Celebration

Great quick delivery from Belgium.Brilliant Madonna CD.Quite pleased with the item

Good music

This album is much better than the Immaculate Collection greatest hits package - this one doesn't play around with the songs - doesn't have that awful Like A Prayer remix or those annoying bells added onto Like A Virgin. There are some duds on the album - "Revolver" is one, as is "Don't Tell Me" and especially "Miles Away" - and there's one glaring omission - why does 'Gambler' never get on Madonna's Greatest Hits packages? It got to no 5 on the UK chart - as did 'Dress You Up' which IS included here - so why not Gambler? I love that song but, alas, it's not here.This could easily have run to 3 CDs. Apart from just "Gambler", there are other glaring omissions. We get "Burning Up" and "Everybody" which, although key stepping stones at the beginning of Madonna's career, didn't actually chart. But missed off this greatest hits package are: Angel (top 5 hit in the UK), True Blue (no 1 in the UK), This Used To Be My Playground (no 1 in the UK), "I'll Remember" (top 5 hit in the UK), "You'll See", "One More Chance", "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", "Rain" (top 10 hit in the UK), "Me Against The Music" (with Britney Spears - no 1 hit in the UK), and Hanky Panky (top 10 hit in the UK). Also not included is "Don't Cry For Me Argentina", "Physical Attraction", "American Pie" (no 1 in the UK), "Causing A Commotion" (top 5 hit in the UK), "The Look of Love" (top 10 hit in the UK), Fever (top 10 hit in the UK), and Deeper And Deeper (top 5 hit in the UK). Also tracks such as 'Can't Stop' (from the Who's That Girl soundtrack), Something To Remember (from the Dick Tracy soundtrack) and Spotlight (from the You Can Dance album) could have been included to give even more breadth to a record of such a wide-ranging career. I really can't understand why all these were missed off, when a 3rd CD of Madonna's Greatest Hits would have been perfectly justified. Quite why there are these notable omissions is strange, given that we get "Miles Away" and "Don't Tell Me" which weren't big hits for Madonna. I can't believe that so much of her good stuff has been left out - I mean, why choose Dress You Up over True Blue, when the latter was a number one hit??I don't think we'll ever again see such a big female star in the pop world - who else could claim to have had such an influence not just on music but on fashion and popular culture? Certainly not Jennifer Lopez or Mariah Carey. Madonna may not have Mariah's vocal range, but she has left Mariah well behind when it comes to developing as an artiste. No other female singer, with the possible exception of Kylie Minogue, can claim to have had such a continual run of big hits. Madonna ushered in girl power long before the Spice Girls were even a twinkle in their parents' eyes, and every girl in 1985 wanted to wear Crucifixes, lacy gloves, high-heeled boots and crop tops. Madonna brought feminism into music - you could be a strong woman and enjoy music and fashion. She paved the way so that the likes of Lopez, Mariah, Miley Cyrus et al can show off their good looks and be taken seriously as artistes. But will they ever hold Miley look-alike contests on the streets of London as they did for Madonna look-alikes back in '85? I seriously doubt it. But at least Miley has the good grace to acknowledge Madonna as an influence.Even the late, great Whitney Houston was in Madonna's shadow. Whitney had the better voice, technically, but it was a voice that lacked emotion, like a singing machine, and she was often distant with fans. Also, Houston never wrote her own material. Apart from the dodgy 'Sex' phase in the early to mid-90s, Madonna's writing has always been top-notch. Even in the early days she wrote some stuff herself. Madonna's only really dud LPs have been "Bedtime Stories" and "American Life", and maybe we can include "Erotica" in that list too, due to the unsavoury sexual overtones Madonna insisted on filling her music with at that time. Thankfully she had a cold bath and came back with the brilliant "Ray Of Light" album which saved her career.Best songs: "Like A Prayer", "Four Minutes", "Material Girl", "Into The Groove", "Like A Virgin", "Music", "Frozen", "Beautiful Stranger", "La Isla Bonita", "Who's That Girl". But that's just my opinion - if you're a Madonna fan, you'll no doubt have favourites of your own.I just hope that Madonna gives up trying to be down with the young 'uns these days and gets back to making great pop records. She's big enough - and has earned enough respect and admiration - to show them all how it's done.

It's hard to believe that it's over 25 years since Madonna burst onto our unflat TV screens and into our FM/AM radios. Back then CD's were beginning to get off the ground and MTV was in it's infancy.In the 1980's Madonna was the only musician who could come anywhere near Michael Jackson's stature. Unlike Michael Jackson, she managed to continue her credibility through the following decades, by evolving her music and staying relevant without being hip and trendy.Naturally the 1980's era is prominent with the likes of Vogue, Borderline, La Isla Bonita, Papa Don't Preach, Into The Groove, Holiday etc.The early 1990's (perhaps Madonna's least appealing era) is skated over with some of it's better songs such as Take A Bow and Secret. In 1998 she reasserted herself with the lauded Ray Of Light album, containing the smash hits Ray Of Light and brilliant Frozen. The follow up album Music, although not as strong, still produced the noteworthy title track and Don't Tell Me.I was pleased that the Madonna nugget, Hollywood is also included. We also get one of Madonna's best ever songs, Sorry, from Confessions On A Dance Floor, along with Hung Up with the brilliantly sampled, classic ABBA track.It's no means perfect, I would have loved the likes of True Blue and American Life to have been included and Material Girl and Dress You Up to have been left off. However, all in all very worthy compilation and a good introduction for a new listener.

It's not very often you can criticise the omission of so many hits from a double C.D. containing 36 songs but, with Madonna having over 80 hits worldwide, that's exactly the case here with the release of 'Celebration'. Admittedly, it's a much more expansive set than her previous compilations, and all the better for it, but it still can't claim to offer the listener a complete picture of her work - even a quadruple C.D. would struggle to contain all of her big singles. But the songs contained in this wonderful collection does highlight why she has managed to outlast many of her peers - it showcases an enormous talent at her craft as a singer, songwriter and producer.Almost all of her early hits are included, though 'True Blue' a No.1 in the UK and No.3 in the U.S., Is a surprise omission. But it's when we move into her body of work in the nineties and noughties that more gaps appear. 'Deeper and Deeper', 'What it Means to be a Girl''I'll Remember', 'This Used to be my Playground', 'Hanky Panky', 'Fever', and more, are all missing but the tracks included are so good they almost make up for their absence. The order in the track listing is random, and slightly haphazard to be honest. But it helps to highlight the incredible range of her work. Her use of so many different styles can be attributed to using various top producers to enhance her songs, like Patrick Leonard, William Orbit and Timbaland. For pop purists of a certain vintage, this is an essential collection.