Keep It Together

"Keep It Together" was the fifth single released in the U.S. from Madonna's critically acclaimed 1989 album Like a Prayer, and the first to be released as a domestic CD maxi-single. Most of her other previous hit singles have been issued as CD maxi-singles since then, but this one was released at the time of its popularity, which was also the time of the CD single's infancy. This, in turn, helped usher in a whole new market for CD singles, a market of which Madonna has always been at the top of the game, releasing her songs as singles with remixes galore. The official radio mix of "Keep It Together" is the first mix on the single. The original recording was stripped of its funky, organic instrumentation and replaced with an R&B/house backbeat, similar in style to that of Soul II Soul's "Keep on Moving" and Lisa Stansfield's "All Around the World." The result is a cool, sophisticated dance song, which helped propel the single into the Top Ten. The other mixes on the single aren't drastically different from the radio mix, only extended, and version four is a little more percussion heavy. The final mix is an instrumental. The single mix, however, is the one that has become the definitive mix of this song, which is one of the singer's best and funkiest tunes, and a prime example of late-'80s/early-'90s dance/house/R&B music. ~ Jose F. Promis, Rovi