1. Holiday

2. Lucky Star

3. Borderline

4. Like A Virgin

5. Material Girl

6. Crazy For You

7. Into The Groove

8. Live To Tell

9. Papa Don't Preach

10. Open Your Heart

11. La Isla Bonita

12. Like A Prayer

13. Express Yourself

14. Cherish

15. Vogue

16. Justify My Love

17. Rescue Me

All Music

On the surface, the single-disc hits compilation The Immaculate Collection appears to be a definitive retrospective of Madonna's heyday in the '80s. After all, it features 17 of Madonna's greatest hits, from " Holiday" and "Like a Virgin" to "Like a Prayer" and "Vogue." However, looks can be deceiving. It's true that The Immaculate Collection contains the bulk of Madonna's hits, but there are several big hits that aren't present, including "Angel," "Dress You Up," "True Blue," "Who's That Girl," and "Causing a Commotion." The songs that are included are frequently altered. Everything on the collection is remastered in Q-sound, which gives an exaggerated sense of stereo separation that often distorts the original intent of the recordings. Furthermore, several songs are faster than their original versions and some are faded out earlier than either their single or album versions, while others are segued together. In other words, while all the hits are present, they're simply not in their correct versions. Nevertheless, The Immaculate Collection remains a necessary purchase, because it captures everything Madonna is about and it proves that she was one of the finest singles artists of the '80s. Until the original single versions are compiled on another album, The Immaculate Collection is the closest thing to a definitive retrospective.

Adrian’s Album Reviews

For all her reinventions and changes in style through the years, it's the early material i'll always hold dear. Simple pop songs, sometimes daring pop songs ( 'Like A Virgin' for example ), and at that time, a genuinely new face, a genuinely good new thing to have around. That was Madonna. Eventually people get sick of seeing the same old faces, but my, it's been a good old long career for her. This collection is perhaps the best way to enjoy Madonna. Perfect pop songs to open, a few genuinely good ballads somewhere around the middle and dotted all over the place. A few cheesy irritating songs once we pass 1988 and pop music turned to shit for awhile. Ah, well - can't have everything now, can we? You know, take a song like 'Borderline'. Simple Eighties keyboard lines and a programmed drum beat. Little tiny bass lines unobtrusively around those two main musical factors. It creates a nice 'clean' sound. The melodies are simple, but there's several of them. Several things going on - nice easy melodies and a clear vocal with more melody over the top. Not the greatest singer known to mankind, our Madge, but she does okay. As a kid of seven or eight years old, however old I was at the time, I didn't know about being like a virgin, or not being like a virgin. It just came across as a nice happy pop song! Kids everywhere bought it thinking Madonna quite pretty, which she was. Ah, the innocence! But oh, the undertones! No, not those guys singing 'Teenage Kicks', undertones of a different kind. With your heartbeat next to mine, indeed! God, it was obvious, but shocking in some kind of way. Give me a break, I was seven years old. Hotcha!

'Material Girl', the slow school disco romance of the very nice 'Crazy For You'. The hits just keep on cumming. 'Live To Tell' is genuinely good, you know? Such a nice sweet song. 'Papa Don't Preach' is great, perfect pop. 'Like A Prayer' was a new mature Madge yet still attracting controversy like never before. Great song, certainly better than the irritating and overproduced slick stylings of the far too obvious 'Vogue'. Or the breathless reaching middle age sexual promise of 'Justify My Love'. Still, Madonna was a good thing to have around, and my god, she's still around! Who'd have thought it?