March 27, 2024 • 25 mins
This week our hosts Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield look at an Eighties dance-floor classic, from one of the all-time biggest pop legends: Madonna’s “Into The Groove.” It wasn’t Madonna’s first single (that was “Everybody”) or her first hit (that would be “Holiday”), but “Into The Groove” is the one that instantly evokes Madonna in her raw, gritty early days. It’s a cheap, fast, in-your-face disco anthem that hits as hard as punk rock, from the hungry young Madonna, aiming to sum up the whole history of dance music in one song. “Into The Groove” is still the song at the heart of her lifelong bond with the club scene and the dance community. It’s the one that where she sings right into your ear: “You can dance, for inspiration.”
For this episode Brittany and Rob are joined by one of the most brilliant music writers around, Suzy Exposito, a longtime journalist for Rolling Stone and the L.A. Times. They break down the song’s impact on club culture, including the goth world (the dancing boy in the music video became an iconic goth figure in himself!). They’ll also seek to answer the questions of why we’re all so obsessed with this song? Why does it loom so large over Madonna’s other hits? Why is it the gateway drug that hooks so many generations of Madonna fans? Take a listen to find out!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on
Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversial list. I'm
Britney Spanis and.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Rob Sheffield and we're here to shed light on
the greatest songs ever made and talk about what makes
them so great.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So today we have a song by an artist we
have a lot to say about and we love and
recently both saw live Madonna. Into the Groove by Madonna.
This is one of three songs by Madonna on the list.
In the previous list, only Like a Prayer had made
the list before. I was at number three hundred in
the earlier versions. And in this list we have Into
(00:36):
the Groove at one six ' one. We have Vogue
on the list, and we.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Have Like a Prayer.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And today we're going to talk about Into the Groove, though,
which is a song from the Desperately Seeking Susan soundtrack,
great film. I don't even know where to begin with this.
I feel like we've been talking about Madonna even before this.
We're talking about Madonna constantly. I guess I want to know, like,
do you remember hearing the song for the first time?
Was it in the movie? Was it on the rat
What was your experience with Into the Groove.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
On the radio before it was on the movie. It
was a song that was in the movie, which was brilliant.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, the greatest.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Film of the eighties in the Madonna cinematography department, except
Maybe Who's That Girl, which is also a brilliant eighties
Madonna movie. Into the Groove had a really different, lean, mean,
electric sound. It was very stripped down, it was very
low fi. It just sounded very punk rock. It was
(01:30):
very aggressive, just you know, a girl in a beat
box and everything about it. Even by the standards that
Madonna had already created as a pop star, this song
was absolute, absolutely electric, absolutely irresistible. Into the Groove is
really confrontational musically, vocally, in every way and completely impossible
(01:54):
to avoid. One of the best videos of the era
of videos where it's clips from a hit movie. And
you know, there were so many of those, so many
of those that made bad movies look fun. You know,
so many people went to see Flash Dance because the
maniac video was so much fun. Yeah, Flash Dance is
(02:15):
no fun. It's a terrible movie. Whereas you saw Into
the Groove and you saw Madonna in that club scene,
and that alone tells you everything that you want to
know about what makes this movie a classic.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah yeah, I mean this was the song came after
Madonna's first two albums are self titled, and like a virgin.
I mean, it was already like Madonna fever was taking over.
There was like women were dressy as Madonna and like
wanting to like be Madonna. She was already becoming like
this massive, massive icon. She didn't even go on her
first tour until after Into the Groove came out, until
(02:49):
that summer was like a virgin tour. And I mean
just to even kind of like have that have that
kind of like phenomenon already exist from someone who in
pop history, no one has ever wanted to be a
pop star more than probably Madonna. Like she is, like
everyone thinks they want to be a pop star as
much as Madonna did, but I feel like it's like
unmatched in the level of like desiring kind of the
(03:11):
bigness of it that Madonna had. And she was very
good at being a pop star and becoming that pop star.
But I mean to think even just before this song
came out, before she isn't desperately seeking Susan, which was
a movie that like Diane Keaton and Mellie Griffiths wanted
the role of Susan in the film, and the director
gave it to Madonna because she was like, this girl
seems cool like and she does it so well. I mean,
(03:33):
it's kind of like a crazy kind of timeline to
think about now, I guess in the context of who
Madonna was and kind of how everything came together at
that time.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Absolutely, and her huge musical energy, which at that point
she was not really given credit for. She was very
widely dismissed as just someone who was just an anonymous,
replaceable pop starlett Into the Groove, that was really where
she put her personality front and center, not just her
vocal personality, and her personality is very demanding, pushy, impossible
(04:06):
to ignore in that song, but also her punk rock
energy and very much when she started she was cross
combination of different scenes in New York, the club scene,
the disco scene, the hip hop scene, and the new
wave dance scene, as well as the punk rock scene. Yeah,
you know was the Detroit she was from was very
(04:26):
much punk rock, sort of ground zero and Into the
Groove which was really just a stripped down punk rock
in your face approach to the pop and disco that
had made her famous. It really completely blew people's minds,
even people who already liked Madonna.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah yeah, I think also, I mean, even to this day,
I feel like there's so much of her her writing
is so underrated. And this is a song that she
wrote with Stephen Bray. I mean, the Bridge is something
there's a great quote from Stephen Bray about just like
her just being on the microphone and suddenly having this
like live out your fantasy here with me, like on
(05:03):
the bridge and kind of making the song so much
better by just all this music pouring out of her.
