I’m sorry but we need more Papa Don’t Preach discourse

The 7th best pop song of all time and the first time she really went for it in terms of proper button pushing. Your faves could never!!

I mean I'd argue that she pushed the button an awful lot on the second album, and in terms of "growing up" we'd already had Live To Tell at this point, but nevertheless, it's a 10/10 song.

It's hard to still truly get an 80s feeling from Madonna songs now because i have listened to them so much over so many different eras, but this song evokes a lot of very specific memories for me - particularly the opening strings. It's also probably my first strong memory of Madonna - before this point I knew most of the hits but didn't really follow her as an artist or associate the songs with her. But I remember seeing the video for this on TV, and it seemed to be everywhere for a minute.

The fact that her nipple pops out twice and it’s never addressed is still hilarious to me

Joseph said:

The fact that her nipple pops out twice and it’s never addressed is still hilarious to me

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I can still remember it being mentioned on Top of the Pops, Bruno Brookes saying something along the lines of “I think I just saw something I shouldn’t!”

Her voice still sounds fantastic on this, the raw pleading in the chorus especially is such a highlight.

It's my favourite Madonna song (or at least has swapped back and forth with Vogue over the years). The strings, the staircase, the middle 8, switching from the dramatic neighbourhood scenes to that clip clop dance looking absolutely imperial, everything about it is perfection

This was long before the evita training obviously but her conviction /raw emotion in this (particularly “but my friends keep telling me to give it up…”) always impressed me. I go back and forth between this and Live to Tell as my favorite single of this album, which is already the best run of pop singles, of all time?

I have never really went full term with it, but I do think her 80s catalogue being a near infinite ascent of classic after classic meant I was always just drawn to other megatons she pelted us with (which is crazy as for anyone else it would be a definitive signiture song instead of one of too many others to count). The intro is magnificent and when you hear it unexpectedly it truly puts my hairs on end.