"Live to Tell" is the first single by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her third studio album, True Blue, and it was released on March 26, 1986 by Sire Records. It is the title song to the 1986 motion picture At Close Range and also appears remixed on the 1990 compilation album The Immaculate Collection and in its original form on the 1995 ballads compilation Something to Remember. The song appears in a live version on the 1995 US Maxi-single "You'll See" recorded from the 1987 Who's That Girl Tour which is also taken from the 1988 video release Ciao, Italia! - Live from Italy. A live edited version later appeared on the 1995 UK single "Oh Father" re-release.

Song information

Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, this was also the fourth Madonna single within two years which was affiliated with a motion picture soundtrack, and the first commercially available collaboration with Leonard, who would go on to become one of Madonna's most consistent and critically acclaimed collaborators.

"Live to Tell" was the title song of the film At Close Range, starring Madonna's then-husband Sean Penn. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of June 7, 1986, and reached number two on the UK singles chart (being blocked by Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus"). The song also became Madonna's first #1 hit on the US adult contemporary chart, where it stayed at the top for three weeks. There was no soundtrack for the film At Close Range - it was included only on Madonna's 1986 studio album and then later on Madonna's compilations The Immaculate Collection and Something to Remember.

In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna singles of all-time by Q-Magazine. "Live to Tell" was allocated the #7 spot.

In 2006, Madonna was the subject of controversy, as she performed "Live to Tell" on her Confessions Tour hanging on a giant mirrored cross while wearing a crown of thorns. The performance was intended to detail the AIDS Pandemic in Africa, the number 12,000,000 which flashed above her during the performance, corresponds to the estimated number of African children who have been orphaned by the disease; furthermore, throughout the song, images of black (presumably African) children appeared on the stage's backdrop screens.

The song has also recently been said to have been sung from Jesus' point of view, hence the performance on The Confessions Tour.

Music video

Directed by James Foley who also directed At Close Range, the music video featured a new incarnation of Madonna for 1986: flowing blonde locks, wearing a demure dress and minimal lighting and it was the first in a series of substantial image changes which MTV dubbed as "a trademark of her career". Intercut footage from the movie and Madonna on a chair in a darkened space powerfully suggested the song's underlying themes of secrets, expositions and ultimate triumph, as the singer eventually finds herself able to get away from the confines of the chair and able to stand in a single light in the dark.

The video world-premiered on MTV in the US on March 27, 1986. To date, it has never been commercially released, except on the promotional-only video compilations It's That Girl and She's Breathless.

• Director: James Foley
• Producers: David Naylor, Sharon Oreck
• Production Company: O Pictures

Officially released versions by Madonna

1. "Live to Tell" 05:50 (Album Version)
2. "Live to Tell" 04:37 (Edit)
3. "Live to Tell" 05:49 (Instrumental)
4. "Live to Tell" 05:15 (QSound Version from The Immaculate Collection)
5. "Live to Tell" 18:59 (At Close Range Extended Demo Version)

Cover versions

• Bill Frisell explored the harmonic potential of the song in his 1992 album, Have a Little Faith.
• Blonde Ambition released a dance single of the song featuring 4 different Hi-NRG remix versions in 1998.
• Back2Bass released a Hi-NRG/Happy hardore remix in 1996 entitled 'The Beating of My Heart (Live to Tell).
• Lucrezia Italian singer covered the song in 2001.
• Tori Amos has performed the song several times in concert.
• Terri Nunn of American new wave band Berlin recorded a cover version of the song for the Madonna tribute album Virgin Voices: Vol. 1.
• Far did a cover of this song on their 7" release "Far Does Madonna".
• A cover of the song by Rever Sound was included on the compilation Chill Out 80s.
• A cover of the song by Winter Flowers was included on the 2007 Madonna tribute album Through the Wilderness.
• Canadian jazz artist, Carol Welsman, covered the song on her eponymous 2007 album.
• Melissa Totten performed a Hi-NRG dance cover for her 2008 album, Forever Madonna.

Legacy

The popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, which is known for naming each episode after an 80s hit song, named an episode after this song.

Charts

Chart	Peak Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales	2
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	1
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	1
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	7
Canadian RPM Singles Chart	1
Chilean Singles Chart	1
French SNEP Singles Chart	6
German Singles Chart	12
Irish Singles Chart	2
Israeli Singles Chart	3
Italian FIMI Singles Chart	1
Japanese Oricon Weekly Singles Chart	41
Japanese Oricon International Weekly Singles	1
Dutch Top 40	3
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	6
South African Singles Chart	3
UK Singles Chart	2

References

• The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition, 1996

Footnotes

• Mad-Eyes.net - "Live To Tell" Single Page