Like her, her writing abilities are something that I feel
like goes so so uncredited in who she is as
a pop star, especially during this time, and really comes
across so much in the.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Song Absolutely Yeah. I mean. One of the things that
people always overlook most about Madonna is her musicality. And
it's funny that it's almost always the last thing people
talk about when they talk about Madonna. Her songwriting, her
musical imagination, which always came first with her and was
always very explicitly first. It's the part of her act
(05:41):
that people always took for granted and still take for granted. Yeah,
but Into the Groove sounded like nobody else had, sounded
like nothing else.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And it's also that thing of all of the kind
of like the stunts and the controversy, none of those
are effective without those songs being great. Like I mean,
even like the like a prayer video, that video and
the controversy that it made with the Catholic Church and
kind of having these burning crosses. I mean, just like
with that entire song would not be effective if that
(06:11):
song wasn't absolutely perfect, Like that's a great song, you know,
like a virgin too. I mean, just like the way
that she delivers that song, I mean, her kind of
writhing on the VMA floor is like it doesn't work
if that song's not good. And everything that she's done since,
you know, making comebacks in her forties and fifties and sixties,
like it's like making new music and making new kind
(06:31):
of risk with her music is like none of it's
effective without the fact that she has like such a
kind of brilliant mind and ear for you know, trying
out new things and being kind of willing to see
how she can sort of place herself in the context
of a scene or of a time in music.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Of course, we've talked.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
About Ray of Light a lot in over over the
time that we've known each other, because we both love
that song and album. But like that is another great
example of like, there's this amazing kind of dance happy
in the late nineties, and Madonna fits right in and
she makes it work for herself and reinvents it and
like makes an album that comes to define the entire
era of music, you know, and continues to do that
(07:11):
over the course of her career. So it's always kind
of crazy when when people sort of downgrade how kind
of brilliantly musical she is in all those ways, because
none of those things will be effective without a great.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Song, absolutely, And it's something that, you know, because if
she was so controversial about every aspect of her pop stardom,
people tended to overlook how committed she was to music.
People assumed that that part of it she had no
interest in. Yeah, Shockingly, Rolling Stone magazine was not a
huge fan of Madonna when she showed up, And I
always remember a great line that one of Rolling Stone's
(07:46):
top music journalists at the time had to say about
her was maybe she'll move on to movies though anywhere
we'll do. That was a great line, right, great line.
So many people sincerely believe that about Madonna, even people
who really loved her music, assumed that she was just
in it to be a famous person. She'd move on
to movies, she'd move on to TV, she'd move on
(08:08):
to anything. And it turned out not just music, but
dance music was a lifelong passion for her.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, And the funniest thing is that some of her
greatest songs were just on the soundtracks for her movies,
Like thinking about Vogue being on the soundtrack to Dick.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Tracy, unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Vogue, groundbreaking song in so many ways. Again on the list,
like that song is on the Dick Tracy soundtrack. It
was insane thing in the entire world of all the movies.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And I mean with into the Groove, I was reading
a little bit about the history of the song and
how she originally co wrote it with Stephen Bray for
another artist, and it was with the producer of Everybody
was going to buy the song and give it to
his fifteen year old proge and then Madonna took it back,
which is like kind of peak Madonna. She had a
great quote that I was reading about from a biographer
and like the early two thousands where she was just
(08:59):
like saying that I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know
exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch,
that's okay, which is a very peak Madonna quotable.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
She was so scary. Oh my gosh, she was really scary,
and she would say shit like that. I always remember
something she said about how she wanted to look the
way Ronnie Specter sounded yeah, and I was like, Wow,
what a thing to say. Yeah, she would just you know,
she always thought. She was always a scholar of pop history.
She was always somebody who knew all different types of
(09:30):
music and was willing to steal from all different types
of music. It came out in even the simplest songs
that she did. Yeah, and you know, like you said,
Into the Groove a very simple song in many ways.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, Yeah, I feel like Into the Groove is sort
of the I mean, maybe her first great dance record
before and kind of set the precedent for the rest
of her her career of kind of really kind of
reinventing and continuing to really hone in on her own
skills as like a great singer of amazing club tracks,
an amazing dance t but they.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Both all her, and it's funny to think of the
decades in between those songs, yeah, and that they're both
distinctly her specific musical and vocal personality. Madonna was the
type of eighties artist that people expected to fade away
very quickly, and for her staying power as an artist,
it's well to think that hung Up was her, you know,
(10:22):
thirty years after into the Groove, and yet this was,
you know, clearly the same artist, with the same sense
of fun, the same sense of mischief, and that kind
of continuity over the years is surprising, but it's it's
very Madonna.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, Like even with everything being so different over the
course of her career, like it's still she's able to
reinvent herself with kind of that still like ethos and
personality of who she is and every single thing. Like
she's able to really be so good at reinventing herself
while still like making sure it's like no one else
can really do this the way that I'm Madonna can
do this one of the Madonna songs that you feel
(11:00):
well should have or could have made the cut, or
do you think this is the perfect three songs that
made the list.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
With Madonna, it's funny how many of her great songs
were hits, but also how many great ones she left
stranded on her albums. Promised to dry on Like a Prayer,
I see Like a Prayer is just a perfect album.
And it's why when you think of the songs that
become hits and the songs that don't. You mentioned The
Immaculate Collection, which is one of the most famous greatest
(11:26):
hits albums of all time perfect name Yes, coming at
the end of the eighties for her. It's funny you
look at that album and it leaves out so many
of her huge hits from the eighties. It skips Who's
That Girl, which was an actual number one hit from
eighty seven. It's really wild to think of Madonna in
that period with someone who who could leave a number
(11:47):
one hit off her greatest hits album, Angel, which is
one of my very favorites, and Dress You Up, another
one of my favorites. Those are both left off the
Immaculate Collection. Angel is a I mean it was a hit.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
It a hit.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
She had so many radio hits in that era, and
yet that one kind of falls by the wayside. But
I think that's just an unbelievably perfect song.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean we both went to the Celebration tour as
it came through. I went to the Brooklyn show. Did
you go to Massis Square Garden?
