Going Through Changes: Madonna – Celebration

Going Through Changes is where I look back on missed moments of awesome and fix them up to a standard I would find acceptable. I apologise for the geeky content of these posts but for compilation enthusiasts such as myself this is like porn.

Madonna is well-known among her fans for being one of those artists who doesn’t like to look back. This is a good thing in many respects, it means her tours are not just full of her old hits and it means that she stays fresher and more current that most, if not all, of the Pop Women Over Fifty.

But it sucks when it comes to how her back catalogue is treated. All her albums are of course still in print but she desperately needs big chunky beautiful gorgeous deluxe amazing remasters, and her hits albums are almost always a bit… off. The Immaculate Collection was her first in 1990, and it remains one of her defining moments as an artist, but all the tracks were slightly remixed, which irked some fans. Something To Remember followed six years later and was great but cannot really be called a greatest hits, as it focused only on ballads. GHV2 summarised 1992-2000, but didn’t include any new singles and suffered from general lack of interest (not to mention the boring title). The artwork was very nice though.

Celebration was supposed to be the big finale to Madonna’s career with Warner Records, and it was released in 2009 as her first career-spanning, two disc collection. But the whole thing was managed terribly – it was available in one- and two-disc versions, which is ridiculous as you cannot possibly represent a career with so many hits on one disc. Number one singles like ‘True Blue’ and ‘This Used To Be My Playground’ were shafted for songs like ‘Miles Away’, which could barely be called a hit. ‘American Life’, ‘Deeper And Deeper’ and ‘Give It 2 Me’ were all ignored and lesser songs from their respective eras were included instead. The edits and mastering was fucked up, especially on songs like ‘Erotica’, where one edit is clearly spliced into another in a manner that could never be described as “seamless”. Also, the DVD version, while excellent in that it commercially released heaps of videos we were missing, it tragically skipped over some of Madonna’s finest visual moments. What we needed was a definitive collection, with the correct single mixes (no fucking new edits), and a tracklist that included all the big hits.

So, in my eternal nerdiness, I have prepared for you Celebration: The What Could Have Been Edition. In this fantasy, we have the following formats:

- 2 CD standard edition
- 3 CD deluxe edition
- 4 CD/3DVD super deluxe/fan edition
- 3DVD video collection

I started out by making a list of Madonna’s 77 (SEVENTY-SEVEN) singles, including featured appearances (‘Me Against The Music’), country-specific (‘Spotlight’, ‘The Look Of Love’), promo-only (‘I Want You’), and digital-only (‘Hey You’) singles. I cut this down to 39 songs for the standard edition, then had to get rid of two songs (‘The Power Of Good-Bye’ and ‘You Must Love Me’) to allow the songs to fit on two CDs. I kept the two new singles from the original version (‘Celebration’ and ‘Revolver’) because new songs are a must on any current-artist greatest hits and they’re just really good songs. I also kept the non-chronological approach from the original tracklist. Most of my selections are based on how big a hit or how well remembered the song was, so as a result some of my personal favourites were relegated to the bonus discs.

Those two discs would then be paired with a third CD of further hits (even including some number ones). This would mean that if a casual fan were to pick up this 3CD version, they would have all of Madonna’s career-defining hits in one swift, convenient purchase. It would be the greatest single-artist compilation of pop known to man.

Then, “for the fans”, there would be a super deluxe fancy mega super awesome cool expensive super edition, with a FOURTH disc filled with even more hits, plus a mammoth 3 DVD set featuring all of Madonna’s videos. I’ve split the DVD set into two sections: first two discs are her official video “canon”, while the third disc features some alternate versions, videos made from tour footage, videos nobody ever sees, and just because a boy can dream, the unreleased video for ‘Holiday’. I ran into an issue with the fourth CD of hits: there was room for 19 songs, and I had 20 left. The decision was easy: ‘Hey You’ is clearly the worst of Madonna’s singles and it was cut in an instant. I have tacked it on here as a “digital bonus track” for the super edition.

All edits and mixes here come from the original single releases. No Q-sound mixes, no new edits.

