Album of the Day

Madonna's first album on her Maverick imprint, EROTICA, was released simultaneously with her companion book, SEX. Unfortunately, the explicit imagery in the coffee table tome took much of the attention away from the record – which in hindsight stands as one of the performer's most daring. A concept album about sex and love (in which Madonna adopts a “Mistress Dita” persona), the Maverick/Sire collection was also among the singer-songwriter's most personal, drawing from recent relationships and the loss of friends to AIDS. With Top 10 singles “Deeper and Deeper” and the title track (whose music video debuted on MTV on this day in 1992), EROTICA was a double-Platinum hit, and is an even more rewarding listen now that the surrounding controversies have faded.