I Know That Song! The One That Launched A Decade of "Wannabes"

Join Stacey and Mike weekday mornings at 7:10 to play along and learn some things you might not know about the songs you hear on K103 and have loved for years.
It's called I Know That Song.

Today's song was written by today's artist, this was her first single from her debut album. It went nowhere, but was successfully re-released six months later after her second release became a hit. The success the second time around was largely because of the video, which MTV put in hot rotation. It was commissioned by Jeff Ayeroff, who was an executive at her record label, Warner Bros. He said in the book I Want My MTV: "I made 'Lucky Star' for $14,000 with a friend who was a pot grower from Bolinas, California. She didn't even want to release today’s song. Around the same time, she was getting sued and needed money. I said, 'Let me release it and I guarantee you'll sell enough records to pay that off.' and it did. 

In the video for today’s song, the singer wore an all-black outfit with leggings, ankle boots, and bare midriff, with her messy hair tied in a floppy black ribbon. This was coupled with a shiny black miniskirt, an earring on her right ear, cut-off gloves and rubber bangles. That look launched a whole generation of Madonna Wannabes. Including yours truly. 

This is the biggest hit on which today’s artist is the only credited writer. Collaborators came out of the woodwork to work with her and have ever since. The biggest collaboration flew totally under the radar which is nuts as it was a duet with Prince in 1989 called “Love Song” 

This song entered the charts as she began work on her first movie, Desperately Seeking Susan. She went on to star in many others, including Dick Tracy, A League Of Their Own, Shanghai Surprise, Body Of Evidence, Dangerous Game, Swept Away, and Evita.

Speaking of movies: The song is referenced in Pulp Fiction (1994) when Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) tells Butch (Bruce Willis): "I have a bit of a tummy, like Madonna when she did Lucky Star"

You guessed it, today's song is Madonna's Lucky Star. The highest-charting hit in the US with the word "Lucky" in the title.


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