Standard Edition Disc 1

1. Celebration 3:34
2. Music 3:44
3. Vogue (single version) 4:19
4. Open Your Heart 4:12
5. Holiday (7″ version/edit) 4:04
6. Give It 2 Me (edit) 4:02
7. Express Yourself (7″ remix) 4:35
8. Material Girl 4:00
9. 4 Minutes (edit) 3:10 – Madonna ft. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
10. Die Another Day (radio edit) 3:30
11. Sorry (single edit) 3:58
12. True Blue (remix/edit) 4:22
13. Borderline (edit) 4:02
14. La Isla Bonita 4:01
15. Who’s That Girl? 3:58
16. Frozen (radio edit) 5:08
17. Rain (video edit) 4:23
18. Crazy For You 4:08
19. Live To Tell (edit) 4:37

1:17:47

Standard Edition Disc 2

1. Revolver 3:40 – Madonna ft. Lil’ Wayne
2. Hung Up (radio version) 3:23
3. Like A Prayer (7″ version) 5:19
4. Ray Of Light (radio edit) 4:33
5. Into The Groove 4:43
6. Deeper And Deeper (edit) 4:54
7. Beautiful Stranger (edit) 3:50
8. Like A Virgin 3:38
9. Papa Don’t Preach 4:29
10. American Life (radio edit) 4:27
11. Don’t Tell Me (radio edit) 4:10
12. Lucky Star (edit) 3:44
13. Erotica (radio edit) 4:33
14. Cherish (7″ version) 4:03
15. Secret (radio edit) 4:28
16. Justify My Love 4:58
17. I’ll Remember 4:23
18. Take A Bow (edit) 4:31

1:17:46

Deluxe Edition Disc 3

1. Hollywood (radio edit) 3:44
2. Everybody (edit) 3:20
3. Causing A Commotion (silver screen single mix) 4:05
4. American Pie 4:33
5. Human Nature (radio version) 4:32
6. Fever (edit one) 4:03
7. Jump (radio edit) 3:22
8. Burning Up (7″ version) 3:45
9. Bedtime Story (edit) 4:08
10. Dress You Up 3:58
11. Get Together (radio edit) 3:54
12. The Power Of Good-Bye 4:10
13. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (edit) 4:51
14. This Used To Be My Playground 5:06
15. You Must Love Me (single version) 3:09
16. What It Feels Like For A Girl (radio edit) 4:03
17. Bad Girl (edit) 4:38
18. Oh Father (edit) 4:20
19. Drowned World/Substitute For Love (radio edit) 4:46

1:18:27

Super Deluxe Edition Disc 4

1. Nothing Really Matters (edit) 4:11
2. Gambler 3:54
3. Love Profusion 3:35
4. Bye Bye Baby 3:56
5. Angel 3:40
6. Me Against The Music 3:43 – Britney Spears ft. Madonna
7. Spotlight (single edit) 4:33
8. Hanky Panky 3:57
9. Rescue Me (single mix) 4:53
10. Keep It Together (single mix) 4:32
11. Miles Away (radio edit) 3:43
12. Dear Jessie 4:20
13. Another Suitcase In Another Hall 3:32
14. You’ll See (edit) 4:17
15. The Look Of Love 4:01
16. Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (soulpower radio remix) 4:05
17. I Want You (radio edit) 6:11 – Massive Attack & Madonna
18. One More Chance 4:27
19. Nothing Fails (radio edit) 3:46

1:19:16

Digital bonus track: Hey You 4:12

DVD Disc 1

1. Everybody
2. Burning Up
3. Borderline
4. Lucky Star
5. Like A Virgin
6. Material Girl
7. Crazy For You
8. Into The Groove
9. Gambler
10. Live To Tell
11. Papa Don’t Preach
12. True Blue
13. Open Your Heart
14. La Isla Bonita
15. Who’s That Girl?
16. Like A Prayer
17. Express Yourself
18. Cherish
19. Dear Jessie
20. Oh Father
21. Vogue
22. Justify My Love
23. This Used To Be My Playground
24. Erotica
25. Deeper And Deeper
26. Bad Girl
27. Fever
28. Rain

DVD Disc 2

1. I’ll Remember
2. Secret
3. Take A Bow
4. Bedtime Story
5. Human Nature
6. I Want You - Massive Attack & Madonna
7. You’ll See
8. Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
9. You Must Love Me
10. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
11. Frozen
12. Ray Of Light
13. Drowned World/Substitute For Love
14. The Power Of Good-Bye
15. Nothing Really Matters
16. Beautiful Stranger
17. American Pie
18. Music
19. Don’t Tell Me
20. What It Feels Like For A Girl
21. Die Another Day
22. American Life
23. Hollywood
24. Love Profusion
25. Hung Up
26. Sorry
27. Get Together
28. Jump
29. 4 Minutes - Madonna ft. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
30. Give It 2 Me
31. Celebration

DVD Disc 3 – Bonus Videos

1. Holiday (unreleased)
2. Dress You Up
3. True Blue (MTV make my video contest version)
4. Causing A Commotion
5. Causing A Commotion (1987 MTV video music awards)
6. The Look Of Love
7. Vogue (1990 MTV video music awards)
8. Bye Bye Baby
9. Another Suitcase In Another Hall
10. Like A Virgin/Hollywood (2003 MTV video music awards) – Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera & Missy Elliott
11. Me Against The Music - Britney Spears ft. Madonna
12. Miles Away

Every night I dream of this coming true.