Oh Father: The Story Behind Madonna’s Most Revealing Ballad

Oh Father’s recording was simple and “real”

Much of Madonna’s work before Like A Prayer was expertly polished, but that changed on her fourth album. The song Promise To Try offers the record’s rawest moment, but Oh Father comes close.

Producer Patrick Leonard, who worked on eight of the album’s 11 tracks, added just strings, piano, violin and drums to Madonna’s vocal. On the album’s 25th anniversary, he told US trade bible Billboard: “My favourite thing that we ever recorded, ever – or wrote – is Oh Father. That to me is the best thing we ever did. So, it didn’t surprise me because we knew when we did it, that there was something about this that was, in a way, kind of the most ‘real’ thing.

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“[For] that song, the Record button was only pressed three times,” Leonard continued. “It was pressed to do the track, live, with her singing live. Then we did the orchestra. And then we did a double of her vocal when we were mixing. That’s it. So, it’s real. It’s something that I really wanted to do, and she was kind enough to say, ‘Let’s try this,’ and it was not easy.”

Recording the album was a fast process, and largely done in a similar style. Leonard says the entirety of Like A Prayer was written in less than two weeks!

Movie legend David Fincher directed Oh Father’s promo video

The promo clip for 1989’s Express Yourself had been the most expensive music video ever made at that stage, and its director, David Fincher, who would later helm Fight Club and The Social Network, was an early champion of Oh Father, allegedly badgering Madonna to release it as a single. The response? OK. But he had to direct its video.

The black-and-white clip, in which Madonna was also portrayed as a young girl, was shot in California, just as the single was receiving its 24 October release in the US. Fincher made the song’s themes more explicit, particularly the aspects of violence, although the “Queen Of Pop” has been clear that her work isn’t always to be taken literally. Nevertheless, MTV had reservations about some elements – including a scene where Madonna’s “mother” has her lips sewn shut – but the singer’s star power meant she was calling the shots. The channel continued to screen the video.

Oh Father spooked Madonna’s international record label

In an era when physical singles were sometimes unique to certain markets, most territories outside North America chose not to release Oh Father as a single. The UK, Germany and Australia all picked Dear Jessie instead – and that choice proved particularly sound in the UK, where the track made the highly competitive Christmas Top 5 (impressive stuff for a recent, best-selling album’s fourth single). France, however, went with the US label’s choice; Oh Father peaked at No.20 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Madonna has rarely performed Oh Father live

Oh Father has only made one setlist across Madonna’s multiple tours: it featured in a medley with 1986’s Live To Tell in a segment on the legendary Blond Ambition World Tour of 1990. That time, the pain referenced in the song’s lyrics was realigned with religious symbolism, further suggesting that, although the track offers a strong autobiographical narrative, it also functions as a creative metaphor for wider struggles and uncertainty.

Oh Father would receive a surprise revival in 1995

While not exactly a forgotten gem – its promo video featured on the VHS companion release to 1990’s The Immaculate Collection, if not the CD, cassette or vinyl versions of the album itself – Oh Father received a welcome boost in 1995, when it appeared on the ballads compilation Something To Remember. As a firm fan favourite among the best Madonna songs, its inclusion shocked no one.

What did surprise fans, however, was the decision of Madonna’s UK record label – and some other European markets – to finally pick Oh Father as a single, to help promote Something To Remember’s release. A CD (some including free postcards) and cassette single, plus decent radio support, powered the track to No.16 in the UK in January 1996.

Sia covered Oh Father in 2010

Australian music titan Sia released her fifth studio album in 2010, but had yet to break it really big. We Are Born was more upbeat than anything she had released before, and it became her biggest commercial success to date. Closing the collection is a gorgeous synth-ballad version of Oh Father, which followed a previous cover by British rock act My Vitriol.

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