27 May 2011

Goh Hotoda – we love you



This week, 21 years ago, Vogue was still giving good face, spending in its eighth week inside the Top 10 of the UK singles chart. The song had already been at #1 for a month – not to mention #1 in 30 other countries!

When I interviewed Goh Hotoda in 2007, he told me about mixing the song and coming up with the song’s synth string introduction.

Even for me, Vogue was my monumental work. As my career was Chicago house music, it was only ever dance music and never crossed over to pop music. The pop music style in 1990 was still white bread candy pop with lots of reverb and many expensive effects all over the place. Our work on Vogue was very contemporary – so simple and very dry. There was nothing like it then - now, the beat style is so popular that everybody is making music like that. But that was the kind of music that I really wanted to work on for such a long time.

Madonna’s original aim was to release the song as special 12” record and so she gave us total freedom. The song was originally produced a bit different at first. I made a different introduction to the mix and recreated a different version only for club play (Bette Davis Dub). It was standard that I make a dub mix after everything was done and Tony (Shimkin) would edit them later. Shep and Madonna really liked the new introduction that I made and so we went back into the studio to re-make the video version based on my Dub Mix and Tony’s edit. The song became an untouchable hit.”


Click here to listen to Vogue (Bette Davis Dub), as mixed by Goh

6 comments:

andrew said...

thank you thank you thank you. I just can't thank you enough for all of this info on M's music. For me, someone who has been in it for the long haul.....my 1st album was Like A Virgin when I was 5 years old. And to now hear how these songs came about, how the songs that form the soundtrack of my life came about, I just can't thank you enough. Keep it coming. I check in every day to see what you've got to share. Biggest kisses

Anonymous said...

Hey Andrew! Thanks for the feedback. I'm doing this all for fans of Madonna's music - like me and you - so, glad to hear you're enjoying the blog. I've only started - this is just the tip of the iceberg - stay tuned for more!

Unknown said...

I also agree that this is an awesome blog as I am a big time Madonna fan who loves to run across rare and unreleased music. Where can you find some of these songs?

Unknown said...

I too love this blog because I am a big time Madonna junkie! Where can I find some of these rare and un-released songs? I have some, but none of the ones you have blogged about previously.

Rabbitbunny said...

Vogue is a beautiful and brilliant Madonna masterpiece. She is definitely her "Finest Inspiration" she sings about in this song because Our Lady of Brilliance-Her Ladyship Ciccone has that indefinable something extra that many other singers
-male or female, give or take,
take your pick-do not have. That would have to be staying power, star quality and artistry. Madonna has those three brave qualities-the happy/sad balancing act-in Vogue, her beautiful voice is full of Life and Love. In short, Vogue is a Beautiful and Friendy Madonna Smile that flashed around the world. Over 20 years after Vogue came out, Madonna's smiling back at us. Vogue
-beautiful song=Madonna brilliant artist! Madonna, Striking a Pose
-always and forever in our Hearts!

andrew said...

Can't wait Peter! I check in on you every day with much anticipation! Honestly, thanks again mate :D
It's also nice to connect with others that get it! xxxx