Dusting off this haunting, long-forgotten ballad by Madonna 36 years after its release

Madonna is currently wrapping up the European leg of her historic Celebration Tour. She has just a few more stops in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London before she’ll be hopping across the pond to New York City, where she’ll kick off the North American leg.

The tour is a celebration of the singer’s greatest hits, and the setlist includes songs from nearly every era of her storied, 40-year career. Except for one.

In 1987, between 1986’s “True Blue” and 1989’s “Like A Prayer” albums, Madonna released a soundtrack album to her film Who’s That Girl. The album included four new tracks by the world famous pop star and blossoming movie actress, plus a handful of others supplied by her lesser-known label mates.

On November 25, 1987–36 years ago today!–she released “The Look of Love” as the third and final single from the album, following “Who’s That Girl” and “Causing a Commotion”.

The haunting downtempo ballad was co-written by Madonna and her frequent collaborator Patrick Leonard, and was said to be inspired by James Stewart’s performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film Rear Window.

“Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide/From the look of love, from the eyes of pride/Nowhere to go, no place to run/From the look of love, now I’ve come undone,” she croons in the chorus.

Speaking to music journalist Fred Bronson, the singer said, “I can’t describe it, but that is the way I want someone to look at me when he loves me. It’s the most pure look of love and adoration. Like surrender. It’s devastating.”

Listen.

“The Look of Love” wasn’t released as a single in the United States. Upon its release overseas, however, it briefly charted in the U.K., peaking at #9 and spending seven weeks on Singles Chart. It charted in the top 40 in a handful of other European countries.

It was included on the setlist of Madonna’s Who’s That Girl World Tour in 1987. In a 1991 interview with ICON magazine, Madonna’s longtime backup singer Niki Haris said it was one of her favorites to perform:

My favorite song ever to perform with Madonna was a song called “The Look Of Love” from the Who’s That Girl Tour [Niki sings: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide…]. That is one of the greatest songs and Madonna sings it really great. That’s my favorite song of all time as far as singing with her.

Madonna hasn’t performed “The Look of Love” since then or revisited it in any way on any of her tours. Nor did she include it on her 1995 compilation album of ballads, Something To Remember, where it would have been a natural fit and likely would have found a larger audience in the U.S. (Something To Remember went on to sell over ten million copies.)

Nevertheless, it continues to hold a special place in the hearts of many of her most diehard fans. Including singer Darren Hayes.

In 2022, Hayes released an updated cover version of the song, included as a b-side for 12″ extended remix of “Let’s Try Being In Love”, the lead single from his album Homosexual.

Listen.

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