Songoftheday 3/23/14 - Why am I standing on a cloud every time you're around, and my sadness disappears every time you are near...

Madonna - "Angel"
from the album Like A Virgin (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's Song of the Day is by pop music icon Madonna, whose sophomore album Like A Virgin had given her a #1 hit with the title track and a #2 follow-up wiith "Material Girl". She also scored a second chart-topper with a single from the movie Vision Quest (where she made a cameo), "Crazy For You". She went back to her album to mine another single, the Prince-ish sounding "Angel". Even though she was MTV's biggest star, she didn't release a regular video for this, just a promo "best of" for the clubs...

"Angel" became Madonna's fifth consecutive top-5 pop hit in June of 1985, while reaching the same mark on the adult-contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, and #71 on the R&B (then the "Black") singles chart in Billboard. The single also went to #5 in England and Canada, and top-10 in Spain and Ireland.

Now, the odd thing about "Angel" is that the 12" vinyl and cassette versions of the single had a song from her next movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, as the B-Side. Madonna had a much bigger role in the film, and the movie featured the song "Into The Groove", which was written with her friend and former Breakfast Club band partner Steven Bray. Since the chart rules at the time wouldn't allow it to share the chart since it wasn't in all the configurations, "Into The Groove" never became a radio hit "officially", though it far outshined "Angel" in the long run, and did manage to top the dance club play chart (as well as the singles chart in Australia) with it...

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Madonna only performed "Angel" live on the tour behind the Like A Virgin album, and even then it didn't made the video...

In 2008, DJ Khaled sampled "Angel" on his single "Go Hard", which peaked at #69 in 2008...

As for it's counterpart, Danni Minogue "mashed up" her #5 UK hit "Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling" with "Into The Groove" for "Don't Wanna Lose This Groove", which I adored....

...and Glee covered "Into The Groove" this past November with the cast singing with Adam Lambert and Demi Lovato...

Up tomorrow: The tiger-eyes stop looking.