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I mean even in the time since I went
to that show. In early December, Ariana Grande drops a
song that is sampling and referencing Vogue. You know, it's
like so funny that that's like just something that's kind
of part of the cycle constantly. And of course that
song was a few years ago. Beyonce did a Break
My Soul remix with Vague. You know, it's like every
every artist is kind of referencing or nodding to Madonna constantly,
(12:38):
which is just like being able to see her in concert,
I was like, oh, yes, like this is truly. She
has such a blueprint for everything.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
For everything, and such a huge emotional appetite. It's funny
that there are so many hits, you know, we're talking
about the hits that aren't just famous, but so many
of her really emotional sentimental, intense sort of ballads are
ones that often get lost in the shuffle again just
out of a sheer quantity of hits. But this used
to be My Playground was such a beautiful song and
(13:06):
for so many artists would be like a classic that
they would you know, model the rest of their career on.
And from Madonna, it was like just another smash hit
that was from a soundtrack that she moved on from
very quickly. Yeah, but she just left so many great
songs like that all over every phase of her career.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Well, maybe let's talk a little bit about Desperately Seeking
Season because we haven't talked about it enough, Which is
that I watched the film for the first time a
few years ago, just like again like the trajrectory of
like what is happening in those first few years of
Madonna's career. It's just like so funny to look back
on and like piece that timeline together and be like
how did this happen? And like how kind of like
cosmic and amazing that it was that this all kind
(13:47):
of happened at once. But I mean, she's like perfect
as this like bohemian drifter in the film, and with
Rosanna Archett. I think it's just like such a perfect
movie for her to kind of have out the.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Gate with this. Yes, and it's so funny that it's
a movie that's so saturated and hipster dumb in a
way that is so true to who Madonna is because
she really comes from that downtown scene. But it's also
really funny that, you know, it's the world's biggest pop
star at the time, which nobody expected when she was
actually making the movie. And she's in this movie and
there's bit parts for Richard Hell as the dead guy
(14:19):
she wakes up in bed with. You know, Arta Lindsay
is in the song, and Magnuson is in the song.
All these people who are really obscure New York bohemia
nightlife figures in the early eighties are in this movie.
The writing is so funny, way above like what people
were expecting. This wasn't a star vehicle. This movie is
always shocking how brilliant it is in every detail, on
(14:41):
every level.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I know, I love Rosanna Arcuat being like, let me
make a second after Hours, but this time with Madonna.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Who can forget the Rolling Stone cover with Madonna and
Rosanna Arquette from the moment when they were equivalently roughly
on the same level to co star in a movie
like this, And it's wild that in the movie, Rosanna
Arquette is so brilliant, so funny playing this really bored, frustrated,
(15:12):
annoyed person in this really horrible marriage. And there's this
great scene where Madonna is invading her house and reading
her diary. She says, it's got to be a code,
because nobody's life could really be this boring.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, she's so like, she's so charming and fun and
like it's such like a perfect kind of I know
all of these like multi hyphen it things of Madonna,
Like she really is like able to capture so much
of that in this movie where she's essentially playing herself. Yes,
it is essentially playing this like heightened Madonna who's not
a pop star, who in this universe Madonna also still
(15:47):
exists because she puts on the jukebox and into the
groove plays.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yes, I you watch this scary New York from the eighties,
and it's really scary eighties New York. But it's wild
that there's this scene where Madonna's like, let's go to
the goth club and it's this totally improvised last minute scene.
They were like, wait a minute, we have this movie
coming out of comedy starring Madonna, and we don't have
a scene where she's actually in a club dancing. We
(16:11):
need to stick that in. And so, you know, those
were just the people who are hanging out in the club,
the goth guid doing the cobweb gathering dance. You know,
he alone is such a goth icon who inspired so
many goth kids over the years, just by being himself
dancing in the corner of this Madonna video and it
keeps cutting to him, and all the people on the
(16:32):
dance floor are stars in that scene. And Madonna's just
so brash, so brazen, even her dancing. Honestly, Like, who
goes into a public restroom in New York and does
not imagine what if I just turned on the hand
dryer and just dried my underarms in this public restroom.
What if people stare at me? Who cares? I'm Madonna,
(16:54):
I'm this cool. I can get away with this. Yeah,
at least once a year I walk into a restroom
and I think maybe this is the day I'll do it.
Who could be that fearless and brazen.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
We're all striving to recreate Madonna's New York God.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We all are. Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Well, when we get back, we will be joined by
Susi x Spasido to talk more Madonna. And we're back
with Susi x Spasito, a multi hyphenate of Madonna proportion.
