Those who have heard it in retrospect probably have no idea what I am talking about. Simply because the album version has been used most anywhere but on the actual single.
This starts with the release of the "True Blue" album in the summer of 1986. One of the tracks included is the title track, a somewhat 50s/60s influenced pop song, which yet had a touch of the 80s given Stephen Bray's rather synthesized production.
It may be that somebody thought at the time that it sounded a bit too synthesized because when released as a single a few months later (reaching UK #1 amongst other things), the single had gotten a completely new mix, seemingly given the Pat Leonard treatment, with more "real" sounding snare drums. I always preferred the original version, at least back then, yet the new mix was the actual hit version. It was the one that hit UK #1.
But in spite of that, it seems Madonna herself, some people at Warner's, or whoever, was dissatisfied with the new mix. Why? Because the album version was used in the video. Meaning that was the version people would hear on MTV, Music Box (short lasting mid 80s UK equivalent of MTV) etc.
Now, well, the single was available on 7 inch, at least for some time. Madonna was too huge at the time for any compilation makers to licence her music for compilations, so we will never know which version might have ended up on "The Hits Album 6".
So then, enter 1990 and "The Immaculate Collection", her first ever collection, and probably the first time a lot of her fans would get her old songs on CD, which had exploded since 1986. Now "The Immaculate Collection" was a strange collection, because all of the songs were included in new mixes, some even radically different ("Like a Prayer", for instance...). But nevermind... "True Blue" wasn't included anyway.
However, a bit later, they would re-release "Holiday", and a few of the hits that were not on "The Immaculate Collection" would end up on that single. Including "True Blue". Again in the album version though.
So, well, nothing much happened in a long time. "The Immaculate Collection" was the only Madonna collection available ("The Holiday Collection" would eventually become deleted rather quickly) and whoever wanted "True Blue" could of course buy the album. And get the album version. Sometime in the late 90s/early 00s, however, a lot of old Madonna singles would be released in a collector's item CD box. These included some old gems like "The Gambler", the 1985 single that had been hard to get for a long time. But still no "True Blue".
With the remaster of the "True Blue" album in the early 2000s, those who had remembered what the single mix sounded like would finally at least get a hint, as the 12 inch version of that mix was included as a bonus track on the "True Blue" remaster. That "Color Mix" is basically an extended version of the single version, and in a lot of ways the closest Warner/Sire had ever gotten to releasing the 7 inch mix of "True Blue". But, well.... Close, but still no cigar.
Now, enter 2009. Madonna would now release a double CD compilation of her greatest hits. No less than 36 songs. All of them included in their original 7 inch versions, sounding exactly like they did when they were hits. They couldn't leave a UK #1 single out from a double CD with 36 tracks, could they? Indeed, yes, they could!
So, it's now been more than 23 years, and the 7 inch version has still never ever been available on CD, or any other digital format for that matter. Which makes me wonder: Is this a coincidence? Or has Madonna just decided that the single should never have been remixed for the single release, and instead thought (like I strongly thought at the time) that the more "synthetic" Stephen Bray version sounded much better? Anyone knows any more about this?
― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Monday, 1 February 2010 00:52 (fifteen years ago)
IIRC the album version contained a somewhat controversial voicing of the chorus, to wit, "true love/you're the one I'm dreaming of/your heart fits me like a glove/and I'm gonna be/true blue, baby, we want hen fap," which Madonna deemed too racy to reissue. a different vocal take was used on the other edits, which consequently have been preferred for later issues of the song.
― Lee Dorrian Gray (J0hn D.), Monday, 1 February 2010 01:01 (fifteen years ago)