Madonna "Like A Virgin" Isolated Vocal

Madonna has become an iconic artist with hits across 4 decades, but one of the songs that broke her globally was "Like A Virgin," the single from her album of the same title.

The song was recorded at the old Power Station (now Avatar Recording) in New York City, was produced by Nile Rogers, Steven Bray and Madonna, and was also one of the first to use the then-new Sony 3324 digital recorder.

The song also featured the Chic rhythm section of Tony Thompson on drums, Bernard Edwards on bass, and Rogers on guitar. Here's what to listen for (the vocal starts at 0:12).

1. As with many other hits, the vocal is doubled on the last line of the verse, the chorus and the bridge for power.

2. There's a medium length delayed reverb that's very prominent on the vocal.

3. If you're listening on headphones, you can hear the low frequency breath pops from some of the plosives on the B's Madonna sings. I also think that some of them came from the mic stand being accidentally hit, but that's just speculation.

4. The vocal performance is very strong and surprisingly consistent. You might not think of Madonna as a particularly great singer, but here she does a fine job.

5. If you listen loudly with headphones you can hear the song count off at the beginning.

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Zeppelin Steals And Is Stolen From

I just love this video series called Everything Is A Remix from Kirby Ferguson. In it he puts forth that when it comes right down to it, all current art is "borrowed" from previous art.

In this video, Kirby singles out Led Zeppelin and provides some concrete examples of how they not only borrowed from some of the legendary Bluesman as well as some of their contemporaries, but they outright stole from them by not giving them credit. And one good turn deserves another, as some of the today's artists have turned around and down the same thing, this time with Zep being the victims.

The Zeppelin part starts at around 1:35, but first, he outlines the number of times that Chic's "Good Times" has been used as the basis of other records. It's a pretty awesome video.

Be sure to check out Kirby's everythingisaremix.info site to see the other episodes.


Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

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Nile Rogers Funk Tips

I recently read Chic guitarist/producer extraordinaire Nile Rogers' book, Le Freak: An Upside Story Of Family, Disco, And Destiny,  and came away plenty impressed with what Nile overcame to rise to become one of the the top hitmaker's in the world. I think I liked Keith Richards' Life a little better as far as the amount of juicy stories, but Nile's book really looks into an era of music that isn't talked about much (meaning the "Disco" era). Regardless whether you like the music of Chic (I personally do), there's no denying that Rogers had a huge impact on the world of popular music as a producer.

One area that Nile really knows is funk, and in the following video, he gives probably the best lessons I've ever seen on what is funky and what isn't in terms of playing. This should be a must see for every guitar player, regardless of if you play in the genre or not.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.