She's a writer, editor, singer, DJ icon, legend, star.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Genius, queen of the universe, and huge hero to both
Brittany and me.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Oh my gosh, I really appreciate the fanfare, as you
both know, I'm huge fans of yours.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And we're very excited to talk about Madonna, who is
someone that we all have a lot of feelings and
opinions and favorite Madonnas. So, Susie, can you tell us
a little bit of your Madonna history, your personal history
with listening to Madonna.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Well, listen, it starts with my father.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
He is a very loud Cuban American man born in
Jersey City, New Jersey, and he happened to be.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
In New York City at the right place, at the
right time.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
He told me that he met Madonna in nineteen eighty
two at the Palladium.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Wow in Manhattan. Oh Yeah, because she used to hang out.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
I mean, she was part of the downtown scene, and
my dad was kind of a club kid.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
You know, he would go to punk shows, you go
to dance Aityria.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
He just has all these ridiculous stories. But my favorite
thing about his stories is he told me how much
Madonna absolutely loved Latino men. And I think, you know,
talking about Into the Groove, which was inspired by a Latino.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
I think it's very fitting that I'm on this podcast.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Clearly Madonna made a huge impression on my dad, on
my family.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You know, I grew up listening to her.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
My dad bought every single album of hers as it
came out, and so I yeah, she's left an indelible
mark on my psyche. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And with Into the Groove, you talked about the origin
of it, which I think it's I was reading about
the story and it's like such like a I love
a good, like horny like origin story for a song,
which is like she was like seeing her neighbor dance
across the hall or something, and she said she finished
the song by the time they went on their last date.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I mean, it's just like a perfect kind of Madonna
eighties story. Origin of like how she wrote this even
before it found its home and desperately seeking Susan and
like where it was meant to be. But I love
a very kind of like peak Madonna horny origin story
for a song.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, I just I love how I feel like desperately
Seeking Susan.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
I don't think it would have been the movie that
it was without her without that song.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I think that song really breathed life into it.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
And where does Into the Groove land for you? In
like your sort of Madonna rankings of her music.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's a forever classic. I feel like I don't know
I have.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
It's like I have moods, and Madonna has a song
for every mood that I'm in and when I'm tearing
it up at karaoke, like Into the Groove is definitely
one of my one of my favorite like karaoke picks,
either either I sing it or somebody else.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Does you know it's a little.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
High for me range wise, but yeah, it's like, you know,
it's the song that it was her biggest song. It
was the song she really made a splash with. I
think what's so wild to me is that she this
was like in nineteen eighty five, but she was. She
was like a downtown girl.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You know. She would kick it with the no Wave people.
That's how downtown she was, you know. So for her
to do a song like Into the Groove, I mean
she had range. Yeah. For me, I would definitely rank
it up high.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
But I also, you know, I love the artie Madonna
as well, the really moody, like you know, low range singer.
When she gets into like her goss, when she gets
into her little goth vibes, or like her moody trip
hop Nellie Hooper vibes, I feel.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Like those rank higher than probably the rest of the
general public for me. But Into the Groove you can't
go wrong.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you, as a goth
punk girl, how the gothness of the club scene in
Desperately Seeking Susan, which people saw because of the MTV
video and all the cobweb dancing in the video. Was
that a goth moment for you as a formative Madonna fan.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I remember watching that movie with my dad and he's like,
look at this, look at this.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I was there, I was in this club, you know,
and at that time I was like, yeah, yeah, Dad, whatever,
probably making stuff up, but no I came to I mean,
it was definitely embedded in my mind, like, Okay, I
want to do that one day, And sure enough I
moved to New York at seventeen and looked for the
same thing. The only problem is it was two thousand
(22:02):
and seven and it was very recession core and everyone
was wearing neon, so it was a little different.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Be the gos Madonna you want to see in the world, yes, exactly.
You mentioned about singing her in karaoke, and I think,
especially as our queen vocalist, like I want to talk
about Madonna's voice a little bit because I think there's
it's so fascinating, like how there was so much critique
of it and so much of like the idea, and
there was even periods where she talked about the fact
(22:31):
that she didn't think that she was the greatest singer.
But I actually, like, I love so much of her
vocal performance on this song in particular. But there is
she has that sort of kind of like higher register
songs that make them sometimes pretty difficult to try to
tackle karaoke. But there is that on the bridge where
she kind of goes lower and does that like kind
of deep throated, like very throaty, like kind of yes
(22:52):
song and I love I Love like a throatier Madonna song.
I want to know a little bit about your sort
of analysis of Madonna's singing and how do you kind
of see her as a vocalist in the pop canon.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I think she was a powerhouse in her own right.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I feel like one of the things that gave her
the cool that she needed to succeed is her being,
you know, like a downtown scene kid who had a
little edge, who could push the boundaries a bit, especially
like lyrically.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And I think both she and Janet what they did
in the eighties.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
When it came to really like being empowered and like
their sexuality and being like you know, encouraging of young
women to just talk about these things openly, to really
like be in tune with your body.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
They're both like incredible dancers.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And I feel like Madonna, you know, she didn't give
herself enough credit for being the singer she is. Like
like I said earlier, she really has She has a
huge range for a singer. This was kind of it
was her her time to really like show it off,
want it. It's like the eleventh hour. She had to,
she had to write this song and stats so she
(24:05):
could go on this day with this hot quarry can
guy across the hall and come back like I don't know,
she sings it like she wants it, you know, and
I resuspect that so much.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
There's so much urgency in her music. I feel like
the best Madonna songs have so much like like Borderline
is a big one for me. I think that's probably
that's probably like my my favorite of the of the
eighties era of Madonna and that song there's like so
much urgency in it, like and also just like this
like kind of like kind of I don't know, raw
anger almost and like it's like keep on pushing my
(24:42):
love over the borderline. Like it's just like but it's
also still such like euphour extol. I think like that's
why the Right of Light album and like a lot
of for he work with William Orbit works so well.
That's why you know, these kind of all these dance
records with her work so well, because there's like this
like real urgency that she's willing to give because sometimes
you just you gotta be urgent to get to the
dance floor, and you got to be urgent to win
over your hot neighbor you know well. Thank you so
(25:07):
much Susie for joining us today. Love talking Madonna, really
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Could not be more love talking about Madonna.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Listening to you to talk about Madonna is absolutely a
joy and education.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Thank you, Rob, Thank you Brittany. Always a fun time
with you. And yeah, until next time, Thanks.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
So much for listening to Rolling Stone's five hundred Greatest Songs.
