Oh, Madonna. What a tempestuous relationship we've had. I'm sort of the Madge anti-fan. The output I like from her is often the least favored among her followers. But here's a confession: my alltime fave song from Ye Olde Vampyre is spring 1994's "I'll Remember," from box office flop With Honors.First of all...With Honors. Who could have guessed in '94 that the only one from the cast who'd still be working steadily in 2008 would be future Grey's Anatomy star, Patrick Dempsey -- here playing fourth banana to Brendan Fraser, Joe Pesci and Moira Kelly. (Also included was Josh Hamilton, who later played Edina's long-absent son, Serge, in a 2002 episode of Absolutely Fabulous.)
But, Lord, did that movie suck. It was one of a handful of college-themed films out that spring that also included Reality Bites, PCU and, my favorite back then, Threesome. (Though in retrospect, they all chewed.)
In trying to pinpoint why "I'll Remember" sticks out, I guess it just came out at the right time. My final semester of community college (hot) before transferring to university that fall was winding down, and all seemed right for a tune about "remembering" simple things. Other radio hits at the time were Ace Of Base's "Don't Turn Around," Lisa Loeb's "Stay" and Enigma's "Return To Innocence."Of course, this was a period where Madge was sort of black and blue -- she'd suffered some poor-charting singles for the first time off her previous album, Erotica, and her Sex book two years prior had drawn sharp criticism. "I'll Remember" was a much-needed hit for the Material Senior, spending about a month stuck at #2 on Billboard's Hot 100.
At the time, Madonna even seemed to be having a Britney-esque public meltdown when she went on Late Night With David Letterman that spring and nervously tried to insult the nighttime host by using the F word about 17 times, smoking a cigar and telling bad jokes that just plain fell flat with the audience. And was she high? I recall Entertainment Weekly running a complete dissection of the fiasco the following week.
Here are the clips for the "I'll Remember" video and the Letterman episode. He really did a great job countering her jabs at every turn:
Overall, I think the zeitgeist of 1994 was literally scandal in general, though for the first time in awhile it wasn't Madonna causing it. There was the lingering icky-ness from the Michael Jackson child molestation trial the year before, the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan drama earlier that winter with the Olympics and then, just around the corner in June 1994 was the O.J. Simpson "crime of the century." Suddenly, Madonna just didn't seem that shocking anymore. In fact, she was almost passé.
Any lesser star, and this likely would have been the dénouement of their commercial success. So "I'll Remember" was probably just what we needed from her -- a sweet and non-threatening nostalgic ballad.
I'm far from an expert on this broad, but wasn't this also one of the first times Madonna worked with William Orbit, albeit in the form of him doing a remix for the song?Anyway, here's a tradge pic of 20-year-old D'luv from May 1994, on a trip to D.C., with the Washington Monument off in the distance.
The denim shirt is so classy that I want to dig it out, roll it up and shove it down the front of my pants. While listening to Madonna.