Cherish: The Story Behind Madonna’s Perennial Summer Hit

Synths, keyboards and even the obligatory 80s saxophone all build on the sugary track, which provides clear evidence of the importance of production to the best Madonna songs. The “Queen Of Pop” has an instinctive grasp of how to hit the crowd-pleasing marks, but the layered production hooks of a maestro such as Patrick Leonard create a package that’s often greater than the sum of its parts. The pair had an easy working partnership, and Leonard has revealed how fast things fell into place in the studio.

“I would put something together, usually just on piano, and then she would come in at about 11, we’d mess around with whatever needed to be messed around with, she’d write a lyric, she’d sing it, and the next day we would do another song, one a day,” he told Music Business Worldwide. “She didn’t sing the songs on Like A Prayer more than once, ever. There were no re-takes, there was the demo vocal and that was the record. It was absolutely extraordinary.”

Cherish was a global smash hit

Released on 1 August 1989, Cherish was the third single lifted from Like A Prayer, and it vaulted up the Billboard Hot 100, landing at No.2 while also topping the US adult contemporary listings (Madonna would become the top singles artist of that chart in 1989). In the UK, the song peaked at No.3, and it went Top 5 elsewhere in Europe and Australia. Although Cherish was cut to four minutes for single release, an extended mix was also issued, stretching the track to a little over six minutes.

In markets where physical sales still drove chart performance, the idea of issuing an unreleased song as the single’s B-side was a canny one – Supernatural had been recorded for Like A Prayer but was eventually left off the tracklist. The funky cut would later feature on the HIV and AIDS fundraising album Red Hot + Dance. Cherish also appeared as a collectable 12” picture disc in the UK and is one of Madonna’s rarer records.

A famous photographer directed the Cherish promo video

The late Herb Ritts had photographed the True Blue album cover and worked extensively with Madonna in the mid-80s. The “Queen Of Pop” persuaded him to put down his regular camera and try the moving image instead for Cherish, and Ritts’ black-and-white masterpiece, featuring the singer amid a shoal of mermen, led to more music-video commissions for, among other stars, Chris Isaak (Wicked Game) and Tina Turner (Way Of The World).

One of the best Madonna promo videos, the clip was filmed on a freezing-cold Paradise Cove Beach, in Malibu, California, in July 1989, but, despite the chilly conditions, there was a noticeable warmth between Madonna and one of the models. The star would go on to date merman Tony Ward, and he would appear in the following year’s controversial Justify My Love video.

Cherish has rarely been performed live

Although it endures longer than the “Queen Of Pop” may herself have imagined, Cherish has only been performed live by Madonna on one tour, appearing in the setlist for the legendary Blond Ambition Tour of 1990, in a sequence that recreated the mermen concept of the video. Despite remaining a firm fan favourite, there wasn’t a sign of it during her greatest-hits tour, Celebration, of 2023 to 2024, and there might be a reason for this.

“The songs that I think are the most retarded songs I’ve written, like Cherish… end up being the biggest hits,” Madonna once said. With as many hits as she has had, she is allowed to let the odd one slide.

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