1980:
Madonna teams up with her old college boyfriend, Stephen Bray (who had just moved to NYC looking for work), as she needed a drummer for her new band and they form a number of groups together: The Millionaires, Modern Dance, Emmemon, and finally Emmy. They live and rehearse in the Music Building on 8th Avenue. Eventually, they start working together - without the rest of their band - to write music and record demos. (Madonna by Andrew Morton)
1981:
According to Bray (in an article written by Bruce Baron for Goldmine Magazine in 1999), he and Madonna wrote the songs this year for the demo that will eventually land her a deal with Sire Records.
1982:
February: Madonna fires her manager Camille Barbone this month for "taking too long to get me a recording deal." Camille had been Madonna's manager for almost a year and (according to Barbone) was close to getting her a deal with Columbia Records. (Madonna, Andrew Morton)
March: According to several of the unauthorized bios (but contrary to Bray's recollection), Madonna spent the spring of 1982 putting together a demo tape of 4 tracks to shop around to club DJ's. She does this by resuming her musical collaboration with Steve Bray - she working out the lyrics and he focusing on melody, chord progression and and chords. After several weeks work, they felt they had enough material to ask a couple of the musicians who had worked with her over the previous 18 months to help them record a demo tape. They took over a studio and recorded a 4-track demo for her to take around town.
These four tracks:
• "Burning Up"
• "Everybody"
• "Ain't No Big Deal"
• + one other song (reportedly an early version "Stay" which will combine its chorus with another 1981 demo "Don't You Know" [its verses] and later appear on Like A Virgin)
April: Madonna meets DJ Mark Kamins at Danceteria. They enjoy a brief sexual relationship and Madonna persuades him to play her song "Everybody" at the club. Kamins - either by being genuinely impressed by her demo or just pussy-whipped - takes her songs to Chris Blackwell at Island Records. Blackwell passes on the tape and after a meeting with Madonna tells Kamins later that "she smells too bad."
Undetered, Kamins takes the tape to Sire Records. Seymour Stein (the president of Sire) shows muted interest initially but assigns A&R executive Michael Rosenblatt to check it out. Rosenblatt listens to the tape and says it's "ok, but not great" and agrees to sign Madonna to a 2-song deal for $15,000 (some reports say $5,000). He also says that Kamins and Madonna must pay the professional recording costs out of her advance. Also of note, Rosenblatt says in an interview with Andrew Morton that it was "Ain't No Big Deal" on the initial demo that got her the contract, not "Everybody." However, those were the two songs he wanted them to professionally record for release.
Kamins is allowed to produce the songs - a move which infuriates Steve Bray who wanted producer credit for tracks that he had help write. Since Kamins had an arrangement with Madonna that he would produce for her if he got her a record deal with a label, her hands were somewhat tied and it is not believed that she made the choice of who would produce at this time.(Madonna, Andrew Morton)
May/SUMMER: Madonna and Kamins record both songs for release on Sire. There is reportedly trouble in the studio as Kamins was not a very experienced producer and had trouble directing Madonna in her studio singing. As a result, "Ain't No Big Deal" is considered the weaker of the two songs after all was said and done, and Rosenblatt decides to release "Everybody" instead (as both the A and B sides of the single), relegating "Ain't No Big Deal" to the vaults for the time being. (Madonna, Andrew Morton) <- Despite coming from an unauthorized bio, I think this is probably very accurate. It seems weird that Sire would ditch a second recorded track and also not ask Kamins to produce the rest of the album later on.
October 6: "Everybody" is released commercially and serviced to the dance club circuit. The single cover does not feature Madonna (it is an illustration by her friend Martin Burgoyne), and this was reportedly not by accident. Many at Sire realized Madonna sounded "black" and therefore, the single was initially worked heavily at WKTU in NYC - a station known for its heavy black and Latino listener demographic. Fab 5 Freddy - a graffitti artist and rapper at the time - said in an interview that all the young black and Puerto Rican kids were listening to this song on their boomboxes in the street. He said they - along with the gay dance club patrons - were her first core audience. The single is a minor hit and ends up selling 80,000 copies despite limited radio airplay. (Madonna, Andrew Morton, 2001) <-- How ironic considering her response at urban radio now!
LATER: "I was living on the Upper West Side, 99th and Riverside, and about 7:00 at night I had the radio on in my bedroom, on WKTU, and I heard "Everybody". I said 'Oh, my God, that's me coming out of that box.' It was an amazing feeling.
-Madonna talking about hearing "Everybody" first time on radio to Rolling Stone magazine
October/November: Madonna (aggressively) gets to know everyone at Sire and what they do there. She accompanies Sire's dance department head, Bobby Shaw, around the NYC club circuit while he does "milk runs" (dropping by to plug Sire artists with local DJ's). During one of these runs at the dance club, The Funhouse, Madonna meets one John "Jellybean" Benitez DJing there. They hit it off and will begin dating later on, however a professional relationship takes root almost immediately. (Madonna, Andrew Morton, 2001)
November: After some (initial) good dance club response to "Everybody," Seymour Stein and Michael Rosenblatt offer Madonna a record contract to do a full-length album. They decide that "Burning Up" should be the next single, however they prefer having a different producer (other than Kamins) at the helm of the project. Although it is not clear if it is Warner's disappointment or Madonna's that "Ain't No Big Deal" didn't turn out better, Mark Kamins is not considered for the job of producing the rest of the album. Warner brings in Reggie Lucas, a black songwriter and producer who had scored a #1 R&B hit (and won a Grammy award for Best R&B Female Performance) for Stephanie Mills' "I Never knew Love Like This Before" one year earlier. (if you listen to this song by Mills, the opening has a signature bell-sound that is very close to the opening of "Borderline" - I am assuming this is NOT a coincidence since Lucas wrote both tracks)
Lucas brings in two songs for the album - "Borderline" and "Physical Attraction" - that he wrote. These tracks, along with Madonna's "Everybody," "Burning Up" and a new song she had just recently written about Mark Kamins called "Lucky Star" (her reportedly nickname for him since he landed her a recording deal) - all which became the foundation for the new album. They will later add "Think of Me" and "I Know It" (written by Madonna) during these recording sessions. (Madonna, Andrew Morton, 2001)
LATER: According to Steve Bray (Goldmine Article by Bruce Baron, 1999), Madonna wrote "Physical Attraction" on her own, but he assumes there must have been some kind of deal to give Lucas 100% writing credit. Bray says he clearly remembers Madonna having written that song and the US Copyright office also shows Madonna as the only songwriter. Bray also reveals that "Everybody" was credited solely to Madonna even though it was a Bray/Madonna collaboration. He said they had an agreement that she would take full writing credit for "Everybody" and in return he would get full writing credit for "Ain't No Big Deal."
