Madonna’s Favorite of Her Own Hit Songs Missed the Top 10
Some of Madonna‘s songs made waves without becoming No. 1 hits. One of her career-defining tracks didn’t even make the top 10. The song’s writers said the tune had a massive effect on the music industry.
Madonna’s favorite of her hit songs came from her early days
In a 2005 interview with CBS News, Madonna was asked to name her favorites among her top 10 singles. The Queen of Pop admitted she couldn’t name all her top 10 singles. She immediately chose “Holiday” as a personal favorite, only to be told that that song only reached No. 16. The charts just aren’t fair!
Afterward, Madonna picked several favorites that did hit the top 10. Specifically, she picked out “Like a Virgin,” “Material Girl,” and “Like a Prayer.” The Material Girl said she never would have imagined her career becoming as successful as it was. Who knows if she would have become a star if “Holiday” hadn’t made it into the top 20?
Madonna’s writers said 1 move would have made the song hit No. 1
“Holiday” was co-written by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens. During a 2012 interview with Blogcritics, they were asked why Madonna connected to the song so much. “When the song was starting to chart and everybody was buzzing, we would run into her at airports,” Hudson said. “We were performing in some of the same places. She told us, ‘Thank you for writing this song. You guys don’t know what you did!’ She was really excited about it. I think that might be why it’s a favorite, because the song really put her out there and made her a legitimate artist.”
Hudson felt that one decision would have made “Holiday” more successful. “Warner Bros. didn’t produce a music video for it at a time when music videos really started to make songs,” he said. “Had they done a video, then ‘Holiday’ probably would’ve been a much bigger song than it was at the time; probably No. 1 pop.” Any supposed music videos for “Holiday” that can be found on YouTube are actually filmed live performances of the song.
‘Holiday’ becmae an unexpected Christmas song
Hudson took “Holiday”‘s place on the charts in stride. “When I look at the careers of a lot of people, they never got nominated for an award or made it into the top 10 — similar to the case with ‘Holiday,'” he said. It’s surprising that a lot of classic songs only made it to the top 40.” Hudson said multiple musicians have cited “Holiday” as the reason they entered the industry.
Hudson and Stevens had a son together named Eric Hudson, who has worked with Kanye West. The younger Hudson said that, every time he mentions that his parents wrote “Holiday,” they freak out. Stevens felt that the song became a blessing to many people.
In recent years, “Holiday” has impacted pop culture in an unexpected way. The song seems to use the word “holiday” in the British sense, referring to a vacation. However, some radio stations use it as a Christmas song. The song sounds more like summer than December, but who’s going to complain when a classic Madonna song comes on the radio?
“Holiday” didn’t reach the top 10 but the Queen of Pop had the last laugh.
