Songoftheday 7/31/13 - Something in the way you love won't let me be, I don't want to be your business so baby won't you set me free...

Madonna - "Borderline"
from the album Madonna (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: 10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is by a then-upcoming singer/dancer named Madonna, who had already scored a top-40 hit at the beginning of 1984 with the dance track "Holiday". However, at that point she wasn't getting a whole lot of radio play, and MTV didn't touch the crude homemade-style video for the song. That all changed with the next single from the album, "Borderline". A full-on pop confection written by producer Reggie Lucas, it was further remixed by her then-boyfriend Jellybean Benitez after Madonna and Lucas split over artistic direction for the song.

Besides Benitez, the other major contributor to the success of the song is director Mary Lambert, who helmed her first of many Madonna videos with this effort, setting the singer in her own style amidst a cinematic approximation of "street life" in Los Angeles. Torn between a hooligan and a photographer trying to win her love, the clip goes from color to black and white and means something and then nothing at the same time. Like most of the 80s...

The single became Madonna's first top-10 pop single, as well as going to #4 on the dance club chart,  and #23 on the adult contemporary chart. In England, the record went to #2, and it even went to #1 next door in Ireland.

"Borderline" along with the video is what really brought Madonna to the masses, with girl starting to pick up fashion tips from the singer, and finally breaking her free fast from the "dance chick singer" mold. You got to hand it to Lucas for lyrics that really transcended the usual disco fare, and also pushing her to put some emotion into her singing. And it was only up from there.

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Here's Madonna just as she was starting, promoting the song on The Dance Show in 1984...

The extended remix of the song made the top-5 on the dance chart...

Next up, Madge on her first big tour, the Like A Virgin shows in 1985...

In 2002, on the first Punk Goes Pop covers album, Showoff contributed their version of "Borderline"...

Jody Watley went to #2 on the dance chart with remixes of a song she did a nice stripped down take on her Makeover album...

Here's Madonna rocking it out on her Sticky and Sweet tour in 2008...

Glee included the song in their "Power Of Madonna" tribute episode as a "mashup" with "Open Your Heart" with the late Cory Monteith and Lea Michele singing, and went to #78 in the US and #64 in the UK with the single...

Finally, here's Madonna with Jimmy Fallon from the beginning of the year...

Up Tomorrow: we're motorin'.