copies. 

I’ll let Ade tell you how: “I started by playing the Churchapella, and at 45 seconds when the second verse started, I brought in the Shep Pettibone 12-inch Extended Remix from the other 12-inch. I let them play together for a while and then did various drops in and out to just the Churchapella to heighten the tension throughout the song . It’s a wonderful, uplifting song anyway and this worked a treat – when I cut across to just the Churchapella at 3:28 (the bit that has the choir singing ‘Just like a prayer, I’ll take you there, it’s like a dream to me’) it was just joyous and there wasn’t a dry eye in the club…”

Fast forward to the new millennium and I’m onboard a Horse Meat Disco boat party in Croatia when Will Tramp drops that Churchapella and the dancefloor explodes with so much joy the Argonaughty almost sank! Over the subsequent decade more and more DJs begin pulling out the same party trick, with either the original version or the excellent Mike Simonetti edit of said Churchapella becoming something of a dancefloor standard again.

‘Vogue’ (Shep Pettibone 12-inch Version/Strike-A-Pose Dub) 1990

By the summer of 1990, Madonna was the undisputed Queen of Pop. While her 80s rivals were finding life hard going, she was at the peak of her powers, following up her best album yet (‘Like a Prayer’) with this all-conquering single. Co-produced and written with Shep Pettibone, it was inspired by and precision tooled for the New York LGBTQ+ Drag Ball scene. It’s considered the first house record to hit top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and it topped the UK charts just as her legendary Blond Ambition tour was taking off. Although the original 12-inch mix is damn near perfect, the Drag Ball roots are made even more explicit on the superb ‘Strike-A-Pose Dub’, with liberal sampling of The Salsoul Orchestra classic ‘Ooh, I Love It (Love Break)’ over a stripped back track, which seems to only increase the drama.

‘Deeper and Deeper’ (Shep Pettibone Classic 12-inch) 1992

Basically, this is ‘Vogue 2.0’, and utterly wonderful. An ecstatic, anthemic powerhouse of a song and vocal delivery (again, co-written with Pettibone), elevated to beyond the clouds on this stunning, classy house remix, which nods stylistically to the Def Mix productions of David Morales and Frankie Knuckles, and is every bit as gorgeous.

‘Bedtime Story’ (Orbital Remix) 1995

The original album version is one of Madonna’s most groundbreaking songs, a trippy, psychedelic, slo-mo house affair, complemented with an equally surreal video. The remixers she was working with around this time tended towards the tribal house sound favoured at NYC clubs like The Sound Factory and Twilo, hence Junior Vasquez on remix duties here, and Danny Tenaglia on ‘Human Nature’. Not really my thing, so I was delighted to discover this weird and wonderful remix from UK techno pioneers Orbital on the UK 12. They manage to retain the wonderfully disorientating, hypnotic feel of the original, while allowing Madge’s voice to float around in a sea of rattling breakbeats, nagging basslines and discordant synth pads, taking the song into new territory while keeping the feel of the OG.

‘I’ll Remember’ (Theme From ‘With Honours’) (William Orbit Guerilla Beach Mix) 1994

The William Orbit-produced ‘Ray of Light’ album is probably Madonna’s creative peak, and certainly my favourite LP. That working relationship began a few years earlier with 92’s ‘Erotica’ and then this stunning remix. Sandwiched between Orbit’s ‘Strange Cargo III’ and ‘Strange Cargo: Hinterland’ albums, this mix is the distillation of the sound he was perfecting on those masterpieces and which would reach its zenith on ‘Ray of Light’. A gorgeous Balearic soundscape of chunky, chugging beats, fluttering percussion, twittering synths, throbbing basslines and haunting piano melodies, while snippets and phrases of Madonna’s vocal float in and out of the mix, seemingly at random. Wonderful.

‘Frozen’ (Stereo MC’s Remix) 1998

In its original form the lead single from the superb ‘Ray of Light’ is all skittering breakbeats and ethereal washes of sound, like a drum’n’bass record on heroin – a total wonky masterpiece, with a Chris Cunningham-directed video to match. On remix duty, Stereo MC’s manage to bring the funk to the track, with haunting yet subtle North African influences, a bassline which sounds like it’s lifted from the Disco Dub Band and a rock-solid groove of the Balearic chugger variety. Manages to somehow improve on perfection.

‘Nothing Really Matters’ (Kruder & Dorfmeister Mix) 1999

Pure, unadulterated, magic! I’m guessing that William Orbit suggested K&D for this remix – they had previously remixed his own ‘Million Town’ track – although their public profile had been raised substantially after they remixed Depeche Mode’s ‘Useless’ the previous year, so her Madgesty could have been aware of their work anyway. No matter. What we get is an 11-minute-plus epic of jazzy breakbeats, squelching analogue synths, dramatic brass stabs and one of the all-time classic remixes. All that remains of Madonna’s original, admittedly wonderful song, is a few snatched vocal phrases, which are laced liberally throughout, creating a dark, smoky, sweaty and fierce, future-funk masterpiece. K&D are (understandably) quite proud of the mix, as they’ve added it to the recent 25th anniversary reissue of ‘The K&D Sessions’.

‘Don’t Tell Me’ (Victor Calderone Sensory Mix) 2000

Madonna met Victor Calderone while he was resident DJ at Liquid in Miami, the club she and her friends chose to party at whenever she was living in Miami. He would go on to remix 11 tracks for her, but while the majority are the kind of ‘big room house’ that he was known for playing to the coke-fuelled beautiful people and celebrities who made up his club audience, on this track he turns in a stunning 103bpm, trippy, psychedelic, chugger of a remix. It’s heavy and throbbing, but Balearic in a ‘would sound good at ALFOS’ style! Also includes the album version on the same 12-inch, which is a career high point.

‘Borderline’ (Butch Le Butch 5AM Garage Rework) Download Only 2013

This incredible re-work took its own good mystical time to make a name for itself, but by about 2017 you couldn’t attend a quality music event, be it a basement in Manchester or a festival in Croatia and not hear it! Stretching the song out to over 11 minutes and allowing the component parts to stand alone and shine makes this pop classic sound like it was remixed by Larry Levan specifically for the dancefloor at the Paradise Garage. I was lucky enough to DJ on a boat part in Rio de Janeiro a few years back and this was my closing track. Epic doesn’t do it justice. 

Read: Madonna's greatest inspiration. Her enduring relationship with the dancefloor

Read: When Madonna played The Hacienda

Read: How Madonna's first album changed everything

‍

This article first appeared in issue seven of Disco Pogo.