"
Who's That Girl" is a song by American
singer-songwriter
Madonna from
the soundtrack album
Who's That Girl of the
motion picture of
same name.
It was released on June 30, 1987 by
Sire
Records as the first single from the album. It later appeared
on the 1991 UK compilation EP
The
Holiday Collection, which was released to accompany the
1990 compilation album
The
Immaculate Collection, and has since been included on the
two-disc edition of her 2009 greatest hits album
Celebration. While shooting
for the film, then called
Slammer, Madonna had requested
Patrick Leonard to develop an
uptempo song that captured the nature of her film persona. She
later added the lyrics and vocals to the demo tape developed by
Leonard, and decided to call both the song and the movie "Who's
That Girl".
Featuring instrumentation from drums, bass, and stringed
instruments, "Who's That Girl" continued Madonna's fascination with
Hispanic culture by incorporating Spanish lyrics and using the
effect of double vocals. Although it received mixed reactions from
reviewers, the song became Madonna's sixth single to top the
Billboard Hot 100, while
peaking atop the charts in countries like the United Kingdom,
Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium.
The music video portrayed a different persona of Madonna, rather
than her film character for which it was released. Like the song,
it incorporated Hispanic culture and portrayed her dressed in
Spanish style as a young lady in search of a treasure. It was
criticised for not depicting her
real
self. Madonna performed the song once on the
Who's That Girl World Tour in
1987. The song has been covered by many artists and has appeared in
compilations and tribute albums.
Background
In 1986, Madonna was shooting for her third motion picture
Who's That Girl,
known at the time as
Slammer. Needing songs for the
soundtrack of the movie, she contacted
Patrick Leonard and
Stephen Bray, who had written and produced her
third studio album
True
Blue in 1986. Madonna explained to them that she needed an
uptempo song and a downtempo song. She came to the studio one
Thursday as Leonard developed the
chorus of the song. He handed over that
cassette to Madonna, who went to the backroom and finished the
melody and the lyrics of the song, while
Leonard worked on the other parts of the song. After finishing the
lyrics, Madonna declared that she wanted the song to be named
"Who's That Girl" and changed the movie to the same, rather than
Slammer, considering it to be a better title. In
Fred Bronson's
The Billboard Book of Number
1 Hits book, Leonard explained that the song was recorded in
one day with Madonna adding her vocals only once. Additional
instrumental tracks with
guitars and
percussion were included by Leonard and
Bray later. Regarding the development of the music for the film,
Madonna further explained
"I had some very specific ideas in mind, music that
would stand on its own as well as support and enhance what was
happening on screen and the only way to make that a reality was to
have a hand in writing the tunes myself.
[...] The songs aren't necessarily about Nikki [her
character name in the movie] or written to be sung by someone like
her, but there's a spirit to this music that captures both what the
film and the characters are about, I think."
Composition
The song is composed in Madonna's typical style—mingling the
drum machine, a bubbling
bass synth line, and the sound of stringed
instruments. The three parts of the song, namely the
bridge, where Madonna sings "what can help me
now", the
chorus and the
verse flow together strongly. The
chorus has a haunting effect in it. The song epitomizes Madonna's
interest with Hispanic culture that continued after the release of
"
La Isla Bonita", by adding Spanish
phrases in the chorus and over the
trumpets
of the second verse, and also by the added instrumental break in
the middle. It also uses the sonic effect brought about by the
combination of multiple vocal lines, which had been previously used
by groups like
The Beach Boys in
their singles "
God Only Knows" (1966)
and "
I Get Around" (1964) as well as
R.E.M.'s singles "
Fall
On Me" (1986) and "
Near Wild
Heaven" (1991). "Who's That Girl" employs this effect on the
last chorus where three or four different vocal hooks are
intertwined.
Reception
Critical response
Critical reaction to the song has been mixed. In his book
The
Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, author Rikky Rooksby
explained that the song was Madonna's best take on her original
music style.
Stephen Thomas
Erlewine of
Allmusic commented that
"Who's That Girl" along with "
Causing a Commotion" were not amongst
Madonna's best singles. Although Tony Power of
Blender magazine criticised the
whole soundtrack, he considered "Who's That Girl" to be its
standout track. Biographer
J.
Randy Taraborrelli, in his
book
Madonna: An Intimate Biography called the song
"quintessential Madonna music" and went on to describe it as
"funky, sassy and melodic, with a Latin accent." Noah Robischon
from
Entertainment
Weekly opined that with the both the song and the movie,
Madonna had pushed "synergy over the borderline." Bill Lamb of
About.com said that the song, along with
the second single from the soundtrack "Causing a Commotion", was
not an example of Madonna's best music.
Chart performance
"Who's That Girl" was released in the United States in June 1987.