This podcast is brought to you by Rolling Stone and iHeartMedia.
Written hosted by Me, Britney.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Spanos and Rob Sheffield.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Executive produced by Jason Fine, Alex Dale, and Christian Horde,
and produced by Jesse Cannon, with music supervision by Eric Zeiler.
Thanks for watching and thanks for listening.
Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on
Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversial list. I'm
Britney Spanis and.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Rob Sheffield and we're here to shed light on
the greatest songs ever made and talk about what makes
them so great.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So today we have a song by an artist we
have a lot to say about and we love and
recently both saw live Madonna. Into the Groove by Madonna.
This is one of three songs by Madonna on the list.
In the previous list, only Like a Prayer had made
the list before. I was at number three hundred in
the earlier versions. And in this list we have Into
(00:36):
the Groove at one six ' one. We have Vogue
on the list, and we.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Have Like a Prayer.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And today we're going to talk about Into the Groove, though,
which is a song from the Desperately Seeking Susan soundtrack,
great film. I don't even know where to begin with this.
I feel like we've been talking about Madonna even before this.
We're talking about Madonna constantly. I guess I want to know, like,
do you remember hearing the song for the first time?
Was it in the movie? Was it on the rat
What was your experience with Into the Groove.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
On the radio before it was on the movie. It
was a song that was in the movie, which was brilliant.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, the greatest.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Film of the eighties in the Madonna cinematography department, except
Maybe Who's That Girl, which is also a brilliant eighties
Madonna movie. Into the Groove had a really different, lean, mean,
electric sound. It was very stripped down, it was very
low fi. It just sounded very punk rock. It was
(01:30):
very aggressive, just you know, a girl in a beat
box and everything about it. Even by the standards that
Madonna had already created as a pop star, this song
was absolute, absolutely electric, absolutely irresistible. Into the Groove is
really confrontational musically, vocally, in every way and completely impossible
(01:54):
to avoid. One of the best videos of the era
of videos where it's clips from a hit movie. And
you know, there were so many of those, so many
of those that made bad movies look fun. You know,
so many people went to see Flash Dance because the
maniac video was so much fun. Yeah, Flash Dance is
(02:15):
no fun. It's a terrible movie. Whereas you saw Into
the Groove and you saw Madonna in that club scene,
and that alone tells you everything that you want to
know about what makes this movie a classic.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah yeah, I mean this was the song came after
Madonna's first two albums are self titled, and like a virgin.
I mean, it was already like Madonna fever was taking over.
There was like women were dressy as Madonna and like
wanting to like be Madonna. She was already becoming like
this massive, massive icon. She didn't even go on her
first tour until after Into the Groove came out, until
(02:49):
that summer was like a virgin tour. And I mean
just to even kind of like have that have that
kind of like phenomenon already exist from someone who in
pop history, no one has ever wanted to be a
pop star more than probably Madonna. Like she is, like
everyone thinks they want to be a pop star as
much as Madonna did, but I feel like it's like
unmatched in the level of like desiring kind of the
(03:11):
bigness of it that Madonna had. And she was very
good at being a pop star and becoming that pop star.
But I mean to think even just before this song
came out, before she isn't desperately seeking Susan, which was
a movie that like Diane Keaton and Mellie Griffiths wanted
the role of Susan in the film, and the director
gave it to Madonna because she was like, this girl
seems cool like and she does it so well. I mean,
(03:33):
it's kind of like a crazy kind of timeline to
think about now, I guess in the context of who
Madonna was and kind of how everything came together at
that time.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Absolutely, and her huge musical energy, which at that point
she was not really given credit for. She was very
widely dismissed as just someone who was just an anonymous,
replaceable pop starlett Into the Groove, that was really where
she put her personality front and center, not just her
vocal personality, and her personality is very demanding, pushy, impossible
(04:06):
to ignore in that song, but also her punk rock
energy and very much when she started she was cross
combination of different scenes in New York, the club scene,
the disco scene, the hip hop scene, and the new
wave dance scene, as well as the punk rock scene. Yeah,
you know was the Detroit she was from was very
(04:26):
much punk rock, sort of ground zero and Into the
Groove which was really just a stripped down punk rock
in your face approach to the pop and disco that
had made her famous. It really completely blew people's minds,
even people who already liked Madonna.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah yeah, I think also, I mean, even to this day,
I feel like there's so much of her her writing
is so underrated. And this is a song that she
wrote with Stephen Bray. I mean, the Bridge is something
there's a great quote from Stephen Bray about just like
her just being on the microphone and suddenly having this
like live out your fantasy here with me, like on
(05:03):
the bridge and kind of making the song so much
better by just all this music pouring out of her.
