Madalaine

Album: Winger (1988)
Charted: 41
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "I think it's one of our cooler songs," Kip Winger said in our interview. "It's still a chick song, but it's got a cool riff that Reb wrote and still rocks. But it's very cocky."

    When Kip says it's "a chick song," he means it's a song about a girl, one of his favorite subjects. In this case, Madalaine is a wild woman too tough to tame.
  • This was Winger's first single, and the leadoff track from their debut album. It has a very polished sound that was big in the late-80s and came to be known as "Hair Metal." Winger sounded so seasoned because they were: Kip had studied classical music and played in Alice Cooper's band along with Winger keyboard player Paul Taylor; drummer Rod Morgenstein came from the Dixie Dregs, and guitarist Reb Beach was an accomplished session musician. Even though the Winger album was their debut, it sounded like they had been making music for years, which they had individually.

    This song is a great showcase of their musicianship, which judged objectively is top-notch. Winger got a lot of stick when their sound went out of style, but it was more about their image and what they represented than about their chops.
  • Kip Winger wrote this song with guitarist Reb Beach. It was much slower when they wrote it, but their producer Beau Hill had the idea to speed it up, which they did.

    With the new, uptempo arrangement, the song came to life, and the record company deemed it the first single. A video was made, but MTV surprisingly ignored it (if the MTV gods were to mold a video star, it would look like Kip Winger), which kept the song buried in America. Their next single, "Seventeen," did get spins on MTV and became their first chart entry in America.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Al Kooper

Al KooperSongwriter Interviews

Kooper produced Lynyrd Skynyrd, played with Dylan and the Stones, and formed BS&T.

Oliver Leiber

Oliver LeiberSongwriter Interviews

Oliver Leiber talks about writing and producing hits for Paula Abdul, and explains his complicated relationship with his father, the songwriter Jerry Leiber.

Harry Shearer

Harry ShearerSongwriter Interviews

Harry is Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, Mark Shubb in The Folksmen, and Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Gene Simmons of Kiss

Gene Simmons of KissSongwriter Interviews

The Kiss rocker covers a lot of ground in this interview, including why there are no Kiss collaborations, and why the Rock Hall has "become a sham."

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell NdegeocelloSongwriter Interviews

Meshell Ndegeocello talks about recording "Wild Night" with John Mellencamp, and explains why she shied away from the spotlight.