Why the Writers of Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ Gave Away the Classic Dance Track

It’s hard to think of a dance musician more iconic than Madonna. It’s hard to think of a dance song better than Madonna’s “Holiday.” Notably, “Holiday” was written by members of a band who gave the song away. Here’s what they thought of the Queen of Pop’s take on their tune.

‘Holiday’ garnered praise from Kool & the Gang before Madonna made it a hit

Madonna co-wrote many of her hits, but “Holiday” was not one of them. The groovy post-disco song was penned by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens, both members of the band Pure Energy. The song was produced by dance music legend John “Jellybean” Benitez.

During a 2012 interview with Blogcritics, Stevens explained how “Holiday” fell into the hands of the future Queen of Pop. “I remember Jellybean asking us for a song,” he said. “We had presented songs to him before. He said, ‘This girl’s on Warner Bros. She needs one more song. Do you guys have one?’ So, we presented it to Madonna.” Stevens noted that members of the funk band Kool & the Gang told her that “Holiday” was destined to be a hit. When Kool & the Gang know that a song is good, it’s good!

Hudson revealed that Pure Enegery’s record label didn’t have much faith in them. “When [Benitez] heard the song, he was mixing for Prism Records,” he said. “He had mixed a couple of the records we released as Pure Energy. Wherever we’d see him, he’d say, ‘I love your sound. You just need that one big record.’ So, after Prism didn’t want to release it on us, we presented it to him. A lot of friends of ours were telling us it was a hit.”

How Madonna’s take on the song differed from the original

Hudson explained what he and Stevens thought of the song before it was released to the public. “We knew that the song had that magic to it,” he recalled. “Since we weren’t going to be able to record it ourselves, we were really hoping it would fall into the hands of someone who was going to do it justice.”

Stevens recorded the demo of the song with gospel-style vocals. Madonna decided to put her own spin on the track and made it sound more like a pop song. Stevens was pleased with what the Material Girl did with “Holiday.” 

‘Holiday’ appeared on 2 hit albums

“Holiday” became a modest hit in the United States. There. It reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 21 weeks. The tune appeared on Madonna’s self-titled record. That album reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart for 168 weeks.

“Holiday” served as the opening track on The Immaculate Collection, Madonna’s most famous greatest hits album. The name of Immaculate Collection is a play on words referring to the immaculate conception, the Catholic belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin. 

Since Madonna’s name is a title of the Virgin Mary (meaning “Our Lady”), the album’s name is layered. The Immaculate Collection reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 148 weeks. The Immaculate Collection lasted longer on the chart than all of Madonna’s albums besides her self-titled album.

“Holiday” took a long and winding road to get to Madonna and it’s been lighting up dancefloors ever since.