One of Madonna’s most memorable hits is celebrating its fortieth anniversary today. Burning Up was released on this day all the way back in 1983.
The song was the second single released by the singer following her debut with Everybody in late 1982. Following the underground success of her first single Sire Records signed the singer to do an album and teamed her up with producer Reggie Lucas.
Burning Up was one of four songs Madonna had presented on a cassette to the record company to initially get their interest in her as an artist. It’s one of the very few songs in the singer’s career where she is the sole writer.
The lyric “I’m not the same, I have no shame.” would be quite prophetic when you think of the singer’s career over the next four decades.
While her first single had been produced by DJ Mark Kamins, Madonna began working with Lucas, who was riding high having co-produced disco star Stephanie Mills hit Never Knew Love Like This Before.
Madonna wasn’t happy with how Lucas changed the sound of the song from her original demo, and she brought in her then boyfriend John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez to remix it. He added more guitars and provided additional vocals.
The artwork for the 12-inch version of the song was designed by Madonna’s close friend Martin Burgoyne. They would remain close friends until 1986 when he was diagnosed with HIV, he passed away just a few months after being diagnosed, he was just 23 years old.
His death would lead to Madonna being one of the most prominent celebrities to raise awareness about HIV. Madonna had paid her friend’s medical expenses while he was in hospital, and later wrote the song In This Life from her Erotica album about the experience of losing friends to HIV.
While the video for Madonna’s first single had been shot in a local nightclub on grainy video, the record company hired top director Steve Barron to create the clip for Burning Up. Barron had created videos for Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, Eddy Grant’s Electric Avenue and Toto’s Africa.
In 2015 Barron told Rolling Stone magazine that the video shoot had almost had a deadly accident. A seven-ton crane had been stretched out to shoot scene of Madonna laying in a boat. At one stage the crane almost fell which would have potentially killed Madonna.
Burning Up is the first song that brought Madonna international success with Australia being one of the first territories to embrace the singer.
The track went to Number 13 on the Australian charts, but it was a slow climb, it took 8 months to climb up the charts, and only took off after Madonna’s third single Holiday had been released and been featured prominently on Countdown.
Madonna has performed the song on several of her tours. It was included in The Virgin Tour in 1985 but was one of three songs left off the concert video. She also included in her r004 Re-invention tour and 2016’s Rebel Heart shows. Fans will be eager to see if it makes the cut for her upcoming greatest hits tour.
OIP Staff
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