Like her, her writing abilities are something that I feel
like goes so so uncredited in who she is as
a pop star, especially during this time, and really comes
across so much in the.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Song Absolutely Yeah. I mean. One of the things that
people always overlook most about Madonna is her musicality. And
it's funny that it's almost always the last thing people
talk about when they talk about Madonna. Her songwriting, her
musical imagination, which always came first with her and was
always very explicitly first. It's the part of her act
(05:41):
that people always took for granted and still take for granted. Yeah,
but Into the Groove sounded like nobody else had, sounded
like nothing else.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And it's also that thing of all of the kind
of like the stunts and the controversy, none of those
are effective without those songs being great. Like I mean,
even like the like a prayer video, that video and
the controversy that it made with the Catholic Church and
kind of having these burning crosses. I mean, just like
with that entire song would not be effective if that
(06:11):
song wasn't absolutely perfect, Like that's a great song, you know,
like a virgin too. I mean, just like the way
that she delivers that song, I mean, her kind of
writhing on the VMA floor is like it doesn't work
if that song's not good. And everything that she's done since,
you know, making comebacks in her forties and fifties and sixties,
like it's like making new music and making new kind
(06:31):
of risk with her music is like none of it's
effective without the fact that she has like such a
kind of brilliant mind and ear for you know, trying
out new things and being kind of willing to see
how she can sort of place herself in the context
of a scene or of a time in music.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Of course, we've talked.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
About Ray of Light a lot in over over the
time that we've known each other, because we both love
that song and album. But like that is another great
example of like, there's this amazing kind of dance happy
in the late nineties, and Madonna fits right in and
she makes it work for herself and reinvents it and
like makes an album that comes to define the entire
era of music, you know, and continues to do that
(07:11):
over the course of her career. So it's always kind
of crazy when when people sort of downgrade how kind
of brilliantly musical she is in all those ways, because
none of those things will be effective without a great.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Song, absolutely, And it's something that, you know, because if
she was so controversial about every aspect of her pop stardom,
people tended to overlook how committed she was to music.
People assumed that that part of it she had no
interest in. Yeah, Shockingly, Rolling Stone magazine was not a
huge fan of Madonna when she showed up, And I
always remember a great line that one of Rolling Stone's
(07:46):
top music journalists at the time had to say about
her was maybe she'll move on to movies though anywhere
we'll do. That was a great line, right, great line.
So many people sincerely believe that about Madonna, even people
who really loved her music, assumed that she was just
in it to be a famous person. She'd move on
to movies, she'd move on to TV, she'd move on
(08:08):
to anything. And it turned out not just music, but
dance music was a lifelong passion for her.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, And the funniest thing is that some of her
greatest songs were just on the soundtracks for her movies,
Like thinking about Vogue being on the soundtrack to Dick.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Tracy, unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Vogue, groundbreaking song in so many ways. Again on the list,
like that song is on the Dick Tracy soundtrack. It
was insane thing in the entire world of all the movies.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And I mean with into the Groove, I was reading
a little bit about the history of the song and
how she originally co wrote it with Stephen Bray for
another artist, and it was with the producer of Everybody
was going to buy the song and give it to
his fifteen year old proge and then Madonna took it back,
which is like kind of peak Madonna. She had a
great quote that I was reading about from a biographer
and like the early two thousands where she was just
(08:59):
like saying that I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know
exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch,
that's okay, which is a very peak Madonna quotable.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
She was so scary. Oh my gosh, she was really scary,
and she would say shit like that. I always remember
something she said about how she wanted to look the
way Ronnie Specter sounded yeah, and I was like, Wow,
what a thing to say. Yeah, she would just you know,
she always thought. She was always a scholar of pop history.
She was always somebody who knew all different types of
(09:30):
music and was willing to steal from all different types
of music. It came out in even the simplest songs
that she did. Yeah, and you know, like you said,
Into the Groove a very simple song in many ways.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, Yeah, I feel like Into the Groove is sort
of the I mean, maybe her first great dance record
before and kind of set the precedent for the rest
of her her career of kind of really kind of
reinventing and continuing to really hone in on her own
skills as like a great singer of amazing club tracks,
an amazing dance t but they.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Both all her, and it's funny to think of the
decades in between those songs, yeah, and that they're both
distinctly her specific musical and vocal personality. Madonna was the
type of eighties artist that people expected to fade away
very quickly, and for her staying power as an artist,
it's well to think that hung Up was her, you know,
(10:22):
thirty years after into the Groove, and yet this was,
you know, clearly the same artist, with the same sense
of fun, the same sense of mischief, and that kind
of continuity over the years is surprising, but it's it's
very Madonna.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, Like even with everything being so different over the
course of her career, like it's still she's able to
reinvent herself with kind of that still like ethos and
personality of who she is and every single thing. Like
she's able to really be so good at reinventing herself
while still like making sure it's like no one else
can really do this the way that I'm Madonna can
do this one of the Madonna songs that you feel
(11:00):
well should have or could have made the cut, or
do you think this is the perfect three songs that
made the list.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
With Madonna, it's funny how many of her great songs
were hits, but also how many great ones she left
stranded on her albums. Promised to dry on Like a Prayer,
I see Like a Prayer is just a perfect album.
And it's why when you think of the songs that
become hits and the songs that don't. You mentioned The
Immaculate Collection, which is one of the most famous greatest
(11:26):
hits albums of all time perfect name Yes, coming at
the end of the eighties for her. It's funny you
look at that album and it leaves out so many
of her huge hits from the eighties. It skips Who's
That Girl, which was an actual number one hit from
eighty seven. It's really wild to think of Madonna in
that period with someone who who could leave a number
(11:47):
one hit off her greatest hits album, Angel, which is
one of my very favorites, and Dress You Up, another
one of my favorites. Those are both left off the
Immaculate Collection. Angel is a I mean it was a hit.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
It a hit.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
She had so many radio hits in that era, and
yet that one kind of falls by the wayside. But
I think that's just an unbelievably perfect song.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean we both went to the Celebration tour as
it came through. I went to the Brooklyn show. Did
you go to Massis Square Garden?
