Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Marilyn Monroe.

The Material Girl’s inspiration.

Material Girl was a mimicry of Marilyn Monroe’s performance of the song Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Madonna has often remarked that she regrets recording Material Girl because the name became a pseudonym for her in mainstream media, and was often used pejoritively.

In a 1987 interview with New York Daily News, Madonna said:

“Well, my favorite scene in all of Monroe’s movies is when she does that dance sequence for ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’. And when it came time to do the video for the song Material Girl, I said, I can just redo that whole scene and it will be perfect….Marilyn was made into something not human in a way, and I can relate to that. Her sexuality was something everyone was obsessed with and that I can relate to. And there were certain things about her vulnerability that I’m curious about and attracted to.”

Top Marilyn Monroe Wannabe: Madonna

There’s a reason why Madge is nicknamed the Material Girl and it’s not because she dated John F. Kennedy Jr.! Throughout Madonna’s many transformations in her career, Monroe always seems to play a prominent role. Madonna once claimed that she never wanted to be compared to the actress, but it’s hard to ignore the numerous photographs where she imitated Monroe and it didn’t start off from filming her 1985 hit music video that reenacted the famous scene from 1953’s Gentleman Prefer Blondes. For the 1991 Oscars, it wasn’t just Monroe’s infamous “Happy Birthday”-inspired dress that Madonna was trying to strut on the red carpet. For the evening’s performance of “Sooner or Later,” the singer ripped off from Monroe’s routine in the 1960 flick Let’s Make Love. Fast forward to 2009, Madonna opted to look like one of artist Andy Warhol’s most famous prints: that of Monroe. It’s amazing how the music icon has managed to build a career around someone else’s image, which begs the question: what would she be without Monroe? She’s definitely not a fan’s best friend.

Madonna The One-A-Day Complete Discography

Material Girl was released on January 30, 1985.  The song was the second single from Like a Virgin.  The song defined Madonna and seemed to capture the zeitgeist of the Regan Era and the nation’s deepening preoccupation with success, affluence and the lifestyles of the rich and famous.   Critics have frequently noted Material Girl and Like a Virgin as the songs that made Madonna an icon.

In 1986, Madonna told Company magazine, that although she did not write or create the song, the lyrical meaning and concept did apply to her situation at that point of time. She elaborated, “I’m very career-oriented. You are attracted to people who are ambitious that way, too, like in the song Material Girl. You are attracted to men who have material things because that’s what pays the rents and buys you furs. That’s the security. That lasts longer than emotions.”

During a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna was asked by interviewer Austin Scaggs regarding her first feelings, after listening to the demos of Like a Virgin and Material Girl.  Madonna responded by saying, “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.”

It was on the set of the video for Material Girl that Madonna met her first husband, actor Sean Penn.

Madonna The One-A-Day Complete Discography

VIDEO Sheena Is A Punk Rocker. The Ramones. 1977.

Sheena Is a Punk Rocker is a song by the punk rock group The Ramones. It first appeared on their third LP, Rocket to Russia, in 1977, and was also included on later pressings of the group’s second album, Leave Home. It was released as a single, reaching #81 in the US, and #22 in the UK singles charts.

The song was written by Joey Ramone, and is one of the Ramones’ more popular and enduring songs, showing the band’s surf rock influences.

The song is ranked #457 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The song inspired a poem, also called “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”, by poet Robert Archambeau.

It is listed here in this blog because

Sheena is a Punk Rocker. Madonna Is Not.

Madonna The One-A-Day Complete Discography

VIDEO Love Profusion. American Life. Madonna.

The music video Love Profusion was directed by well-known French film director Luc Besson — and shot on October 28, 2003 at Universal Studios in Universal City, California.  Impressed by the playfulness of Besson’s work, Madonna hired the director to create the music video after screening his commercial for Beyond Paradise.  

The end result is a tropical playground, a story-book paradise that is green-screen magic.   Madonna said of the clip, “There are a lot of special effects. I talked to things that weren’t there - which is what you do when you’re doing green-screen or blue-screen stuff.  There’s going to be a lot of fairies dancing around me. Isn’t that exciting?” she added, laughing. “I always have a lot of fairies dancing around me.”

The video world premiered in Europe on December 4, 2003. Its US premiere was on February 11, 2004 on AOL’s First View.  All CD Maxi-singles contained a perfume tester of Estee Lauder’s tropic scent.

Madonna The One-A-Day Complete Discography

TV commercial Beyond Paradise. Estee Lauder. Love Profusion.

Press release announcing Madonna and Estee Lauder will join forces to promote  fragrance.

MADONNA SINGS FOR ESTEE LAUDER

Estee Lauder has made a magical ad, starring supermodel Carolyn Murphy and with a soundtrack by Madonna, that will debut in more than 10,000 cinemas in September to promote its new Beyond Paradise fragrance. The 30-second ad, which was directed by The Fifth Element’s Luc Besson, sees Murphy wandering in a world of water, flowers and fairies as Madonna’s Love Profusion track, from her American Life album, plays. “We wanted the advertising to be groundbreaking for Estée Lauder,” said group president Patrick Bousquet-Chauvanne. “The association of Luc Besson, Madonna and Carolyn Murphy will make for an exceptional visual and acoustic experience for movie and television audiences around the world.” A television version of the ad will air on MTV, VH1, E! and Style cable channels. 

Reprint courtesy Vogue August 15, 2003

Madonna The One-A-Day Complete Discography