Madalaine

Album: Winger (1988)
Charted: 41
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "I think it's one of our cooler songs," Kip Winger said in our interview. "It's still a chick song, but it's got a cool riff that Reb wrote and still rocks. But it's very cocky."

    When Kip says it's "a chick song," he means it's a song about a girl, one of his favorite subjects. In this case, Madalaine is a wild woman too tough to tame.
  • This was Winger's first single, and the leadoff track from their debut album. It has a very polished sound that was big in the late-80s and came to be known as "Hair Metal." Winger sounded so seasoned because they were: Kip had studied classical music and played in Alice Cooper's band along with Winger keyboard player Paul Taylor; drummer Rod Morgenstein came from the Dixie Dregs, and guitarist Reb Beach was an accomplished session musician. Even though the Winger album was their debut, it sounded like they had been making music for years, which they had individually.

    This song is a great showcase of their musicianship, which judged objectively is top-notch. Winger got a lot of stick when their sound went out of style, but it was more about their image and what they represented than about their chops.
  • Kip Winger wrote this song with guitarist Reb Beach. It was much slower when they wrote it, but their producer Beau Hill had the idea to speed it up, which they did.

    With the new, uptempo arrangement, the song came to life, and the record company deemed it the first single. A video was made, but MTV surprisingly ignored it (if the MTV gods were to mold a video star, it would look like Kip Winger), which kept the song buried in America. Their next single, "Seventeen," did get spins on MTV and became their first chart entry in America.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gary Lewis

Gary LewisSongwriter Interviews

Gary Lewis and the Playboys had seven Top 10 hits despite competition from The Beatles. Gary talks about the hits, his famous father, and getting drafted.

Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright IIISongwriter Interviews

"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.

Songs Discussed in Movies

Songs Discussed in MoviesSong Writing

Bridesmaids, Reservoir Dogs, Willy Wonka - just a few of the flicks where characters discuss specific songs, sometimes as a prelude to murder.

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

Maria Muldaur

Maria MuldaurSongwriter Interviews

The "Midnight At The Oasis" singer is an Old Time gal. She talks about her jug band beginnings and shares a Dylan story.