To date, only the Beatles have carved a ranking map in which I hear no dud singles. Madonna’s run of singles from 1984 to 1989 ranks with theirs for concentration, melodic suppleness, intelligence, and brevity; “Open Your Heart” was not “Angel,” and “Cherish” was not “Material Girl.” When she dies, as all people must, it will kill me.
Meh
Material Girl
Causing a Commotion
True Blue
La Isla Bonita
Sound, Solid Entertainments
Dress You Up
Like a Virgin
Papa Don’t Preach
Who’s That Girl
Oh Father
Express Yourself
Good to Great
Like a Prayer
Open Your Heart
Borderline
Angel
Live to Tell
Lucky Star
Holiday
Crazy For You
Cherish
Humanizing The Vacuum 
Ok, I’m gonna be hard on her. But because I love her:-
“Burning Up” shoulda been her first top 10. “Into the Groove”, a single in US (uncroyable!) I’m not sharing so much love for “Angel” which has always been to me a minor version of the same melody but done better in “Groove”. But I’ll give it a second listen because you always have a point. Anyway, the Brits knew better.
“Papa Don’t Preach” may not have been the best song off True Blue (that would be “Live to Tell”), but I’d argue it’s the single that aged better, musically. It’s the one still on the radio here. There’s something mechanical with the drums on that album I can’t quite put a finger on… it screams live drunmming by robots. The strings section in “Papa” smoothes that. It’s almost minimalist compared to “Open Your Heart”s expressionism, for instance. By the time she aknowledged that, “Express Yourself” received the minimal house treatment Like a Prayer (the album) denied. Just for that “impressive instant” of wisdom, “Express” should be bumped up higher than, say, “Lucky Star” (my least fav single off her debut.) And I’m a debut fan! It’s my fav. 80s album from her. For too many, many people, the house-pop version of “Express”, it’s the first house record we’ve ever heard on radio!! That must count for something.
Hague
Causing a Commotion (the worst between this group)
La Isla Bonita (“solo diho que tea-mo”, fuck off!)
Like a Virgin (cluncky guitars on a programmed funky bassline? Gimme a break. Jam/Lewis should have produced this turd, not Rodgers) Never heard again this on radio since the 80s finished. Pure white funk for then people. I would have loved to hear what the Gap Band should have done to this. I still think this record is cynical as hell. And her vocals are not even there.
Meh
Material Girl
Dress You Up
Who’s that Girl (señorita más fina- I want to hang this sometimes). Never she should be allowed to speak Spanglish again.
Lucky Star
Angel
Sound, Solid Entertainments
Crazy For You
Cherish
Open Your Heart
Oh Father
Good to Great
Like a Prayer
Borderline
Papa Don’t Preach
Express Yourself
Live to Tell (her best early ballad by a mile, along with non-single “Promise to Try”)
Should have been in this group:
Into the Groove
Burning Up (her punkiest record. That dirty guitar! Some moments in “Music” remind me of this. Raw.)
Holiday (almost the birth of dance-pop along with Shannon’s singles and “Last Night a DJ Saved my Life”. Bullet-proof)
That’s my 8 Madonna songs on my 80s list. Same as Elton in the 70s (I forgot deep cut “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters) 3 from Madonna, 2 from TB, 2 from Like a Prayer- plus “Groove”. None from Virgin. So I’m fine with those. But I’ll give “Angel” another spin since you love it.
I agree that she may have been the Beatles in terms of consistency. I still think there are three songs I don’t want her to be remember of. And she’s not dying anytime soon.
Funny how the goofy Spanish on two of those singles makes your teeth hurt while I find it charming. I give LIB a passing grade because the Leonard melody is gorgeous.
It’s not that only, Alfred. I think it’s the gringo-ed idea of “Latino” that I find tacky. Yes, the melody is gorgeous. But I don’t understand how a flamenco guitar with Caribbean rhythms is polyglot. Spain it’s not the home of salsa!! I think of the old saying here: to Americans, the capital of Argentina is Rio de Janeiro. Obviously not ALL Americans. It’s the general idea that all Latin America is one country and that we have no differences, cultural (like, in music) or otherwise. The old joke in CLUELESS about the housmaid from El Salvador being mistaken by a Mexican. As if!!
I had worst problems with Ricky Martin’s breakthrough, for instance. I remember David Browne, writing for Entertainment Weekly, panning his album for his “pneumatic rythms”, and concluding his pan-cultural appropiation of everything resembling “latin” was a hodgepodge readymade for American mass cosumption. The idea Americans had of “Latin Music”. Not what it really was in all its specificities. “El Happy Meals”, he wrote. And I was clapping. A year before, Buena Vista Social Club was informing not all “latin” music was equal.
I think Madge was clueless. She was young, So I don’t want to be so hard on her. But, even being 14 at the time, my friends and I bought the album and we couldn’t believe how tacky that song was!! We just laughed every time it appeared on radio.
I don’t think she was trying to pursue “globalism”. She was ignorant, musically. That’s all. So was Leonard. They tried to make a Caribbean song (I suppose?) and put flamenco on it because, why not? It’s not a match for me. It is when they discreetly done it in the middle eight of “Papa Don’t Preach” (poignant) or the break in “Deeper and Deeper” (genius!) because neither of them is trying to be a “Latin” song in the first place!!
Besides, the only polyglot who truly understood every nuance of this continent music and was able to combined it with respect and gusto (and rlots of reggae, too) was Manu Chao and his troupe of musical anarchists called Mano Negra.
I hope I have clarified the subject on why it bothers me so much. And anyway, it’s not like I refuse to dance to it when it happens. I just keep thinking is tacky and one of Madonna obsessions at that time that happily ended soon.
PS: By comparison, the PSBs “Domino Dancing” it’s a masterclass in nuance. It helps they were being ironic and not earnest about it.
Congrats on the new design!!