Who's That Girl | ||||
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Soundtrack album by Madonna / various artists | ||||
Released | July 21, 1987 | |||
Recorded | 1987 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:36 | |||
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Producer |
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Madonna chronology | ||||
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Singles from Who's That Girl | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
Robert Christgau | (C–) |
Entertainment Weekly | D |
New York | Mixed |
The New York Times | Positive |
Rolling Stone |
Who's That Girl: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the first soundtrack album by American singer and songwriter Madonna. It was released on July 21, 1987 by Sire Records to promote the film of the same name. It also contains songs by her label mates Scritti Politti, Duncan Faure, Club Nouveau, Coati Mundi and Michael Davidson. The soundtrack is credited as a Madonna album, despite her only performing four of the nine tracks on the album. After the commercial success of her film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Madonna wanted to act in another comedy film titled Slammer, about a woman named Nikki Finn who was falsely accused of homicide. However, due to the critical and commercial failure of her adventure film Shanghai Surprise (1986), Warner Bros. were initially reluctant to green light the project, but later agreed, after Madonna convinced them and also because they wanted to cash in on Madonna's success with soundtracks.
Madonna began working on the soundtrack in December 1986, and contacted Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, who had worked as producers on her third studio album True Blue (1986). She felt that an uptempo song and a downtempo song were needed for the album. Leonard composed the music for the uptempo song, with Madonna providing the melody and lyrics. The singer named the track "Who's That Girl" and, believing this to be a better title than Slammer, changed the name of the film to the same. Together, Madonna and Leonard also developed the downtempo ballad "The Look of Love". Two more songs were composed for the film with Bray, the first being the dance-y tune "Causing a Commotion", and the other being "Can't Stop", a track inspired by Sixties Motown and the group Martha and the Vandellas.