November 17-23: Madonna goes to Sigma Sound Studios in New York City to begin her work on the debut album. There she records several rough versions of "Burning Up" and "Physical Attraction." The latter is decided to be the B-side of the "Burning Up" single.
December 16: Madonna performs "Everybody" live for the first time ever at Haoui Montaug's No Entiendes cabaret show at Danceteria tonight. Seymour Stein, Michael Rosenblatt and other Sire personnel are present. Although they are not "bowled over" by her live performance, they decide that Madonna has a strong visual presence and deserves a music video. Rosenblatt contacts Ed Steinberg and offers him $1500 to make a music video for the "Everybody" single. Despite the well-known reports of the video being shot at Danceteria, it was actually shot at the Paradise Garage (a gay club in NYC) because they allowed them to shoot there for free. The video isn't serviced to MTV, but does get play in clubs across the U.S. which helps the single on the dance chart. (Madonna, Andrew Morton, 2001)
1983:
January: At some point this month, Madonna does a series of live show dates around NYC - particularly at the Roxy and also at the Peppermint Lounge. She sings "Everybody" and "Physical Attraction."
February: Madonna travels with Mark Kamins to the UK to drum-up club support for her upcoming single, "Burning Up." She performs for the first time ever in the UK at the Hacienda Club in Manchester. The audience (reportedly) does not respond well. She also promotes in London at a club called Heaven, as well as Camden Palace and the Beatroot Club.
February (mid-to-late): Upon returning to NYC, Madonna begins finishing her debut album by finishing the recordings for several tracks. During the production process, Madonna had different ideas and concepts for the album but Lucas went ahead and produced it his way. Keyboardist Fred Zarr (who was the keyboard player in these studio sessions and who also played on the original 4-song demo with "Everybody" that got Madonna signed) said that Madonna and Lucas were constantly at loggerheads in the studio. He says that Madonna felt Lucas largely "overproduced" the tracks, and she preferred a simplier, more direct kind of sound.
Madonna, unsatisfied with the finished product, took the completed album to her friend John "Jellybean" Benitez who remixed and re-arranged several of the tracks including "Burning Up," "Lucky Star" and "Physical Attraction." Madonna also decided that she wanted the newly recorded version (done with Lucas) of "Ain't No Big Deal" to be the single to launch the album in the summer (to come after "Burning Up" was released). However, Steve Bray (still angry with Madonna over the producer situation) had already given the song to a female disco group named Barracuda on Epic Records who were recording it for their album.
In a panic for another track, Madonna turned to now-boyfriend Jellybean for help. Jellybean had a song that he had the rights to, called "Holiday." Phyllis Hyman, who was currently recording for Arista, had already passed on the song. He played it for Mary Wilson (of The Supremes) and she passed on it as well. Only days after she turned it down, there was a problem with one of the eight songs that were slated for the Madonna album, and they had to find another track. Jellybean convinced Madonna to record "Holiday." (Madonna, Andrew Morton, 2001)
March 9: Sire releases "Burning Up/Physical Attraction" today. The single cover is designed by Madonna's friend and illustrator Martin Burgoyne from photographs of Madonna taken by David Cunningham. Almost immediately after, Madonna does a small club tour (3-song routine) in NYC and in Florida - in Fort Lauderdale and Copa in Key West (accompanied by Sire's Bobby Shaw) with back-up dancers Erika Belle and Bags Rilez.
A video is also commissioned for "Burning Up" (although it doesn't debut on MTV until the following October) when interest for Madonna starts to build in the mainstream. Sire brings in designer Maripol to be the stylist for Madonna, while Madonna's close friend Debi Mazar does the make-up. One of Madonna's many on-again-off-again boyfriends, Ken Compton was cast as the love interest in the video. Steve Barron (who had just come off of directing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" video) was hired as the director.
April: This month was the deadline for the completion of the album and Jellybean turned it in just in time (after modifying the production to Madonna's liking).
May: Madonna performs "Holiday" at Studio 54 this month to build buzz for her new album - currently titled Lucky Star - due in the summer.
LATER: The album's name is changed at the last minute to MADONNA. The name is considered "more iconic" by the record label. It is rumored that the change was SO last minute that there are some pressings that still have the title as Lucky Star - but these were only released briefly in small, overseas markets. (Madonna, Andrew Morton, 2001)
June (early): Madonna does promotional appearances at clubs in the UK again (mostly in London) where she performs "Holiday" - including Camden Palace (on June 1) and The Music Machine.
June 17: Madonna performs live at the Celebrity Club in NYC.
July (early): "Holiday" is chosen as the single to launch the album with and is serviced to dance clubs this month.
July 27: The debut album is released…
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