Inside The Groove - Madonna’s Music

Deep Dive - Cherish

The third single from Madonna's Like A Prayer album had its origins in Madonna's Broadway dressing room. But it was the second song she'd written with the title Cherish. Find out about that unreleased track, hear the demo for Cherish and discover new and interesting facts about the song and its video.

Christmas Special - Like An Angel Passing Through My Room

The story of how Madonna recorded a cover of an album track by Swedish band ABBA but never release it. Hear the various demos and other tracks that were abandoned during the follow-up to Ray of Light. Also, hear the story of the recording of the ABBA original in 1981 - including the various demos.

Deep Dive - Keep it Together (teaser)

(The full version of this episode is available to patrons only). Released as a single in 1990 and performed as the closing song for Madonna's Blond Ambition tour, it's the single-that-never-was for many territories where it was held back in favour of Vogue. None the less, Keep it Together is one of the highlights from the Like A Prayer album and now we learn more about its recording and hear those individual instruments clearer than every before.

Promo: Series 2

Get a sneak peak of some of the songs and subject to be covered in 2021.

Something To Remember -Bright Light Bright Light

Singer Rod Thomas aka Bright Light Bright Light talks through his Madonna memories and also discusses working with Madonna's backup singers, Donna Delory and Nicki Harris.

Something To Remember - Gareth Jones

Excuse the sentimentality - here's an interview with my husband, about his favourite Madonna songs... and also a chance for me to answer the Something To Remember questions.

Something To Remember - Justin Myers

Justin has written for GQ, Guardian, Empire - many publications - about Madonna and the first of his two novels, 'The Last Romeo', has quite an imaginary new dating app.. 

Something To Remember - Matt Cain

Matt Cain, author of The Madonna of Bolton discusses the Madonna songs that have soundtracked his life.

Deep Dive - Celebration

Madonna's 2009 track recorded with Paul Oakenfold is a great song which references some ideas from her previous hits and was the lead from her greatest hits compilation of that year. Hear about its creation along with some elements left out of the final mix.

Bonus Beats - Vogue - the samples

Madonna's classic track lifts inspiration and samples from other songs. Here's a refresher, but we've also identified a key loop that's used throughout the song - revealed for the first time.

Interview: Inside the MLVC Groove

When two podcasts meet! We try and find out Madonna's most underrated song.

Deep Dive: American Life

One of Madonna's most experimental recordings and the title track to her ninth studio album, the song is memorable for its rap which was largely unliked by non Madonna fans, yet the song is adored by her closest followers. This episode tries to work out why the song wasn't quite so loved by all.

Interview: Madonna's Movie Songs (with Darren Hayes) - Part 2

The second part of my discussion where we talk Leonard, Bray, Shep, Orbit, and who we'd play in Madonna's upcoming biopic.

Interview: Madonna's Movie Songs (with Darren Hayes) - Part 1

To celebrate six months of the podcast and 100,000 downloads, here is the first part of a discussion on the various songs Madonna has written and recorded for movies. Edward discusses songs such as Beautiful Stranger and Sooner or Later with Darren Hayes.

Deep Dive: Holiday

Madonna's first, big, international release and the opening track on Immaculate Collection - this song may sound very 1983, but it still cuts it when played on the radio today. It was almost never recorded by her but was turned around in under five days at the cost of $10,000 - why has it endured?

Bonus Beats: Express Yourself Remixes

A dive into the most famous of all Madonna's remixes - and a listen to the changes made for the single remix, too. We try to examine why Madonna would become so smitten with this version that it would be what she took on the road for 1990's Blond Ambition tour. 

Deep Dive: Express Yourself

One of Madonna's first songs. Hear how it was written, how it was recorded, what the people behind the song think of it and we also go there... down the Lady GaGa route but not before examining what song Madonna was "influenced" by. Plus there are a few things you may never have heard before...

Deep Dive: Masterpiece

This stunning song won Madonna a Golden Globe for its use in the movie WE and would also be an emotional highlight of the MDNA album. This episode discusses the creation of that record and shines the light on other tracks. Included in this episode are Madonna's raw vocal - without effects - and also a version of Masterpiece sung by the original writer.

Deep Dive: Crave

Madonna's most recent album, Madame X has also been her most ambitious and diverse. This episode looks at one of the more radio-friendly tracks along with insight into two of the other songs including one which was the subject of some contention from another writer.

Live Performances: Vogue (teaser)

A teaser for the patron-only episode about the live versions of Vogue including rare rehearsal audio and examples of the many iterations of the song.

Deep Dive: Get Together

The third single from Madonna's Confessions On A Dancefloor album is a fan favourite. Originally recorded in Sweden, it was reconstructed by Stuart Price in London before being included on Madonna's tenth studio LP.

Promo: Inside The Groove Trailer

Madonna has sold 300 million records worldwide in a career fast approaching 40 years, but people only talk about the scandals and never the music. Here at Inside The Groove, we break it down...

Deep Dive: Like A Virgin

When Madonna performed this song - for the very first time - at the MTV VMAs in 1984, her manager told her that her career was over. He was wrong. It's the song that turned her into a household name. It was written by a pair of songwriters and produced by the top producer in town, Nile Rodgers. This episode discusses that process and plays in tracks from the studio session and the subsequent remix by Jellybean.

Deep Dive: Bedtime Story

Penned by Bjork and British producers Nellee Hooper and Marius De Vries, this song would be the turning point for Madonna as she moved from commercial music to a more avant garde sound. The podcast also talks about the jettisonned follow up to Erotica recorded with producer Shep Pettibone, naming many of the lost tracks that Madonna dumped when she had a change of direction on the album - including some rarely heard demos from that period.

Deep Dive: Dear Jessie

A brief discussion on this 1989 song through the use of demo recordings, interviews with the collaborators and a rare live recording from the 90s.

Deep Dive: Die Another Day

The 20th movie in the James Bond franchise was released on 007's 40th movie anniversary and who better to write the theme tune than Madonna? Die Another Day was also a sneak peak of her upcoming new album, American Life, which would be released a few months later and once again paired the singer with producer Mirwais. But the song's story was not an easy ride as it went through at least one title change and faced problems from the studio...

Bonus Beats: Sorry

A demo of this 2005 song has leaked with quite different verses, so here's a chance to hear it and find out a little more about how it ended up on the internet. 

Deep Dive: Into The Groove

The ultimate 1980s dance tracks and one of the finest musical compositions and productions of all time. Yet 'Into The Groove' couldn't be simpler and this podcast discusses the lead up to its recording, including Madonna's inspiration for the lyrics along with studio recordings and isolated tracks, a demo of the song and elements that were used in the subsequent remixes.

Deep Dive: Erotica

The song that flagposted Madonna's most controversial era, released in conjunction with her fifth studio album of the same name and her collection of erotic photographs called Sex. Erotica went through many versions before becoming the final piece of music and this podcast includes an exclusive interview with one of the songwriters.

Interview: Tony Shimkin

Tony was the composer of so many tracks on Erotica which he discusses in great detail along with his experiences on the songs Vogue, This Used To Be My Playground, Rescue Me and the mixing of Immaculate Collection. There are some terrific recollections here on both a technical and personal level.