Madonna Single: Everybody (1982)

Madonna
“Everybody”

Release: October 6, 1982

Tracks:
Everybody (12” version)
Everybody (Dub)

Producer: Mark Kamins
Writer: Madonna
Illustration by Lou Beach

Billboard Dance/Club Play: #3, 16 weeks on chart


“Everybody” was Madonna’s first single, released in the fall of 1982 before plans for the Madonna album had taken shape. Although originally written by Madonna and Stephen Bray for her 4-track demo tape, the song is credited only to Madonna and is produced for the single by Mark Kamins, a New York DJ that was among the first to play Madonna’s demo at the well-known club Danceteria. Sire/Warner Brothers chose Kamins over Bray, believing the latter to be inexperienced. The 4-song tape, produced by Stephen Bray, included: 1) Ain’t No Big Deal, 2) Everybody, 3) Don’t You Know, and 4), Stay.

The track is a fairly simple R&B-flavored dance tune: synthesizers and drum beats with vocals. The lyrics contain nothing more than in invitation to dance, “dance and sing, get up and do your thing,” sings Madonna over and over. Madonna starts the song with a spoken intro—one of many of her songs to feature spoken, rather than sung, portions. Although a more formidable singer now, back in the early ‘80s it was clear Madonna had little (if any) formal vocal training. Both her range and vocal strength were limited, but her breathy delivery added a dash of sex appeal to make up for those shortcomings. It's a decent track, but not a classic, important only because it was her first official release.

The single did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, but it did make #7 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart, which charted songs expected to hit the Billboard Hot 100. It did make #3 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart, a chart Madonna would go to rule over the next 24 years, scoring more #1 hits on it than any other artist. As Madonna was not featured on the single cover, many people did not know what she looked like; some assumed she was black, and she got some limited airplay on R&B stations. “Everybody” was not released in the UK. An extended remix of “Everybody” appears on Madonna’s 1987 dance retrospective, You Can Dance, and a “Dub Version” of the song appears on cassette versions of that album.

The low-budget video is very simple by Madonna standards. It's just her and two other dancers in a club. The moves her choreographed by Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone.