Medium Rare Madonna

To see the end of this, Madonna's 50th Birthday, I am going to take a look at some of her lesser know tracks. Some are more widely known than other, but they all still deserve to be heard. Let's hope she releases an album of some rarities.

From her 'Emmy' days we have these three gems:
'(I Like) Love for Tender'
'No Time for Love'
'Laugh to keep from crying'
But as you will see on You Tube there are a lot more.

A very 'before it's time' version of 'Stay' from 1981. She was always ahead of her time. Also around this time ('True Blue') period she recorded 'Crimes of Passion'.

From the 'Erotica' album forward is where we get the best of the missing tracks. Left of the album was 'Dear Father'. Also on You Tube there are loads of demo versions from songs that did make the cut. Although she recorded 'Love Won't Wait' during 'Bedtime Stories' she never released it, instead it was given to Gary Barlow (Take That) to record.
It was the 'Ray of Light ' album that offers some of the most interesting tracks. The utterly brilliant 'Revenge', the sad and strangely compelling 'Gone, Gone, Gone', the ABBA cover of 'Like an Angel Passing Through My Room' and the slow and somewhat plodding 'Like a Flower''
And for something really fun, her are some of her 'Ray of Light' recording sessions recorded. Kind of cool to listen to the woman work.
'Ray of Light' sessions

Apparently recorded with Orbit for 'Music', 'Liquid Love' is possibly a better track than 'Runaway Lover' that made the cut. Strange how things work sometimes.

Most everyone has heard all the tracks from Confessions, but here they are again. They sound like b-sides, but are still interesting and deserve a wider release. 'Fighting Spirit' is a slower track that doesn't really fit in the confessions sound. 'Super Pop' is really just a lot of fun, would have stuck out like a sore thumb on the album, but glad it reared it's head. 'History' and 'Keep The Trance' are odd ducks. The former is a good track marred down by righteous lyrics, and the second is rather badly written.
Hard Candy was not the best album, so you can imagine the unreleased tracks not being that great, as you can see with 'Ring My Bell'

And finally a remix of "Give It 2 ME" that is far better than the ones released on the single:
Give It 2 Me (Fedde Le Grand Extended Mix)