Madonna has many obvious predecessors (Cher, Donna Summer, Nancy Sinatra) but Smokey Robinson is not one of them. Despite that, Robinson influenced one of the key ingredients of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” The Queen of Pop revealed what she thought of “Like a Virgin” and some of her other early songs in retrospect.
Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ was inspired by Smokey Robinson and a bad relationship
Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly co-wrote “Like a Virgin.” When they wrote it, there was no way they could have known how important the song would become. During an interview with SongwriterUniverse, Steinberg explained how the magic happened.
“It was in 1983 that Tom and I wrote ‘Like a Virgin,’” he explained. “It started with the lyric first. I was driving around in my pickup truck and I got the idea for the song. The idea came out of a personal experience. I was in a devastating relationship, and when it finally ended and I met someone new, I came up with the line, ‘I made it through the wilderness. I was beat, incomplete, I’d been had.’ All of the lyrics just poured out.”
Kelly said a certain soul singer inspired part of the song. “I especially related to the lyric at the time, since I was going through a tough divorce,” said Kelly. “Initially, I tried to compose a ballad or mid-tempo song to accompany the lyric, but it wasn’t working. Out of frustration, I started to clown around, performing the song in an uptempo, Smokey Robinson-style, with falsetto vocals. Lo and behold, it worked.”
What Madonna thought of the song 20 years later
Sometimes, singers get sick and tired of their biggest and best songs. On the other hand, Madonna seemed to be fond of “Like a Virgin.” During a 2005 interview with CBS News, she was asked to name some of her favorites among her hits. The songs she picked out were “Holiday,” “Like a Virgin,” “Material Girl,” and “Like a Prayer.”
The Queen of Pop has repeatedly changed her style and sound, starting out with bubblegum pop music before embracing a more risque form of dance music, then contemporary R&B, techno, and folktronica, before retreating from the pop charts. With all that in mind, it’s interesting that she tended to favor songs from her early career. All the songs she mentioned besides “Like a Prayer” are from her first two albums.
How ‘Like a Virgin’ did — and didn’t — influence other artists
“Like a Virgin” went on to have a significant impact on popular culture. The meaning of the song was the subject of a highly sexual conversation in the opening of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. A Broadway-style version of the song appeared in a sequence from Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! Katy Perry also covered “Like a Virgin” with new lyrics referring to the virginity of the Jonas Brothers. In addition, the chorus of Hailee Steinfeld’s hit “Starving” seems to have a nod to the opening lines of “Like a Virgin.”
Sadly, the song has never been covered by Robinson. His last album was called Gasms. It might’ve benefited from a recording of a risque classic a la “Like a Virgin.”
Robinson inspired Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and “Like a Virgin” inspired numerous other singers and artists.
