Product Description

She can dance and she can jive, and most of the time that'swhy you buy Madonna records. She's our real-life dancing queen. So if buying an album advertised as her "Greatest Ballad Hits" strikes you as sort of like buying acoustic Abba, you're probably not alone.
But ever since TRUE BLUE, Madonna has displayed a keen interest in pop orchestration and smoky, soulful singing. On the breakthrough "Live To Tell", shediscovered the low end of her vocal range, while co-producer and co-writer Patrick Leonard built a psychedelic swell ofkeyboards, guitars and sound effects around her. It was like nothing she had done before, dealing directly with dark secrets, foreshadowing an adult pop sound that she'd stick by through all the twists, turns and trends that followed. SOMETHING TO REMEMBER collects such slow and mid-tempo tracks from the various nooks in which Madonna's hidden them (though most were singles, many had showed up in album form only on soundtracks), and shows off the dark chanteuse qualities that she has only intermittently gotten credit for.
Notice the almost Beatlesque harmonies and swooping strings of her 1994 hit "Take A Bow", the dream-like feel of the electric piano on the wistful "This Used To Be My Playground", or the epic feel of "Oh Father", which starts with a dance of classical strings before dipping to a soul-baring vocal about the causes and effects of child abuse. The three new songs on SOMETHING TO REMEMBER are formidable additions to this oeuvre."You'll See", with its Spanish guitar flourishes and lyric about surviving a wrecked affair, is a direct sequel to "Take A Bow". "I Want You", a Marvin Gaye cover that also appears on the Gaye tribute album INNER CITY BLUES, is a stunning collaboration with UK's Massive Attack, taking Madonna into a trippy, spare realm that sounds like dub with strings. And"One More Chance" is, amazingly, almost acoustic Madonna--the dancing queen cast improbably as the strumming princess.

Track Listing

1. I Want You - Madonna & Massive Attack
2. I'll Remember
3. Take A Bow
4. You'll See
5. Crazy For You
6. This Used To Be My Playground
7. Live To Tell
8. Love Don't Live Here Anymore
9. Something To Remember
10. Forbidden Love
11. One More Chance
12. Rain
13. Oh Father
14. I Want You (Orchestral) - Madonna & Massive Attack

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7152 in Music
• Released on: 1995-11-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It didn't take the post-motherhood Ray of Light to prove that Madonna is a big softie; this collection of ballads and slow jams had already done that. Somewhat confused in intention--the scalding ache of "Oh Father", a 1989 song for her own dad, is shoved between the sex of "Rain" and a version of Marvin Gaye's "I Want You"--this is nonetheless a highly listenable album for those who dig Madonna for her music as much as for her cultural significance. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Very Good...
...But definately her weakest album since "Like a Virgin"

1. I Want You. 9/10
2. I'll Remember. 9/10
3. Take a Bow. 10/10
4. You'll See. 10/10
5. Crazy For You. 10/10
6. This Used to Be My Playground. 9/10
7. Live To Tell. 10/10
8. Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Remix). 7/10
9. Something to Remember. 8/10
10. Forbidden Love. 9/10
11. One More Chance. 7/10
12. Rain. 10/10
13. Oh Father. 10/10
14. I Want You (Orchestral. 8/10

OVERALL GRADE: 9/10
When I heard about "Something to Remember", I basically cringed. But it wasn't as bad as I thought. OK, it does take you down memory lane a bit, well wouldn't it! Definately not GRAMMY AWARD winning, but definately to add to your Madonna survival kit! Also track 8 "Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Remix)" is worse than the normal "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" from the album "Like a Virgin", why bother remixing it if it's terrible!

My all time Favourite Madonna album
Something to Remember is by far my all time favourite Madonna album. It is chilled, laid back and thoughtful, and I love it. My favourite tracks are 'This used to be my Playground' 'Rain' 'Something to Remember' and 'Oh Father'. It is quite a reflective album I feel, and not as loud and obvious as some of her other work. I have always been a big Madonna fan, I totally admire the woman, she is fearless. However, this album shows a gentler side to her, a more likeable persona I think. I like to have it playing when I am in a pensive frame of mind, thinking back over times in my life. It's a dear friend to me, and one I treasure.

Madonna in laid back mode - get ready for re - reinvention
MADONNA was in back-to-back film projects when this unheralded collection hit the stores just a year after the bedtime stories album, spanning her first 12 years, this compiles a selection of ballads, most of which were not included on madonna's GHV2 greatest hits album.
The romantic theme is scotched somewhat by her scolding song about her own father, but it's a minor quibble.
Showcasing her emotional vocal range far way before she played the icon in the film evita, highlights include a cover of marvin gaye's I WANT YOU and her very own wonderful RAIN, a reminder that Madonna is adept at brooding longing as she is at controversy, a brilliant album with huge amounts of emotion and songs you can really relate to 10 out 0f 10!