Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Madonna, "Like A Virgin"

31 years ago today, Madonna ascended to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the very first time. Spoiler alert: she's had a few more since then.

After earning two top-10 hits from her self-titled debut album ("Lucky Star" and "Borderline"), Madonna had already become a ubiquitous presence on MTV, but little did anyone know just how much more exposure she was poised to receive from the network…and, no, that wasn't intended as a double entendre, but it's not a bad one, now that you mention it.

Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and produced by Nile Rodgers, "Like a Virgin" almost never made it into Madonna's hands, as Rodgers originally believed that it wasn't catchy enough, but when he subsequently found the hook stuck in his head, he did a 180 and gave the go-ahead. Beyond the radio-friendliness of the song, the video was instantly memorable as well, featuring Madonna riding down a Venetian canal in a gondola, sporting a look and delivering moves which would turn iconic overnight. Plus, there's a lion there somewhere, too. Mostly, though, people were captivated by Madonna moving, grooving, and writhing while singing the lines, "Like a virgin / Touched for the very first time." And, really, how can you not be captivated by that?

"Like a Virgin" has regularly found its way into lists of the greatest pop songs of all time, generally in the upper reaches, and it continues to pop up in Madonna's live sets on a regular basis, but let's be honest: we all knew it was destined to be an all-time classic as soon as "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded his parody.