Music
↓ Billy Steinberg
(left) and Tom Kelly
have written No. 1
hits for Whitney
Houston, Cyndi
Lauper, and Heart
“It was only when he started
to play the bass line up-tempo and
sing it falsetto that it started to
work,” says Steinberg, “and took on
the shape that everyone knows,
and it was great.” Says Kelly, “We
looked at each other, and it was
like, ‘Oh, this is a no-brainer. This
is a hit record.’ ”
You Make Me Bold
At the time, Kelly and Steinberg
were toying with the idea of cutting
an album of their own songs as
performing artists. They invited
an A&R executive from Warner
Bros. over to Kelly’s home studio
in North Hollywood to hear some
tunes—including “Alone,” which
eventually went to Heart—in hopes
of getting a contract. Since they
were going for a rock image for
themselves, they weren’t sure if
they should play “Like a Virgin”
for him. “He always loved our songs
but I don’t think he heard us, or
saw us, as artists,” says Kelly. “So
nothing really came out of him
offering us a record deal. But what
did happen, after we played songs
for maybe 45 minutes, at the last
minute, we decided to pull out ‘Like
a Virgin’ and say, ‘Well, here’s
something. It’s not for us, but what
do you think?’ His eyes lit up, and
he immediately said, ‘This would
be great for Madonna.’ And I said,
‘Who’s that?’ That’s how new she
was on the scene.”
Shiny and New
At that point the pair had written,
separately and together, for many
major artists, such as Pat Benatar
and Linda Ronstadt, but they
ultimately weren’t sure who would
be the one to cut “Like a Virgin.” Says
Indiana native Kelly, “I knew it
was a special title and it was also, in
’84, very controversial. We knew
we’d have a hard time finding
someone to sing it, which is kind of
laughable compared to today
because there’s so much vulgarity
on the radio.”
Cue the entrance of the red-hot
new dance pop artist from New York
by way of Michigan, who had
been burning up the charts with her
self-titled 1983 debut album thanks
to hits like “Borderline” and “Lucky
Star.” She and producer Nile Rodgers
knew a good thing when they heard
it. “It is identical [to our demo],” says
Steinberg of Madonna’s version
of the song. (Google it, he’s not kid-
ding.) “The only difference is it’s
her singing instead of Tom singing
it in his falsetto, but every little
nuance in his vocal, she copied, and
every aspect of the production, they
utilized in the final production.”
Feels So Good Inside
(the Radio)
One of the pair’s favorite memories
of the era was a day they happened
to be driving somewhere together.
“Billy and I are sitting in the car,
listening to it,” recalls Kelly, “and
what’s amazing is the DJ finished
playing it and he said some super-
lative comment about what a big
hit this was going to be, and he
played it again.” They were gob-
smacked. “It was being requested
so much that they just played it
twice in a row,” says Steinberg. “And
I thought, ‘Wow, that’s unusual.’ ”
Although Madonna’s hit version
somewhat transformed the sincer-
ity at the core of the song—and she
ended up being not terribly friendly
to the men who penned her first
No. 1—Steinberg and Kelly are
nothing but thrilled at the outcome
of their last-minute decision to play
the song for that A&R exec. “I
bought a house with my ‘Like a Virgin’
money,” says Kelly succinctly. “Lis-
ten, when you have an artist with
as much momentum as Madonna
had singing your song, and it goes
to number one, you have no com-
plaints whatsoever,” says Steinberg
with a laugh. “If you have any com-
plaints, you’re an idiot.”
TWO ALBUMS AGO, LADY
Antebellum was looking to soar.
Their 2014 LP, 747 , took airborne
imagery—and pop inspiration—to
new, well, heights. Five years,
another record, a few babies, and
several solo projects later, Dave
Haywood, Charles Kelley, and Hil-
lary Scott have come back to sea
level with Ocean. Instead of heavy
synthesizers and Motown rhythms,
Ocean is shaped around the band’s
harmonies, more keyed-in and
lush than ever, with pops of banjo
and a hefty dose of piano. The
album is at its best when the trio’s
voices lead the way: On the title
track, Scott evokes the rawness of
Kacey Musgraves’ “Rainbow,” sing-
ing alongside little more than
a piano riff. “Be Patient With My
Love,” another highlight, lets the
Bryan Adams edge of Kelley’s
vocals skip to the forefront. And the
classic rock harmonies on “The
Thing That Wrecks You,” featuring
Little Big Town, sound effortless.
There’s some fun on Ocean, too.
The swampy “You Can Do You” is a
politically neutral yet slightly woke
party song (“We’re all living in
the land of the free, so you can do
you, and I’ma do me”), but the
album is strongest when it’s intro-
spective, more about tissues than red
Solo cups. Unapologetic drama
has always been Lady Antebellum’s
strong suit, anyway. B+
Lady Antebellum
ALBUM Ocean
L A B E L
+ GENRE Big Machine Country
REVIEW BY Marissa R. Moss
@MarissaRMoss
EW ● COM NOVEMBER 2019 113
MADONNA: RICHARD CORKERY/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; STEINBERG AND KELLY: GARY GERSHOFF/GETTY IMAGES FOR SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME
