Songoftheday 12/15/16 - It's funny that way you can get used to the tears and the pain, what a child will believe you never loved me...
from the album Like A Prayer (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song of the day is by Billboard magazine's 2016 Woman of the Year Madonna, whose groundbreaking pop/dance masterpiece Like A Prayer album had already landed her a #1 pop hit with the title track, along with a pair of #2 singles with "Express Yourself" and "Cherish". The fourth single from the album would be her most personal yet; "Oh Father", written by Madonna with producer Pat Leonard, was more about the pain in dealing with the death of her mother, who died at 30 from breast cancer when Madonna was five, than resolving the issues between her and her father, who had remarried and left her isolated. With a non-traditional time signature and an emotionally disjointed chorus (she sings "you can't hurt me now!" like a retort), it was a long stray away from the bouncy nature of "Cherish" that preceded it. And the raw lyrics did have radio reluctantly adding to their playlists, especially in the Christmas/New Year's season...
"Oh Father" became Madonna's first single since her debut charting song, "Holiday", to miss the top ten, reaching the #20 spot in January of 1989. Internationally, the record went to #14 in Canada and #26 in France. In 1995, the single was released in most of the rest of Europe, and climbed to #6 in Italy and Finland, and made #16 in the UK and #25 in Ireland. The video, directed by David Fincher, would be nominated for a Grammy, losing out to Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract".
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Madonna performed "Oh Father" on her Blond Ambition tour intermixed with "Live To Tell"...
Before she became a huge pop star in the U.S., Australian singer/songwriter Sia covered "Oh Father" on her 2010 album We Are Born...
Up tomorrow: Southern rocker takes a spill.
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