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I liked them both because they were ironic and provocative at the same time but also unlike me. I am not a materialistic person, and I certainly wasn't a virgin, and, by the way, how can you be like a virgin? I liked the play on words; I thought they were clever. They're so geeky, they're cool. I never realized they would become my signature songs, especially the second one.[4]
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In mid-1984, Madonna met with Nile Rodgers at New York's Power Station studio to start working on her second studio album;[5] Rodgers put together an "economical" rhythm section, consisting of himself on guitars, Bernard Edwards from Chic on bass, and Tony Thompson on drums.[5] According to author Fred Bronson, Rodgers did not want Madonna to record "Like a Virgin", as he felt the lyric "like a virgin" was not a "terrific" hook, nor an "all-time catch phrase".[3] However, he began to have second thoughts after hearing the demo; "I couldn't get it out of my head after I played it, even though I didn't really like it [...] but it grew on me. I really started to like it. [...] But, my first reaction to it was, 'This is really queer'", Rodgers recalled.[6] The producer then "handed [my] apology [to Madonna] and said, 'you know... if it's so catchy that it stayed in my head for four days, it must be something. So let's do it", thus the song was finally recorded.[3][6] Madonna was very eager to release her work with Rodgers, despite "Borderline" being a top-ten hit at the time; "not that I didn't love Reggie Lucas and 'Borderline' [...] but the thing is, when I put out my first record it didn't really do that well. [...] So it kind of had a resurgence right at the time we were going to release 'Like a Virgin'", she recalled.[7] Of the recording process, Billy Steinberg commented:
Lyrically, "Like a Virgin" has been described as an "ode to a lover who makes the singer feel like new".[12] Madonna commented: "I like innuendo, I like irony, I like the way things can be taken on different levels"; this statement highlighted the ambiguity of the lyrics of the song, which is hung on the word "like".[8] According to Rooksby, the song can be interpreted in many different ways: actual virgins are encouraged to hold their compose before their first sexual encounter; in the case of men and more sexually experienced women, however, the lyrics talk about how they can re-live the feelings of their first sexual encounter.[8]
"Like a Virgin" was released as the album's lead single on October 31, 1984.[13][14][15][16][17] Rodgers wanted "Material Girl" to be released as lead single but "Like a Virgin" was chosen instead, a decision Madonna herself found "quite controversial".[18] Afterwards, the song was included on the singer's compilations, The Immaculate Collection (1990), and Celebration (2009).[19][20] Upon release, "Like a Virgin" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. On his biography of the singer, J. Randy Taraborrelli described it as a "coy song that suggested [she] really was a virgin - excited, sexy and willing".[21] Author Thomas J. Ferraro called it "hilariously tongue-in-cheek".[22] In The History of American Pop, Stuart A. Kallen referred to it as "light and catchy, easy to dance to, and just plain fun".[23] From AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine named it, along with "Material Girl", one of the album's "definitive statements" that "overshadow" the rest of the songs;[24] Stewart Mason from the same website, felt it was "pure bubblegum fluff" and the song in which Madonna "sounds most like Marilyn Monroe".[25] Rolling Stone's Debby Miller deemed it "terrific", and opined that, despite her "little-girl voice [...] when she chirps, 'You made me feel/Shiny and new/Like a virgin', [...] you know she's after something".[26] The same magazine then said that, "even if the word 'virgin' is the only sexual reference in the lyrics, ['Like a Virgin'] still sounds saturated in lust".[27] From Billboard, Brian Chin praised the singer's "flawlessly phrased, witty" vocals and referred to the song as her "most pop-oriented cut yet".[28] Kenneth Partridge, also writing for Billboard, compared it to "Billie Jean" and referred to it as a "complex song about purity and sex".[29] Parade's Samuel Murrian singled out "just how clever and skillfully constructed this song is".[30]
The staff of Cash box opined that, "though the hooks are not as interesting as on her previous singles, Madonna's voice is in full force".[31] While Yahoo!'s Nicole Hogsett said it was a "flirtatious, innocent-sounding (yet not innocent at all) [...] undeniably fun discussion of love", The Guardian called it "saucy".[12][32] Amy Davidson from Digital Spy praised its "instantly memorable" lyrics, and said it had "one of the best basslines in pop".[33] For The Arizona Republic, Ed Masley wrote that, "['Like a Virgin'] features young Madonna at her chirpiest" and, when compared to other singles such as "Justify My Love" (1990), it "does feel pretty virginal".[34] Stereogum's Tom Breihan pointed out that "Rodgers' production and the Chic members' playing is sharp and in-the-pocket [...] [Madonna] projects personality all over it. But she also sounds tinny and small", ultimately concluding that it was a "pretty good" song.[2] In less favorable reviews, Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger felt it came off a bit repetitious and immature.[35] The Backlot's Louis Virtel opined it's the Madonna song that has "aged [the] worst and most" since its release.[36] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine dismissed "Like a Virgin" as a novelty.[13]
