This was the first song by a major artist to be used in a commercial before being released to stores or radio stations. With the cola wars heating up, Pepsi signed Madonna to a $5 million endorsement deal, which included a two-minute commercial that would debut this song. The spot, overseen by Pepsi's ad agency BBDO, was called "Make A Wish ," and showed Madonna watching an 8-year-old version of herself and doing some jubilant street dancing.
The commercial was promoted in a 30-second spot that aired during the Grammy Awards on February 22, 1989 (yes, a commercial for a commercial). Then on March 2, it aired on prime time television worldwide, including in America where it was seen on The Cosby Show. The Pepsi people claimed that 250 million viewers saw the ad, and that they were clearly the choice of the younger generation, as their partnerships with Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and now Madonna, demonstrated. The commercial was clever and innocent, and the song was also a winner, clearly destined for #1 with such an auspicious debut.
The song was released the next day and instantly added to radio playlists around the world. It was also added on MTV, but instead of creating a video that was an extension of the commercial, Madonna hijacked it. Instead of an 8-year-old girl at a birthday party, we see Madonna witness a brutal crime and take refuge in a church. She shares an interracial kiss, gets stigmata on her hands, and dances in front of burning crosses. Predictably, religious groups were outraged, with the American Family Association and The Vatican condemning it. Pepsi, facing a boycott, dropped Madonna and never again aired the commercial.
Madonna and MTV were the big winners here. Those who thought she came off as a recalcitrant priss tended to be older, conservative folks who were far outside of her target audience, and the kind of authority figures her fanbase (the same ones Pepsi was going after) despised. In defying her corporate suitor, Madonna showed that her art was more important than their money. Pepsi got the song for a day, but MTV (always a Madonna stronghold), got the rest of the run and benefited from the controversy as viewers tuned in to see what the fuss was about.
Pepsi had two more commercials planned and was going to sponsor her Blonde Ambition tour, but they dropped all association with Madonna, who got to keep the $5 million.
Madonna wrote this with Patrick Leonard, who she teamed with for many of her hits in the late '80s. Madonna explained to Rolling Stone why her relationship with Leonard has proved to be so successful: "We're both from the Midwest, and deep down at our core, we're both geeks. He's melancholic, and he is a classically trained musician with an incredible sense of melody. We just hit it off from the start. We always come up with something interesting. We usually don't write frivolous songs, although we've done that, too. There's something magical about our writing."
The Andrae Crouch gospel choir sang on this, but they refused to appear in the video.
Worldwide, this is Madonna's most popular song. In the US, it debuted at #38 the week of March 18, 1989 and jumped to #1 five weeks later, making it the fastest trip to the top since Michael Jackson's "Bad " in 1987.
The song also became a chart-topper in several other countries.
This won the Viewer's Choice Award at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.
The video was shot in California and directed by Mary Lambert, who had worked on videos for "Borderline," "Like A Virgin" and "Material Girl." The commercial was shot in Arizona and directed by Joe Pytka, who had previously worked with Pepsi on a Michael Jackson commercial.
Madonna had recently divorced actor Sean Penn when this was released. The cover of the single was drawn by her brother, Christopher, and contained the letters "MLVC", with a "P" falling away. They represented Madonna's initials, "Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone," with the "Penn" falling away.
The album was released in March 1989. It was eagerly anticipated by Madonna's fans, since her last album, the remix collection U Can Dance, came out in November 1987.
Madonna's original idea for the video was to have her and the black saint-figure shot in the back.
In 1990, this was remixed by Shep Pettibone and included on Madonna's first greatest hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection. At the time, dance remixes were usually just extended versions of a song, but Pettibone put in a completely revamped backing track, something that became popular in years to come, especially among Hip-Hop artists.
The actor in the video who played the black saint is Leon Robinson, who played Derice Bannock, the main character in the movie Cool Runnings. (thanks, Brandon - Peoria, IL)
This appears on the soundtrack of the 1999 Drew Barrymore movie Never Been Kissed.
Madonna and Pat Leonard originally envisioned this song with a Latin flair, complete with bongos and Latin percussion, but quickly scrapped the idea in favor of religious elements like a church organ and choir.
In an interview with Billboard magazine, Leonard remembers the first, somewhat off-the-cuff rehearsal with Andrae Crouch: "He gets the choir together and they sort of wing it. He knows what he's going to tell them... but I know he's making it up as he goes along. He's listened to it in his car and he's thought about what he's going to do. It's very inspired."
Madonna had the vision for this song's controversial video long before Pepsi released its cutesy dancing-in-the-streets version. She told Interview magazine: "Originally, when I recorded the song, I would play it over and over again, trying to get a visual sense of what sort of story or fantasy it evoked in me. I kept imagining this story about a girl who was madly in love with a black man, set in the South, with this forbidden interracial love affair. And the guy she's in love with sings in a choir. So she's obsessed with him and goes to church all the time. And then it turned into a bigger story, which was about racism and bigotry... Then Mary Lambert got involved as the director, and she came up with a story that incorporated more of the religious symbolism I originally wrote into the song."
Madonna credits ex-husband Sean Penn for helping her address personal issues and bring more of herself to her music: "He was extremely influential in encouraging me to reveal that side of myself," she told Interview magazine in 1989.
By 2016, any lingering hostility between Madonna and Pepsi was forgotten as her song "Express Yourself" featured in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl . In the spot, Janelle Monáe dances through different scenes representing music through the generations and how Pepsi was a part of it.
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