PAPA DON'T PREACH

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"Papa Don't Preach" is a dance-pop song by American singer and songwriter Madonna. The song was written by Brian Elliot with additional lyrics by Madonna, and produced by Stephen Bray and Madonna for her third studio album True Blue, released in June 1986. The song also appears remixed on the 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection and in its original form on the 2009 compilation album Celebration. The song's musical style combines pop and classical rhythms, and its lyrics deal with teenage pregnancy and abortion. It was based on teen gossip he heard outside Elliot's studio, which has a large front window that doubles as a mirror where schoolgirls from the North Hollywood High School in Los Angeles regularly stopped to fix their hair and chat.

Released as the album's second single in mid-1986, the song was a commercial success. It became Madonna's fourth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and performed well internationally, reaching the top position in the United Kingdom and Australia. It was well-received by music critics and was frequently cited as a highlight in the album. The music video, directed by James Foley, shows Madonna's second image makeover, featuring her with a more toned and muscular body, and cropped platinum blonde hair. It portrayed a storyline, where Madonna is trying to tell her father about her pregnancy. The images are juxtaposed with shots of Madonna dancing and singing in a small, darkened studio, and spending a romantic evening with her boyfriend.

Shortly after its release, the song caused heated discussions about its lyrical content. Women's organizations and others in the family planning field criticized Madonna for encouraging teenage pregnancy, while groups opposed to abortion saw it as a positive pro-life message. Madonna has performed "Papa Don't Preach" in three of her world tours. The song also caused her first conflict with the Vatican, as she dedicated it to Pope John Paul II, who urged Italian fans to boycott her concerts during the Who's That Girl World Tour in 1987. In 2002, the song was recorded as a hard rock version by British singer Kelly Osbourne, and was included as a bonus track on her debut album Shut Up.

During the autumn of 1985, Madonna started writing and recording songs for her third studio album, True Blue. She brought back Steve Bray and hired a new songwriter collaborator, Patrick Leonard, to help her co-write eight of the album's nine tracks.^[1] The album's first track "Papa Don't Preach", was written by Brian Elliot, who described it as "a love song, maybe framed a little bit differently".^[2] The song is based on teen gossip he heard outside his studio, which has a large front window that doubles as a mirror where schoolgirls from the North Hollywood High School in Los Angeles regularly stopped to fix their hair and chat.^[3] The song was sent to Madonna by Michael Ostin, the same Warner Bros. executive that discovered "Like a Virgin".^[4] Madonna only contributed with some minor lyrical revisions, making "Papa Don't Preach" the only song in the album that she did not have a strong hand in writing.^[4] In 2009, during an interview with Rolling Stone Madonna was asked by the interviewer Austin Scaggs as to why the theme of the song was meaningful to her. She replied saying,

"[The song] just fit right in with my own personal zeitgeist of standing up to male authorities, whether it's the pope, or the Catholic Church or my father and his conservative, patriarchal ways. [...] For 'Papa Don't Preach' there were so many opinions – that's why I thought it was so great. Is she for 'schma-smortion', as they say in Knocked Up? Is she against abortion etc."^[5]

In the United Kingdom "Papa Don't Preach" was released on June 23, 1986. The next week the song debuted at number thirteen on the UK Singles Chart, before climbing to number one two weeks later.^[27] It then spent three consecutive weeks at the top, stayed fifteen weeks on the chart,^[27] and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in August 1986, for shipment of 400,000 copies of the single.^[28] According to The Official Charts Company, the song has sold 645,000 copies there.^[29] Across Europe, "Papa Don't Preach" was successful, topping the Eurochart Hot 100 for eleven weeks. It reached the top position of the singles charts in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, and Norway,^{[30][31][32][33]} and peaked inside the top five in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.^{[34][35][36][37]} 

"Papa Don't Preach" was released in the United States in June 1986. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number forty-two,^[18] and within eight weeks of its release, it had reached the top of the chart,^[19] making it Madonna's fourth number-one single in the US.^[20] It maintained the top position for two weeks, and spent eighteen weeks on the chart.^[19] It also reached a peak of four on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and a peak of 16 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart.^[20] In October 1998, the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipment of 500,000 copies of the single.^[21] It placed at position 29 for theBillboard Year-End chart for 1986.^[22] In Canada the song debuted at the fifty-three position of the RPM singles chart on July 5, 1986,^[23] reached the top for two weeks in August 1986,^[24] and stayed on the chart for twenty weeks.^[25] It placed at position 13 on the RPM Year-end chart for 1986.^[26]

For the music video Madonna sported a complete image makeover. She changed the heavy jewelry and make-up, and adopted the gamine look, which is notably applied to describe the style and appearance that Shirley MacLaine andAudrey Hepburn used during the 1950s.^[38][39] In the video Madonna played a tomboy, dressed in jeans, a black leather jacket, and a slogan T-shirt with the caption "Italians do it Better". The video alternated between tomboy shots and those of a sexier Madonna with a more toned and muscular body, cropped platinum blonde hair, and figure-revealing clothing, consisting of a 1960s-style black bustier top and capri pants.^[40] It was directed by James Foley, who worked with Madonna in her video for "Live to Tell",^[41] produced by David Naylor and Sharon Oreck, and Michael Ballhaus was in charge of the photography.^[42] Actor Alex McArthur was signed to play Madonna's boyfriend and the father of her child in the video. Madonna had spotted McArthur in a small role as a naive youth in the 1985 film Desert Hearts, and she thought he was a natural to play her mechanic boyfriend.^[43] "I was out in the garage working on my Harley," said McArthur, "I answered the phone and a voice said, 'Hi, this is Madonna. I would like you to be in my next video.'"^[43]

The music video starts with shots of the New York skyline, the Staten Island Ferry, and character close-ups.^[44]Madonna plays a teenager, who is seen walking along a lane. Then it shows her thinking about her father, played byDanny Aiello,^[40] and how much he loves her. She then sees her boyfriend, played by actor Alex McArthur,^[43] coming along. The images are juxtaposed with shots of Madonna dancing and singing in a small, darkened studio. Madonna then moves away from her friends, who warn her from her boyfriend. She and her boyfriend spend a romantic evening together on a barge where they reflect upon their lives after watching an elderly couple. Then Madonna finds out that she is pregnant and after much hesitation tells her father. They have a few days of tension between them. Her father eventually accepts the pregnancy, and the final scene is a reconciliatory embrace between father and daughter.^[44]

Georges-Claude Guilbert, author of Madonna As Postmodern Myth, compared her look in the video as a "combination of Marilyn Monroe, Jean Seberg and Kim Novak." He added that it was hard for him to believe that "[Madonna] did not know that she was going to cause a huge controversy with the video.... With such a song and video, she was throwing in America's face the image of a country ravaged by the abortion debate, which is far from being resolved."^[45] Lynda Hart, one of the authors of Acting Out: Feminist Performances, felt that the video "alternated between two competing representations of Madonna... Charging coercion, both sides make the video as an invitation to a certain way of life, in the process denying it the stylistic invocation of a rhetoric of self-authorization."^[46] At the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, the "Papa Don't Preach" video won the Best Female Video award, and was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Overall Performance.^[47]