“Madonna’s first video, for her superb, drivingly lascivious disco hit “Burning Up”, did not make much of an impression. The platinum blonde girl kneeling and emoting in the middle of a midnight highway just seemed to be a band member’s floozie. In retrospect, the video, with its rapid, cryptic surrealism, prefigures Madonna’s signature themes and contains moments of eerie erotic poetry.”

/ From “Madonna II: Venus of the Radio Waves” by Camille Paglia, The Independent Sunday Review, 1991 /

“Don't put me off 'cause I'm on fire / And I can't quench my desire …”

/ From the lyrics to “Burning Up” by Madonna /

Released on this day (9 March 1983): double-sided single “Physical Attraction” / “Burning Up” by a hungry young up-and-coming pop starlet called Madonna. Of the two songs, I infinitely prefer the urgent, punky siren call of “Burning Up.” Like all her best tunes, the lyrics cast Madonna as the romantic aggressor / pursuer, wailing sentiments like “You're always closing your door / Well, that only makes me want you more” and – even better! - “Unlike the others, I'd do anything / I'm not the same, I have no shame / I'm on fire!” The haunting video directed by Steve Barron – with cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof Madonna writhing, flailing and thrashing around in a sexual frenzy on an abandoned stretch of road – cemented her provocative bad girl persona. (Fun fact: the guy in the video (Ken Compton) was Madonna’s then-boyfriend). Note that there are multiple mixes of “Burning Up” circulating. The only version you need is the one with biting nasty New Wave guitar. Portrait of Madonna by Gary Heery, 1983.

B-52's by Gary Heery, 1981. x

Madonna by Gary Heery for the album Madonna, 1982.

Madonna, 1983

Foto: Gary Heery

Madonna par Gary Heery, 1983

¡La incombustible Madonna y el paso del tiempo!

​PORTFOLIO: GARY HEERY

Nacido en Sidney, Australia, Gary Heery estudió sociología y psicología en la Universidad de New South Wales. En 1974 se muda a Estados Unidos donde co-funda «India-America» una revista que relataba las crónicas de la sociedad y cultura Nativa Americana en Tulsa, Oklahoma. En 1976, se muda a Los Angeles donde realiza fotografías para portadas de discos para artistas como Roy Orbison, Frank Zappa, Ray Charles, B.B. King y Joe Cocker. También realizó retratos de estrellas de la música y el cine para revistas como Life, Squire, Rolling Stone e Interview. En 1981, Heery se muda a New York; allí abre su propio estudio en Soho y comienza a realizar tapas de disco para artistas como Madonna o Paul Simons y como así también, campañas publicitarias para Swatch, Karl Lagerfeld y Sony.

Gary Heery

Cate Blanchett by Gary Heery

Photography by Gary Heery

Madonna by Gary Heery (1983)

hyun ji shin by gary heery for oyster #106

Cyndi Lauper by Gary Heery, 1983

You must be my lucky star

'Cause you shine one me wherever you are

Madonna - Madonna (Warner Bros.-Sire, 1983) - Art direction by Carin Goldberg, photograph by Gary Heery

I'm finally doing a full-on pop cover for once, and who better to start than the Queen of Pop herself?

This wasn't the first idea for the cover. Edo Bertoglio photographed an earlier shot (I can't find that one), but Madonna vetoed it thinking it wouldn't draw much attention.

Image courtesy of Discogs.