You Can Dance

''You Can Dance'' is the first remix album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on November 17, 1987, by Sire Records. The album contains remixes of tracks from her first three studio albums—''Madonna'' (1983), '' Like a Virgin'' (1984) and '' True Blue'' (1986)—and a new track, "Spotlight". In the 1980s, remixing was still a new concept and technology, by which a particular vocal phrase could be endlessly copied, repeated, chopped up, transposed up and down in pitch and give them more echo, reverberation, treble or bass. Madonna became interested in the concept, noting that she hated when others remixed her songs and wanted to do it by herself.

Madonna turned to her old friend and producer John "Jellybean" Benitez to help her remix the songs, and also enlisted the help of Patrick Leonard, the producer of ''True Blue''. The mixes on ''You Can Dance'' exhibited a number of typical mixing techniques. Instrumental passages were lengthened to increase the time for dancing, which undermined the tighter structure of the original pop song. Vocal phrases were repeated and subjected to multiple echoes, panned across the stereophonic sound outlets. At certain points, almost no music is heard except the drums and at other times, the drums are removed with only the hi-hat left to keep time. The album cover denoted Madonna's continuous fascination with Hispanic culture.

After its release, ''You Can Dance'' received generally positive reviews from critics, some of whom noted how the already known songs appeared to them in a complete new structure, calling it an essential album to be played at parties. ''You Can Dance'' was a commercial success, earning a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of a million copies, and reaching the top twenty of the ''Billboard'' 200. It reached the top ten of the album charts of France, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, and went on to sell five million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling remix album of all time, behind only ''Blood on the Dance Floor'' from Michael Jackson. "Spotlight" was the only single released from the album in Japan, but charted on the airplay charts of ''Billboard'' due to radio play and peaked at number 32. ''You Can Dance'' has been credited for setting the standard of the remix albums afterward both in terms of concept and commercial success in record charts.

Background

In October 1986, Sire Records made the announce of the EP of 6-cuts called ''You Can Dance'' to be released a month or so before Christmas of that year. However, the idea was postponed a month later and held up until a full 12 months by the new singles to be released from her album '' True Blue'' (1986). In November 1987, Warner Bros. Records commissioned the release of ''You Can Dance''—Madonna's first retrospective—which was aimed at the dance segment of her audience. It was an album containing seven of Madonna's songs in remixed format, which was still a revolutionary concept in the 1980s. By the mid-eighties, post-disco dance music was extremely popular and the concept of remix was widely regarded as a new direction of music. Several artists were remixing their tracks and compiling them to create new albums. Mixing was an interpretative process, where the artist was usually involved, but the development was generally looked after the record producer. The different parts of a song, including the lead vocals, background vocals, guitars, bass, synths, drum machine—all went through the process of mixing to sound considerably different from their original counterpart. Mixing determined how loud these instruments were going to sound in relation to each other and what particular sound effects should be added to each instrument. Improvements in studio technologies meant the possibility of shaping the sound of a song in any way, after it has been recorded. The arrangements were itself created at the mixing stage, rather than being created previously. A particular vocal phrase could be endlessly copied, repeated, chopped up, transposed up and down in pitch and give them more echo, reverberation, treble or bass.

It was this concept which intrigued Madonna, while she was developing her third studio album ''True Blue''. She said, "I hate it when people do master mixes of my records. I don't want to hear my songs changed like that. I don't know that I like it, people screwing with my records. The jury is out on it for me. But the fans like it, and really, this one was for the fans, for the kids in the clubs who wanted to hear these songs in a fresh new way." She went to Warner with the idea of releasing her songs by remixing them in a complete dance tune. From Warner's point of view, the rise of remix was a commercial boon, because it meant making more money out of the same piece of music. Instead of paying Madonna to go to studio and record different tracks, they found that allowing her to record the same tracks in different formats was much less costly. Hence they decided to release the album, but gave full freedom to Madonna to choose the producers with whom she wanted to develop the remixes.

Development

Madonna turned to her old friend and producer John "Jellybean" Benitez to help her remixing the songs, and also enlisted the help of Patrick Leonard, the producer of ''True Blue''. Together they chose six of Madonna's old songs and decided to give it a remixed form. The songs chosen were "Holiday", " Everybody" and "Physical Attraction" from ''Madonna'' (1983), "Into the Groove" and "Over and Over" from '' Like a Virgin'' (1984), and lastly, "Where's the Party" from ''True Blue''. Along with the pre-released tracks, a never-before released song called "Spotlight" was included as a bonus. Madonna said that she was inspired by the song "Everybody Is a Star" (1970), by American rock band Sly and the Family Stone. Written by Madonna, Stephen Bray and Curtis Hudson, "Spotlight" was originally recorded during the ''True Blue'' recording sessions. It was omitted from the album because Madonna felt that it was similar in composition and structure to "Holiday".