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I mean even in the time since I went
to that show. In early December, Ariana Grande drops a
song that is sampling and referencing Vogue. You know, it's
like so funny that that's like just something that's kind
of part of the cycle constantly. And of course that
song was a few years ago. Beyonce did a Break
My Soul remix with Vague. You know, it's like every
every artist is kind of referencing or nodding to Madonna constantly,
(12:38):
which is just like being able to see her in concert,
I was like, oh, yes, like this is truly. She
has such a blueprint for everything.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
For everything, and such a huge emotional appetite. It's funny
that there are so many hits, you know, we're talking
about the hits that aren't just famous, but so many
of her really emotional sentimental, intense sort of ballads are
ones that often get lost in the shuffle again just
out of a sheer quantity of hits. But this used
to be My Playground was such a beautiful song and
(13:06):
for so many artists would be like a classic that
they would you know, model the rest of their career on.
And from Madonna, it was like just another smash hit
that was from a soundtrack that she moved on from
very quickly. Yeah, but she just left so many great
songs like that all over every phase of her career.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Well, maybe let's talk a little bit about Desperately Seeking
Season because we haven't talked about it enough, Which is
that I watched the film for the first time a
few years ago, just like again like the trajrectory of
like what is happening in those first few years of
Madonna's career. It's just like so funny to look back
on and like piece that timeline together and be like
how did this happen? And like how kind of like
cosmic and amazing that it was that this all kind
(13:47):
of happened at once. But I mean, she's like perfect
as this like bohemian drifter in the film, and with
Rosanna Archett. I think it's just like such a perfect
movie for her to kind of have out the.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Gate with this. Yes, and it's so funny that it's
a movie that's so saturated and hipster dumb in a
way that is so true to who Madonna is because
she really comes from that downtown scene. But it's also
really funny that, you know, it's the world's biggest pop
star at the time, which nobody expected when she was
actually making the movie. And she's in this movie and
there's bit parts for Richard Hell as the dead guy
(14:19):
she wakes up in bed with. You know, Arta Lindsay
is in the song, and Magnuson is in the song.
All these people who are really obscure New York bohemia
nightlife figures in the early eighties are in this movie.
The writing is so funny, way above like what people
were expecting. This wasn't a star vehicle. This movie is
always shocking how brilliant it is in every detail, on
(14:41):
every level.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I know, I love Rosanna Arcuat being like, let me
make a second after Hours, but this time with Madonna.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Who can forget the Rolling Stone cover with Madonna and
Rosanna Arquette from the moment when they were equivalently roughly
on the same level to co star in a movie
like this, And it's wild that in the movie, Rosanna
Arquette is so brilliant, so funny playing this really bored, frustrated,
(15:12):
annoyed person in this really horrible marriage. And there's this
great scene where Madonna is invading her house and reading
her diary. She says, it's got to be a code,
because nobody's life could really be this boring.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, she's so like, she's so charming and fun and
like it's such like a perfect kind of I know
all of these like multi hyphen it things of Madonna,
Like she really is like able to capture so much
of that in this movie where she's essentially playing herself. Yes,
it is essentially playing this like heightened Madonna who's not
a pop star, who in this universe Madonna also still
(15:47):
exists because she puts on the jukebox and into the
groove plays.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yes, I you watch this scary New York from the eighties,
and it's really scary eighties New York. But it's wild
that there's this scene where Madonna's like, let's go to
the goth club and it's this totally improvised last minute scene.
They were like, wait a minute, we have this movie
coming out of comedy starring Madonna, and we don't have
a scene where she's actually in a club dancing. We
(16:11):
need to stick that in. And so, you know, those
were just the people who are hanging out in the club,
the goth guid doing the cobweb gathering dance. You know,
he alone is such a goth icon who inspired so
many goth kids over the years, just by being himself
dancing in the corner of this Madonna video and it
keeps cutting to him, and all the people on the
(16:32):
dance floor are stars in that scene. And Madonna's just
so brash, so brazen, even her dancing. Honestly, Like, who
goes into a public restroom in New York and does
not imagine what if I just turned on the hand
dryer and just dried my underarms in this public restroom.
What if people stare at me? Who cares? I'm Madonna,
(16:54):
I'm this cool. I can get away with this. Yeah,
at least once a year I walk into a restroom
and I think maybe this is the day I'll do it.
Who could be that fearless and brazen.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
We're all striving to recreate Madonna's New York God.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We all are. Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Well, when we get back, we will be joined by
Susi x Spasido to talk more Madonna. And we're back
with Susi x Spasito, a multi hyphenate of Madonna proportion.