The music video for "Like a Virgin" was directed by Mary Lambert, who had previously worked with Madonna on "Borderline";[66][67] it was filmed on location in Venice and New York at a cost of $150,000, "way more than we'd ever spent on a video" according to Warner Bros. creative director Jeff Ayeroff.[2][68][69] Shooting in Venice was Lambert's idea, as "[Madonna] singing in a gondola was the most outrageous thing I could think of".[70] The visual interspersed footage of the singer as "a knowing virgin", dressed in a white wedding dress, with scenes of her "strutting" throughout Venice in a "sluttish getup".[71] Also present are a male lion wandering through the streets, and a man in a lion's mask.[2] Madonna herself explained the concept: "[Mary] wanted me to be the modern-day, worldly-wise girl that I am. But then we wanted to go back in time and use myself as an actual virgin";[72] she also recalled that, at one point, she was "leaning against this pillar with [the lion's] head in my crotch [...] I thought he was going to take a bite out of me".[73]
It begins with Madonna getting off a boat at the Brooklyn Bridge. The setting then moves to Venice, where a "flirtatious" Madonna watches the lion walk through the streets; she then walks to the beat of the music.[22] Later on, the singer is seen walking through a "fairytale castle" dressed in a "virginal" white wedding gown. These scene are interspersed with shots of Madonna dancing suggestively on a gondola.[23] Towards the end, the singer meets a man wearing a lion mask who carries her into a bed. In the final shot, the couple rides off together in a gondola, and the video ends with the New York skyline.[74]
In 1985, Max Baer Jr. approached Kelly and Steinberg with a proposal to turn the song into a film, just as he had done with Ode to Billy Joe (1970), and even began negotiations with them.[160] However, the ABC threatened to sue after hearing of the negotiations; lawyers claimed the songwriters had already agreed to sell the rights to the network for a television film. Baer subsequently sued ABC for interfering with his prospective economic advantage, and was awarded $2 million by a court, who agreed that the network had wrongly interfered with the producer's plans.[160] During the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, the character Mr. Brown (played by Tarantino himself) insists that "Like a Virgin" is "about a girl who meets a guy with a big dick";[2] when Madonna met Tarantino at a party after the film's release, she gave him an autographed copy of her album Erotica, signing, "Quentin: it's about love, not dick".[161][162] In Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001), "Like a Virgin" was turned into a "delightful comic number" performed by Jim Broadbent.[163] A sing-along of the track was performed by the titular character (Renée Zellweger) and a group of prostitutes at a Thailand jail in the 2004 film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason;[164] four years later, in "The Becoming", the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of American medical drama Grey's Anatomy, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) hums the song while she removes the hearts of 50 cadavers.[165] It was namechecked in the Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" (2009) with the lyric "I believe in you/Like a virgin you're Madonna".[166] In "The Power of Madonna" (2010), fifteenth episode of American television series Glee, "Like a Virgin" was sung by three couples played by Jonathan Groff, Jayma Mays, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Matthew Morrison, and Naya Rivera;[167] the performance was praised by Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack, who hailed it as "one of the more ambitious numbers of the night".[168]
On an article celebrating the Like a Virgin album's 35th anniversary, John Murph noted that "white conservatives" made "a nationwide fuss" following the single's release.[185] Family organizations criticized it, as they believed it promoted sex outside marriage and "undermined" family values, while others sought to ban it along with the music video.[186][187] Despite its not being included on its "Filthy Fifteen" list, it has been argued that "Like a Virgin" is one of the songs that led to the creation of the Parents Music Resource Center in 1985.[188][189] Benjamin Brand and David J. Rothenberg wrote in Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Liturgy, Sources, Symbolism (2016), that the song's lyrics, specifically the word "virgin", "seemed to violate a respected - if not revered - state in 1984, both in the physiological and Christological sense of the word".[190] Carol Clerk noted that the song attracted an "unprecedented level of attention from social groups", something uncommon for a female singer; the author believed the public listened "superficially" to the lyrics, thus believed that they detailed or called on an "innocent's sexual initiation". She concluded by saying that, while one section of the population was outraged, others were taking joy at the "very notion of a virginal Madonna". The singer herself said she was surprised at the public's reaction; "everyone interpreted it as 'I don't want to be a virgin anymore. Fuck my brains out!'. That's not what I sang at all. 'Like a Virgin' was always absolutely ambiguous", she explained.[8][73]