Happy Birthday Madonna!
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Illustration of Madonna based on the brilliant True Blue cover photo, shot by Herb Ritts.
I still recall exactly where I was the first time I heard “Live to Tell” from this album. Walking up Karl Johan’s st. in Oslo with the yellow Sony “Sports” Walkman that was both weather proofed and had a FM tuner built in.
Thinking the song was about to end, I was totally floored by the false stop and her voice coming back at about 3 minutes and 50 seconds:
“If I ran way, I’d never have the strength to go very far”
That’s when I understood this wasn’t just another cute party girl with a microphone like Sabrina, Sandra or Samantha Fox who were also high on the charts at the time. This was different…