She's a writer, editor, singer, DJ icon, legend, star.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Genius, queen of the universe, and huge hero to both
Brittany and me.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Oh my gosh, I really appreciate the fanfare, as you
both know, I'm huge fans of yours.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And we're very excited to talk about Madonna, who is
someone that we all have a lot of feelings and
opinions and favorite Madonnas. So, Susie, can you tell us
a little bit of your Madonna history, your personal history
with listening to Madonna.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Well, listen, it starts with my father.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
He is a very loud Cuban American man born in
Jersey City, New Jersey, and he happened to be.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
In New York City at the right place, at the
right time.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
He told me that he met Madonna in nineteen eighty
two at the Palladium.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Wow in Manhattan. Oh Yeah, because she used to hang out.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
I mean, she was part of the downtown scene, and
my dad was kind of a club kid.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
You know, he would go to punk shows, you go
to dance Aityria.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
He just has all these ridiculous stories. But my favorite
thing about his stories is he told me how much
Madonna absolutely loved Latino men. And I think, you know,
talking about Into the Groove, which was inspired by a Latino.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
I think it's very fitting that I'm on this podcast.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Clearly Madonna made a huge impression on my dad, on
my family.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You know, I grew up listening to her.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
My dad bought every single album of hers as it
came out, and so I yeah, she's left an indelible
mark on my psyche. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And with Into the Groove, you talked about the origin
of it, which I think it's I was reading about
the story and it's like such like a I love
a good, like horny like origin story for a song,
which is like she was like seeing her neighbor dance
across the hall or something, and she said she finished
the song by the time they went on their last date.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I mean, it's just like a perfect kind of Madonna
eighties story. Origin of like how she wrote this even
before it found its home and desperately seeking Susan and
like where it was meant to be. But I love
a very kind of like peak Madonna horny origin story
for a song.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, I just I love how I feel like desperately
Seeking Susan.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
I don't think it would have been the movie that
it was without her without that song.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I think that song really breathed life into it.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
And where does Into the Groove land for you? In
like your sort of Madonna rankings of her music.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's a forever classic. I feel like I don't know
I have.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
It's like I have moods, and Madonna has a song
for every mood that I'm in and when I'm tearing
it up at karaoke, like Into the Groove is definitely
one of my one of my favorite like karaoke picks,
either either I sing it or somebody else.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Does you know it's a little.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
High for me range wise, but yeah, it's like, you know,
it's the song that it was her biggest song. It
was the song she really made a splash with. I
think what's so wild to me is that she this
was like in nineteen eighty five, but she was. She
was like a downtown girl.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You know. She would kick it with the no Wave people.
That's how downtown she was, you know. So for her
to do a song like Into the Groove, I mean
she had range. Yeah. For me, I would definitely rank
it up high.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
But I also, you know, I love the artie Madonna
as well, the really moody, like you know, low range singer.
When she gets into like her goss, when she gets
into her little goth vibes, or like her moody trip
hop Nellie Hooper vibes, I feel.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Like those rank higher than probably the rest of the
general public for me. But Into the Groove you can't
go wrong.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you, as a goth
punk girl, how the gothness of the club scene in
Desperately Seeking Susan, which people saw because of the MTV
video and all the cobweb dancing in the video. Was
that a goth moment for you as a formative Madonna fan.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
I remember watching that movie with my dad and he's like,
look at this, look at this.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
I was there, I was in this club, you know,
and at that time I was like, yeah, yeah, Dad, whatever,
probably making stuff up, but no I came to I mean,
it was definitely embedded in my mind, like, Okay, I
want to do that one day, And sure enough I
moved to New York at seventeen and looked for the
same thing. The only problem is it was two thousand
(22:02):
and seven and it was very recession core and everyone
was wearing neon, so it was a little different.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Be the gos Madonna you want to see in the world, yes, exactly.
You mentioned about singing her in karaoke, and I think,
especially as our queen vocalist, like I want to talk
about Madonna's voice a little bit because I think there's
it's so fascinating, like how there was so much critique
of it and so much of like the idea, and
there was even periods where she talked about the fact
(22:31):
that she didn't think that she was the greatest singer.
But I actually, like, I love so much of her
vocal performance on this song in particular. But there is
she has that sort of kind of like higher register
songs that make them sometimes pretty difficult to try to
tackle karaoke. But there is that on the bridge where
she kind of goes lower and does that like kind
of deep throated, like very throaty, like kind of yes
(22:52):
song and I love I Love like a throatier Madonna song.
I want to know a little bit about your sort
of analysis of Madonna's singing and how do you kind
of see her as a vocalist in the pop canon.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I think she was a powerhouse in her own right.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I feel like one of the things that gave her
the cool that she needed to succeed is her being,
you know, like a downtown scene kid who had a
little edge, who could push the boundaries a bit, especially
like lyrically.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And I think both she and Janet what they did
in the eighties.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
When it came to really like being empowered and like
their sexuality and being like you know, encouraging of young
women to just talk about these things openly, to really
like be in tune with your body.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
They're both like incredible dancers.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And I feel like Madonna, you know, she didn't give
herself enough credit for being the singer she is. Like
like I said earlier, she really has She has a
huge range for a singer. This was kind of it
was her her time to really like show it off,
want it. It's like the eleventh hour. She had to,
she had to write this song and stats so she
(24:05):
could go on this day with this hot quarry can
guy across the hall and come back like I don't know,
she sings it like she wants it, you know, and
I resuspect that so much.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
There's so much urgency in her music. I feel like
the best Madonna songs have so much like like Borderline
is a big one for me. I think that's probably
that's probably like my my favorite of the of the
eighties era of Madonna and that song there's like so
much urgency in it, like and also just like this
like kind of like kind of I don't know, raw
anger almost and like it's like keep on pushing my
(24:42):
love over the borderline. Like it's just like but it's
also still such like euphour extol. I think like that's
why the Right of Light album and like a lot
of for he work with William Orbit works so well.
That's why you know, these kind of all these dance
records with her work so well, because there's like this
like real urgency that she's willing to give because sometimes
you just you gotta be urgent to get to the
dance floor, and you got to be urgent to win
over your hot neighbor you know well. Thank you so
(25:07):
much Susie for joining us today. Love talking Madonna, really
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Could not be more love talking about Madonna.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Listening to you to talk about Madonna is absolutely a
joy and education.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Thank you, Rob, Thank you Brittany. Always a fun time
with you. And yeah, until next time, Thanks.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
So much for listening to Rolling Stone's five hundred Greatest Songs.
This podcast is brought to you by Rolling Stone and iHeartMedia.
Written hosted by Me, Britney.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Spanos and Rob Sheffield.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Executive produced by Jason Fine, Alex Dale, and Christian Horde,
and produced by Jesse Cannon, with music supervision by Eric Zeiler.
Thanks for watching and thanks for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Brittany Spanos
Rob Sheffield
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