Rescue Me

"Rescue Me" was Madonna's second single (and one of two new recordings) from her 1990 retrospective Immaculate Collection. It lacked an accompanying music video, yet, as the follow-up to the immensely successful (and controversial) "Justify My Love," received so much airplay that the label released a single, albeit once the airplay had peaked. Therefore, for its time, it had an unusually high debut on the Hot 100, quickly peaked at number nine, then plummeted off the charts. That said, the single, which featured a seductive still from the infamous "Justify My Love" video as its cover art, was issued with five mixes. The first version, the "single mix," is an edit of the album version. The "Titanic Vocal" is an extended mix of the album version, while the "Houseboat Vocal" is more stripped down, utilizing different beats and instrumentation, and bringing a piano into the mix, as well as beginning with a clever sample from her 1986 song "True Blue." The final two mixes (the "Lifeboat" and "S.O.S." mixes) utilize more vicious beats, and the final comes closest to being a dub version, although all keep the vocals more or less intact. These mixes, many years after their original release, hold up surprisingly well, making this single a worthwhile consumer choice for fans and collectors alike, and they provide good examples of what house/pop dance music was like in the early '90s. ~ Jose F. Promis, Rovi