“And you can dance… for inspiration.”
Madonna sings at the beginning of her classic tune Into the Groove.
Released on this day in 1985, the tune arrived at height of Madonna-mania, a time when she spurred the culture phenomenon of ‘wannabe’s’ – young girls you mimicked her signature look of blond hair with dark roots, bangles, scrunchies, lace gloves and exposed midriffs.
Just days ahead of its release Madonna performed the song at the massive Live Aid charity concert, alongside another new song Love Makes the World Go Round – which at one stage was touted to be the lead single from her next album True Blue.
The song was featured in the film Desperately Seeking Susan which had been released in the USA in April. The song’s video clip is made up of scenes from the movie.
In the comedy caper Madonna stars as the title character, a bohemian itinerant living life to the full. While Rosanna Arquette plays a housewife from New Jersey becomes fascinated with the free spirit she’s never met. When their paths cross, a chain of events leads to a mix up of identities and lives.
While it became a signature tune for Madonna, and had a video for MTV, the song was never put out as a single, and was not featured on the original pressings of her Like a Virgin album. It was only available as the B-side on the 12-inch of her song Angel.
Madonna wrote the hit with regular collaborator Steven Bray the year before, and the song was intended for singer Cheyne who was a protege of DJ Mark Kamins who had significantly helped in launching Madonna’s career.
Madonna recorded a song called Desperately Seeking Susan for the film, but instead they opted to use Into the Groove. In the film only the demo version was used, which is why the song came out after the film had been in theatres for some months, Madonna hadn’t even recorded it properly yet.
The song was added to later pressings of the Like a Virgin album. In 1987 when Madonna put out her first remix album, she used the opening line from Into the Groove as the compilation’s title, it’s called You Can Dance.
On the remix album is an extended version created by producer Shep Pettibone that features a wild piano solo. When Madonna launched her Who’s That Girl world tour in 1987 one of the highlights of the show was the energetic delivery of the song, which echoed the remix version of the tune. Pettibone would go on to be one of Madonna’s most significant collaborators writing and producing Vogue and many other hits.
Into the Groove remained a staple of her live shows, Madonna has performed the song on seven of her tours including The Virgin Tour, Who’s That Girl, Blond Ambition, Re-Invention, Sticky and Sweet, Rebel Heart and Celebration.
Indie rock band Sonic Youth covered the tune, while singer Dale Bozzio from Missing Persons recorded a version for a Madonna tribute album. In 2003 Dannii Minogue became the first artist officially granted permission to sample a Madonna tune, she used in her hit Don’t Want to Lose This Feeling.
