That gift was there on her 1983 debut, which combined proven post-disco club tracks like “Everybody” and “Burning Up” with breakthrough pop hits “Borderline” and “Lucky Star.” The knockout remains “Holiday,” the first production by DJ, remixer, and then boyfriend John “Jelly... 

 Her debut has aged better than its smash successor of the next year, Like a Virgin, which combines two career-making monsters, “Material Girl” and the equally tongue-in-cheek title track, with catchy but less substantial follow-ups, producer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist extraordinaire Nile Rod... 

 True Blue magnified her button-pushing ability with a controversial 1986 smash about pregnancy, “Papa Don’t Preach,” and proved her range, from the dark ballad “Live to Tell” to the Latin kitsch of “La Isla Bonita.”  

 The Who’s That Girl soundtrack is a mixed bag of four Madonna cuts not found on other albums combined with five forgettable flops from Club Nouveau and other bygone 1980s rhythm-pop acts. 

 You Can Dance lengthens previously released singles and album cuts while adding the clubby exclusive “Spotlight,” but none of the remixes match the originals’ simple urgency.  

 After these 1987 trifles, 1989’s Like a Prayer effectively upped Madonna’s ante as a serious artist with the one-two punch of the righteous gospel-inflected title track and the quintessential Madonna manifesto “Express Yourself,” as well as a supporting cast of substantial songs that cove... 

 Created to coincide with Madonna’s credible acting job in Dick Tracy, 1990’s I’m Breathless fails to turn the pop singer into a convincing Broadway belter: She tries too hard and sounds literally out of breath on tracks cowritten with longtime collaborator Patrick Leonard or penned for her ... 

 The standard bearer for Madonna compilations is still The Immaculate Collection, one of the greatest greatest hits albums of all time. It sums up the first stage of Madonna’s career flawlessly while including stray essential singles like “Into the Groove” and “Crazy for You,” and worthy... 

 Created with remix kingpin Shep Pettibone to coincide with her button-pushing book, Sex, 1992’s Erotica represents Madonna’s fullest immersion in gay culture and sounds, and is also her darkest, least tune-driven album. Not coincidentally, a media backlash intensified.  

 The ever-resilient star responded with 1994’s bruised but far more mainstream Bedtime Stories, a low-key, R&B-derived confessional defined by its Dallas Austin- and Babyface-assisted smashes, “Secret” and “Take a Bow,” respectively.  

 First she emphasized her crooning powers with 1995’s ballad retrospective Something to Remember (key track: the haunted A League of Their Own soundtrack hit “This Used to Be My Playground”), then reaped the benefits of voice lessons with her ’96 Evita soundtrack. 

 First she emphasized her crooning powers with 1995’s ballad retrospective Something to Remember (key track: the haunted A League of Their Own soundtrack hit “This Used to Be My Playground”), then reaped the benefits of voice lessons with her ’96 Evita soundtrack. Although she’d dramatic... 

 The elocution lessons learned during Evita give her a My Fair Lady–esque English accent, but Ray of Light achieves another breakthrough; it’s akin to Like a Prayer in the way it documents the singer’s journey to the center of her soul. Pop song doctor Rick Nowles balances producer William O... 

 With 2000’s Music, Madonna lightened up, harking back to the early-Eighties street disco of her debut with the help of her most offbeat collaborator, obscure French synth-popper Mirwais Ahmadzai. The album lacks its predecessor’s introspective intensity but offers wise feminist observation (�... 

 After back-to-back successes, 2003’s American Life disappointed, a rare instance of lesser more-of-the-same from this extraordinarily disciplined trend forerunner. Many missed the joke of the title track’s goofy rap about lattés and feeling “super-dooper” in her Mini Cooper, but the scen... 

 Remixed & Revisited improves upon American Life’s standout single, “Love Profusion,” but the rest botches an opportunity to revive interest in its parent album. 

 2005's energized, dance-oriented Confessions On a Dance Floor proved that Madonna could still rock a club. Thanks to assistance from producer Stuart Price, the tracks were dense, buzzy and almost exclusively frenetic - "Forbidden Love" sounded like 21st-century version of Kraftwerk, and firs... 

 Madonna brought on the Neptunes and the team of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake for 2008's solid Hard Candy, an urban-disco album of all-uptempo tracks that celebrated dance (the shimmering "Heartbeat" and Seventies' groovy "Dance 2night") and explored the difficulties of long relations... 

 But 2009 brought the double-disc Celebration, a relentless non-chronological romp through Madonna's catalog that emphasizes her post-1998 work and adds two new tracks: a middling team-up with Lil Wayne called "Revolver" and the title track, a buzzing dance-floor blast produced by Paul Oakenf... 

 The songs with Pharrell Williams proved to be the album's most intriguing, and while the disc didn't connect with record buyers, it provided the backbone for Madonna's most successful tour ever, Sticky & Sweet, which like its predecessor featured stirring remixes, like a fresh mash...