When Madonna entered the chart record books
Retro Top Ten: this week in 1985
Here's a chunk of chart history from 35 years ago this week, when Madonna became the first female artist to hold the top two positions in the UK chart simultaneously.
She was in fact only the fourth artist in history to do so, after The Beatles, John Lennon and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
'Into The Groove', co-written by Madonna and Stephen Bray for the film 'Desperately Seeking Susan', gave Madonna her first UK number one but was never released as a 7" single in the US.
Instead, it featured as the B side on the 12" version of 'Angel' in the US market, helping in no small way to propel that single into the top 5 in the Billboard Hot 100.
While 'Into The Groove' is often lauded as an eighties pop gem, and is the singer's top-selling song in the UK, Madonna is not a big fan and rarely sings it live. She has said that she feels 'dorky' while performing it and is surprised at its popularity, telling Rolling Stone in one interview she is 'not a good judge of what things are going to be huge or not.'
On the other hand, Madonna has said that 'Holiday' is one of her favourite hits and she regularly includes the party tune in her live setlist.
Though never a No. 1, it has the distinction of giving Madonna a top ten hit on three separate occasions in the UK.
By the time of its 1985 battle with 'Into The Groove' for the UK top spot, 'Holiday' was already two years old. It had originally appeared on Madonna's self-titled debut album in 1983, reaching 16 in the US and 6 in the UK.
The song was re-released in the UK in 1985 in support of 'Madonna - The First Album', a newly-packaged version of her debut album for non-US markets. It was released as a single in the UK for the third time in 1991 to promote the greatest hits compilation 'The Immaculate Collection', this time reaching number 5.
'Holiday' was written by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens of disco group Pure Energy and its success provided a real financial boost at a time when they were living in a boarding house.
In a 2015 interview, Hudson said that the song still generated money for them.
'Can you live off of one hit? Yes, you can if you get the right hit. It can last you a lifetime. We've been living proof of that.'
1 Into The Groove Madonna
2 Holiday Madonna
3 I Got You Babe UB40 featuring Chrissie Hynde
4 We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) Tina Turner
5 Money For Nothing Dire Straits
6 There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) Eurythmics
7 White Wedding Billy Idol
8 Drive The Cars
9 Running Up That Hill Kate Bush
10 Don Quixote Nik Kershaw