After the remixing of the songs started, Benitez noted, "We decided on basic questions like 'How loud should the drums be? How much should the vocals stand out?' These are creative decisions which will change the finished piece of music." Shep Pettibone, one of the producers of the album commented that "normally, without some music to work on, the remixer has nothing. But we already had Madonna's catalogue of danceable songs which was enough material for lifetime." The mixes on ''You Can Dance'' exhibited a number of typical mixing techniques. Instrumental passages were lengthened to increase the time for dancing, which undermined the tighter structure of the original pop song. Vocal phrases were repeated and subjected to multiple echoes, panned across the stereophonic sound outlets. At certain points, almost no music is heard except the drums and at others, the drums are removed with only the hi-hat left to keep time.

The album cover denoted Madonna's continued fascination with Spanish culture and fashion. She wore a female toreador outfit with a lacy bustier, embroidered bolero jacket and a cummerbund with a flouncy bustle. Jeri Heiden, who had worked on the cover art for ''True Blue'', was given the task of editing the photos and making them compatible for appearance in an album cover. Shot by Herb Ritts, the cover showed Madonna again as a platinum blond. Heiden explained in an interview with ''Aperture'' magazine in October 2006 that the cover was not meant to be a tie-in with the ''True Blue'' cover. "It was just Madonna's look at the time – Platinum Blond. And of course the handwriting reappears on that album." The album sleeve included a free poster and the gold wrap-around liner notes contained approximate running time to indicate the difference between the length of the remix and the original track. Brian Chin, a ''Rolling Stone'' journalist, wrote the liner notes for the album, explaining the process of remix and why the seven songs were chosen for the track list.

Composition

According to Rikky Rooksby, author of ''The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna'', "Improvements in studio technology meant that possibilities for shaping the sound after it has been recorded are almost limitless." Such possibility were applied in the song composition and the remixes present in ''You Can Dance''. Previously to change the sound of an instrument, or to jump from one sound to another, recordings used to stop playing the instrument and the drums at that point. But for the remixes on ''You Can Dance'', the fade engineering technology was applied to the songs, wherein the fader was simply pulled down, and was pushed up again when the sound of the instruments were made to come up to the surface. The first song on the album is "Spotlight" which begins with the sound of drums, bass synths and handclaps, followed by Madonna uttering the words "Spotlight, shine bright". After the first verse, the sound of keyboard is heard during the chorus. It continues like this through the second verse, which is followed by an interlude featuring vocal echoes, a piano segment and violin phrases. Madonna follows the music played by the piano and utters the words "Pa-da-pa-da-pappa pappa pa pa" in the same melody. The lyrics deal with Madonna making the listener remember that "everybody is a star" and that if one wants to be famous and be under the "spotlight", the person should sing about it and reality may catch up with him or her. According to the sheet music for the song, is set in the time signature of common time, with a tempo of 100 beats per minute. It is set in the key of F major with Madonna's voice spanning from the notes of C₅ to B₅. "Spotlight" has a basic sequence of Am–C–Am–C–G–F as its chord progression.

The second track is "Holiday", which Benitez said that he always wanted to remix, commenting "There are new sounds on the 1987 remix f 'Holiday' but it had a groove that needed no improvement." The sound of the guitar is brought to the front in the remix, with a piano break and a middle section consisting of drum beats. The mix for "Everybody" starts with four repetitions of the vocal hook and then moves into a rhythm centered arrangement. Like "Holiday", the middle section of "Everybody" features a drum break, with a synth tune backing it up. The word "dance" is echoed and slowed-down continuously through the break, gradually changing into the intermedia verse. At the very end, the drums are pulled out, leaving Madonna repeating the "get up and do your thing" phrase, which hovers over to the intro of the next song "Physical Attraction". In the "Into the Groove" remix, overdubs are present with the continuous repetition of the phrase "c'mon". The first verse does not start until about ninety seconds into the remix. After the first "Now I know you're mine" line is sung, there is a percussion break, and repetition of the phrases "step to the beat" and "c'mon". The last verse incorporates echoing on the vocals, causing overlap of the phrases. The remix ends with instrumentation from congas, whistles and timbales, giving it a Mexican ending.

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic said that " 'You Can Dance''keeps the spotlight on her first record, adding non-LP singles like 'Into the Groove' for good measure, along with a bonus track of 'Where's the Party'. Since it is a dance album, it doesn't matter that 'Holiday' and 'Into the Groove' are here twice, once each in dub versions, because the essential grooves and music are quite different in each incarnation. It is true that some of this now sounds dated—these are quite clearly extended mixes from the mid 80s—but that's part of its charm, and it all holds together quite well. Not essential, but fun." In ''The Village Voice'', Robert Christgau considered that "the effects, repeats, breaks, and segues added by a star crew of remixers ..amount to new music—this time the songs don't surface, they reach out and grab you". He also argued that ''You Can Dance'' reminded the audience that before MTV, they "loved the way she ''sounded''". Author J. Randy Taraborrelli noted that "''You Can Dance'' made one point clear about Madonna. While she was evolving into a serious pop star, musically she still knew how to host the best party." He complimented the remixed versions of "Holiday", "Everybody", "Physical Attraction" and "Into the Groove". Writing for About.com, Bill Lamb called it "another outstanding greatest hits collection" from Madonna's discography.

Timothy Green from ''The Miami Herald

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