Saturday, January 29, 2011

Unbelievable - 30 Years Ago - Stay '81


The other day as I was blogging the Peter Cunningham photographs of Madonna, I put 1982 in the tags. 1982 - as I've done a gazillion times before - ! - But it's 2011! Wow, in one year Madonna has professionally been with music for 30 years! Those pics are older than most of her fans! It's unbelievable. She's unbelievable.

For Madonna, she's been at it since 1980. And this gem was on the demo tape that got her signed to Sire Records in 1982. Its the early version of Stay (the Virgin version produced by Nile Rodgers is a mixture of this and Don't You Know?) and it was recorded in 1981.

It was mentioned in both Rolling Stone (Madonna Goes All the Way - November 1984) and in Michael McKenzie's Lucky Star book.



Ever since I knew there were early versions, I was dying to hear them. I didn't get to hear them until 1996 when Stephen Bray released them, but it was well worth the wait and one of my all-time favorite Madonna recordings.

9 comments:

  1. The early Stay is great, as are a lot of the Pre-Madonna tracks (Burning Up is fab too). I think it's interesting how many songs were written long before the first two albums came out but ended up being on both.

    I can't believe it's going to be 30 years. Time is flying!!

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  2. This is telepathic! I just listened to this the other night and now I'm reading this on your blog...oh.. we're all connected I guess..ha ha..!

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  3. THANKSSSS, maybe you like the japanese Madonna bloppers in my blog.

    spanish KISSES!
    Rachel.

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  4. I like a lot of her earlier work too. I think my favorite is "Bells Ringing" but it wasn't on this album. I wish I could get it for my iPod.

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  5. I was just youtubing her demos fr a post on my Madonna blog!

    I prefer this version than the one on Like a Virgin. But, both are still great in my opinion.

    This reminds me of another great tune that had a great demo. The demo for 'Drowned World/No Subsitute for Love' is amazing! The album version is just as magical, but gives a totally different spin on the song.

    Another great example is 'Infinity', which turned into the classic 'Give it 2 Me'. It's like 2 songs in one (but not...you know what I mean)..lol

    I wonder what others songs had completely different demos. Anyone know?

    http://themadestycollection.blogspot.com/

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  6. Love this version, but much prefer the version released on Like a Virgin. Still remember the day I ordered this CD from 1-800-Harmony. oct 1996. i was 18. time flies!

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  7. stay is my second best of the like a virgin album! my favourite is over and over! the pre-madonna demo is as good as the original. besides, a good song, demo or not, remains a good song :)

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  8. Please vote for Madonna!

    http://queensofpop.arte.tv/index_de.html

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