From the album Madonna (1983)
Featured on You Can Dance (1987), Celebration (2009)
Written by Madonna
Produced by Mark Kamins

As the very first single from one of the most successful artists of all time, Everybody carries surprisingly little clout. And yet, the Madonna creation story tells of her apparent mythological ability to walk into a club, hand the DJ the original demo and instantly drive the unfamiliar crowd wild. And that wasn’t all she gave him - that DJ, Mark Kamins, became her boyfriend and produced the single, pre-debut album. However true the story, the drive was there from the beginning.

Musically, though, Everybody is merely serviceable dance-pop, hardly inspired - written solely by Madonna after fronting less successful New York rock bands, it’s hooky, if a little amateurish. Thankfully omitted from the Immaculate Collection - it would easily have been the worst song there - Madonna’s team had no such qualms with Celebration’s tracklist. Still, its legacy should be obvious to any listener: the first of many Madonna singles to command people to the dancefloor, but far from the best.

Truly appreciating Madonna’s artistry requires an understanding of her cultural context, but one thing that seems to have been completely lost in translation over the past 26 years is the misconception, early in her career, that Madonna was a black artist. With post-“disco sucks” dance-pop/R&B only just experiencing a post-Thriller resurgence at the time, it was still largely the field of black artists, to the extent that Sire Records tried to downplay Madonna’s race to secure radio play (just look at the single cover, or the hideous stock photo originally used for Holiday). But speaking for my generation, born well after her debut, I can’t even remotely comprehend how anyone could hear her voice and conclude that she was black - that girlishness was a far cry from the late, great Teena Marie.

YouTube / Dailymotion

Director: Ed Steinberg

There’s little to say about the music video, which existed partially to prove that Madonna in fact wasn’t black. Naturally, such a small budget led to equally little promo/airplay - but it proved popular in certain nightclubs that played videos.