Songoftheday 5/13/15 - Last night I dreamt of San Pedro just like I've never gone I knew the song...

"La Isla Bonita" - Madonna
from the album True Blue (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's SOTD comes from Madonna, whose third album True Blue had already scored her a trio of #1 hits with "Live To Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", and "Open Your Heart", along with the top-3 title track. The fifth and final single from the record was the tropical Latin pop of "La Isla Bonita". Written by Bruce Gaitsch with the artist and producer Pat Leonard (originally this was prepped for Michael Jackson), Madonna's lyrics gave the track a cinematic storyline set somewhere in the Gulf, and was the start of her recurring Latin motif throughout her career (pinnacled by her #1 "Take A Bow")...

"La Isla Bonita" became the fifth top-5 hit from True Blue in the U.S. in May of 1987. The song also crossed over to both the Adult Contemporary radio chart, where it went all the way to #1, and the Dance Club Play list at #10. Internationally, the record went to #1 in the United Kingdom (her fourth British chart-topper), as well as in Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and top-ten most everywhere else.

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Here's Madonna first performing the song live on her Who's That Girl tour in 1987 (which I saw in Chicago)..

..and the 12" remix that made the top ten on the club chart...

...and back to Madonna live on her 1993 Girlie Show...

She changed up the arrangements and grabbed the guitar herself for the Drowned World tour in 2001...

...and then went to the disco with it on her Confessions show in 2006...

in 2008, French singer Alizee went top ten in France and Mexico with a cover of the song...

The most recent tour of Madge's to feature the song was her Sticky and Sweet shows of 2009 with the Romany act Arkady Gips...

Lastly, the show Glee featured a cover of the song done by the cast's Naya Rivera with Ricky Martin, and hit #99 on the Hot 100 and #93 in Canada in 2012...

Up tomorrow: a former cheerleader gets, well, earnest.