Songoftheday 11/17/15 - No one knows you better than you know yourself, do the thing you want don't wait for someone else...

"Spotlight" - Madonna
from the album You Can Dance (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: did not chart
Billboard Pop Airplay peak: #32 (one week)
Weeks in the airplay chart: 5

Today's Song of the Day is from Madonna, who was last seen with two songs from the soundtrack to her horrendous film excursion Who's That Girl with the #1 title track and #2 hit "Causing A Commotion". To extended the lull between studio albums (her last was 1986's True Blue), the "Material Girl" released a remix album called You Can Dance. With help from old friend "Jellybean" Benitez, Madge mixed together six older tracks from her first three albums, both singles like "Holiday" and "Into The Groove" and fan faves like "Physical Attraction" and "Where's The Party". Included in the set was a never-before released song that was cut from the True Blue album. Originally written by Curtis Hudson, who had co-penned Madonna's first top-40 hit "Holiday", with some tweaking by the artist and producer Stephen Bray, "Spotlight" hearkened back to her older years, perfectly fitting the toss-off album it appeared on...

While "Spotlight" couldn't appear on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart in America because it wasn't issued as a single, the track got enough airplay to show up on their pop airplay top-40, the only song in 1988 to do so. As part of the You Can Dance album it spent a week on top of the Dance Club Play chart, and the record sold over a million copies.

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...and here's the club version mixed by Shep Pettibone that helped You Can Dance top the dance chart...

The only country the song was released as a single was in Japan, where it climbed to #3 on their "international singles" chart. Helping that was her gig promoting the Mitsubishi electronics division, with the song as a backdrop...

Up tomorrow: a British heavy metal band has some mental issues.