It All Seems Like Yesterday...

25 years ago this week, my favourite song of all time was sitting at the top spot on the UK singles chart. Yes, it has been 25 years since "La Isla Bonita" was released as a single.



"La Isla Bonita" (The Beautiful Island) was released as the fifth and final single from her third studio album, True Blue, on February 25 1987, by Sire Records. Originally written as a lament, the song was first offered to Michael Jackson before Madonna accepted it and re-wrote the lyrics with Patrick Leonard.



The song is noted for being the first Madonna song to have a Spanish influence in it, with arrangements of Cuban drums and Spanish guitar, maracas, harmonicas and a mix of synthesized and real drumming. The lyrics of the song tell about a beautiful island and was a tribute to the beauty of the Latin people according to Madonna.



"La Isla Bonita" achieved worldwide popularity, topping charts in countries such as Austria, Canada, France, Germany and Switzerland. It became Madonna's fourth number-one single in the United Kingdom, giving her a record for most number-one singles among female artists. It stayed at the top spot for two weeks. In the United States, it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also met with great critical reviews.

In the accompanying music video, Madonna portrayed two opposite characters (as she so often does) – a pious girl and a passionate Latina. The Latin style and the flamenco red dress she wore became a trend later. The song is among one of the most performed live songs by Madonna, appearing in five of her world tours.

Trivia:

*The song has never been performed on any TV show - there was no TV promotion at all for the True Blue album, which means that none of the massive singles from that album were ever performed and promoted on TV!

*In Japan, the song was used in an advert for Mitsubishi, in which Madonna appeared:



*Madonna said during a UK radio interview just before the release of the album that "La Isla Bonita" was her favorite track on it.



*The song was re-released in Japan in 1995 as the A-side to the "Human Nature" single!

*"La Isla Bonita" has some lyrics that people seemed to mishear a lot: "Last night I dreamt of San Pedro" to many became "Last night I dreamt of potato"! And then there were the "Young girls with eyes like potatos" as well...

*And finally: it remains my favourite song ever, 26 years after first hearing it on the album that made me a lifelong Madonna fan. I'm sure that it will remain my favourite song another 26 years from now!



(Thanks Jon)