It debuted on the
Billboard
Hot 100 at number forty-three, reached the top of the chart in
its seventh week, maintained the top position for one week, and
spent sixteen weeks on the chart. It became Madonna's sixth
number-one single in the United States, making her the first artist
to accumulate six number-one singles in the 1980s, and the first
female performer to get that many number-ones as a solo act. The
song peaked at number two on the
Hot
Dance Club Play chart. In 2000, the song came tenth in a vote
conducted to determine the favourite Madonna song. In Canada, the
song debuted at the eighty-third position of the
RPM singles chart on July 11, 1987,
reached the top for one week on August 29, 1987, and stayed on the
chart for twenty-three weeks.
In the United Kingdom, "Who's That Girl" was released on July 14,
1987, and debuted at number three on the
UK Singles Chart, soon climbing to number
one the next week to become Madonna's fifth number-one single in
the United Kingdom. Across Europe, "Who's That Girl" also topped
the singles charts in Belgium, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands,
as well as peaking in the top five in Austria, France, Germany,
Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Music video
Madonna, wearing a Spanish hat, looks
happily toward the children after finding the treasure casket in
the music video.
The music
video was shot over two days, at Grayhall Mansion in Beverly Hills,
California
. Madonna had adopted a garish, platinum blond
hairstyle for the Who's That
Girl movie which she used in the music video; it was her
way of reviving the comedy heroine of the 1930s Hollywood
screwball comedies. She continued with her
Hispanic look from the "
La Isla
Bonita" music video, this time she appeared dressed boyishly in
a wide-brimmed Spanish hat and bolero jacket—a combination which
would later become a fashion trend.
The music video, directed by Peter Rosenthal, begins with Madonna
entering a park. After meeting two children and a teenage boy, they
start roaming around the park, with Madonna singing the song. These
scenes are interchanged with scenes from the motion picture, which
show Madonna as the movie character Nikki Fynn. As the music video
progresses, Madonna is shown to be in search of an Egyptian
treasure casket. After being directed to it by a postcard
displaying her cartoon impersonation, Madonna opens it to find a
huge diamond. She looks up happily to the children. The video ends
with them continuing dancing and Madonna carrying away the
casket.
The video portrayed a different image of Madonna rather than her
real self. According to Vincent Canby of
The New York Times, Madonna at that
time was shrewdly pragmatic about her persona and
appearance—resembling
Marilyn Monroe,
but with the "comic tartiness" of
Jean
Harlow. This persona was reflected in the second half of the
Who's That Girl
film. However, the music video chose not to capture her real self
and qualities, or to promote the movie for which it was
specifically created. Instead, it concentrated on the humerous
off-putting personality of Madonna's film character depicted in the
first half of the film. As a result, the video failed to appeal to
people who were not acquainted with her prior work, nor with people
who already knew and admired Madonna's erotic and funny performance
in her music videos.
Live performance and covers
Madonna performed the song live only once, on her 1987
Who's That Girl World Tour. The
song was performed as the part of the encore. The outfit for the
performance, designed by Marlene Stewart, was created with toy
watches, plastic lobsters and an ashtray—thereby depicting her
awareness of
surrealism. According to
biographer
Andrew Morton, it
also portrayed her tongue-in-cheek sense of style: when she bent
over in this ensemble, she revealed panties with the word "Kiss"
written on them. The performance included Madonna dancing around
the stage in the dress and asking the audience to join her.
Two
different performances of the song on this tour can be found on the
videos: Who's That
Girl - Live in Japan, filmed in Tokyo
, Japan, on
June 22, 1987, and Ciao, Italia!
- Live from Italy,
filmed in Turin
, Italy, on
September 4, 1987.
The song has been covered many times, mostly on tribute albums. In
1999,
The Countdown Singers
made a
sound-alike cover version for the
album
Hit Parade of 80's, Vol. 2. The
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
(RPO) made an
instrumental version of
the song for the 1998 album
Material Girl: RPO Plays Music of
Madonna. German actress
Eva Mattes
covered the song for her 2006 album
Language of Love. In
2007, The Bubonic Plague recorded a cover of the song that was
included on the tribute album
Through the Wilderness.
Formats and track listing
- "Who's That Girl" – 3:58
- "White Heat" – 4:40
- European CD Single (Re-Issued)
- "Who's That Girl" (Extended Version) – 6:29
- "White Heat" – 4:40
- UK 12" Single / Limited Edition 12" Picture
Disc
- "Who's That Girl" (Extended Version) – 6:29
- "White Heat" (LP Version) – 4:40
- U.S. 12" Single/UK Limited Edition
12"
- "Who's That Girl" (Extended Version) – 6:29
- "Who's That Girl" (Dub Version) – 5:07
- "White Heat" (LP Version) – 4:40
Credits and personnel
Charts
Notes
- Rooksby, p. 68
- Taraborelli, p. 126
- Kellner, p. 275
- Morton, p. 199
- Metz, p. 309
- Morton, p. 200
- Metz; Benson, p. 345
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
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