Everyone gets songs stuck in their heads that just won’t go away. They sneak into your subconscious. They are epic earworms that you find yourself humming uncontrollably, singing in the shower, or tapping the beat to with your foot or ballpoint pen when you should be working. Sometimes they even keep you awake at night. Whether they are current hits, one-hit wonders, movie soundtrack gems, holiday favorites, or songs from your youth, their catchy vocals, riffs, hooks, and choruses seem to linger for days.
Here, those songs find a home, no matter the genre. Here, those epic earworms are revisited, explained, and celebrated. Here, you may find the song that haunts you tomorrow. Here is today’s unescapable song of the day…and the story behind it.
Today’s Epic Earworm: Madonna — “Live to Tell”
Madonna’s third studio album, True Blue, was a massive global success. The record shot to Number One in 28 countries, and it has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. The lead single off the album, “Live to Tell,” became the singer’s third to top the Billboard Hot 100 and her first to top the Adult Contemporary chart. The epic earworm went on to earn the singer multiple awards and award nominations, but the original version of the song wasn’t meant for Madonna.
Rejected, Reworked, and Rewarded
Photo courtesy of Brian McCollum-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.
True Blue was dedicated to actor Sean Penn, whom Madonna married just months before she began recording the album. The singer had brought in producer Patrick Leonard to help with the record. At the time, Leonard was trying to make a transition to doing more film scores, and he had recently written an instrumental piece for the 1986 Paramount film “Fire With Fire.” Unfortunately for Leonard, the studio rejected the track, saying it did not fit with the movie’s tone.
Madonna stumbled across the track while the two were working on her album and suggested she rework the song for Penn’s upcoming crime flick with Christopher Walken entitled “At Close Range.” She wrote the lyrics and recorded a demo before taking it to Penn and the movie’s director, James Foley. They liked the song and wanted to use it.
Unfortunately, the song had been written from a male perspective, so they called Leonard to ask who he wanted to record the vocals. Leonard still insisted that Madonna‘s vocals were used. The two were rewarded for their persistence when the song “Live to Tell” won an ASCAP Film Award for its inclusion in the movie and was nominated for a Grammy for its inclusion on True Blue.
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