Madonna (Madonna album)
Madonna (retitled Madonna: The First Album for the 1985 re-release) is the debut album by American singer Madonna, released on July 27, 1983 by Sire Records. After having established herself as a singer in downtown New York City, Madonna was signed by Sire president Seymour Stein, due to the success of her debut single, "Everybody" (1982). She became the sole writer for most of the album's tracks, and chose Reggie Lucas as its primary producer. Unhappy with Lucas's production outputs, she invited John "Jellybean" Benitez to complete the album, who remixed three tracks and produced "Holiday".
Madonna albums discography
Madonna entered the 1990s with the release of the soundtrack, "I'm Breathless" (1990), which contained songs inspired by the film "Dick Tracy". She also released her first greatest hits compilation, "The Immaculate Collection", in the same year. The album has sold more than 30 million copies, becoming the best-selling compilation album by a solo artist. It also became the second best-selling album by a female artist in the United Kingdom and her second certified diamond album in the United States. In 1992, Madonna founded her own record label, Maverick Records, as a joint venture with Time Warner. She was paid an advance of $60 million and received 20% royalties from the music proceedings, the highest rate in the industry at the time, equaled only by that of Michael Jackson. Her next releases under Maverick were the studio albums, "Erotica" (1992) and "Bedtime Stories" (1994), as well as "Something to Remember" (1995), a collection of Madonna ballads. All of them reached multi-platinum status in the US. Her third soundtrack album, from the musical "Evita" (1996) was certified five times platinum by the RIAA. Madonna's seventh studio album, "Ray of Light" (1998), sold more than 16 million copies worldwide.