| Love Don't Live Here
Anymore, originally released on Like
A Virgin and mysteriously resurrected
for Something to Remember in a
slightly remixed form, is a strange blot on
Madonna's history of single releases. The song
was promoted as a remix by Soulpower, a remixer
who had recently carried Brandy's
"Brokenhearted" to the top ten.
However, the single, released before a video had
surfaced, didn't even have enough strength to
debut on the Hot 100 -- instead it, it settled
for #1 on the Bubbling Under chart. Eventually it
picked up steam a little bit and made it as high
as #78 on the Hot 100 chart, but its sales and
airplay were so minimal that the track didn't
appear on any airplay or sales charts. Had the
song been released under the new, more
competitive Hot 100 formulation, it's doubtful
the song would have even made the bubbling under
chart, let alone the Hot 100. And while Nothing
Really Matters is Madonna's lowest
peaking single on the Hot 100 at #93, and had the
shortest chart span (just two weeks), it would
have definitely surpassed LDLHA if it had been
released under the old format. Had all the
airplay-only tracks on the chart been removed,
NRM would have hit at least #54. That's not even
taking into account the fact that its sales would
have carried more weight and its airplay would
have been higher due to the more pop-oriented
radio monitor. By all these factors, Love Don't
Live Here Anymore is easily Madonna's biggest
flop ever. Interestingly, the song did manage
to spend more time on the Hot 100 chart than
another Madonna single that missed the top 40, Bedtime
Story, which spent only 7 weeks on the
Hot 100. However, it did peak far higher at #42
and also appeared on both the airplay and sales
charts.
The single did have some success on the dance
charts as some promo-only remixes, although it
fell far flat of Madonna's 20+ #1 Club Play
tracks. Fans clamored for a release of the rather
good remixes, but not surprisingly, WB gave up on
the single and the mixes were never commercially
released anywhere.
In terms of the song itself, it appears that
Madonna had long considered the track a personal
favorite, and she made the decision to include
the song on Something to Remember, remix it, and
then eventually include its rather tedious video
on her upcoming video collection. The video,
directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino
(who also helmed Open Your Heart,
Justify My Love, and Human
Nature), featured one loooong slow shot
heading towards Madonna. Madonna fans generally
consider this video to be one of her worst,
although a small sector adamantly believes that
it is a masterpiece. Indeed, many Madonna fans
think everything about this single was a bad
idea.
TRIVIA: The shooting of the
video interrupted the filming of Evita,
and thus Madonna reportedly spent only two days
working on the video. Supposedly the video
sequence was shot through six times. However,
even with multiple takes Madonna couldn't avoid
making a mistake in the lip-synching, and as a
result the song was slightly re-edited to match
Madonna's lips.
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