This Day in 1985: LIKE A VIRGIN hits the 5 million mark

32 years ago today, Madonna’s LIKE A VIRGIN LP set a new record by becoming the first-ever album by a female artist to be certified for sales of 5 million copies.

When Madonna released her self-titled debut album in 1983, it didn’t take long for the masses to discover the magic in her music, with singles like “Everybody,” “Burning Up,” “Holiday,” “Lucky Star,” and “Borderline” all setting the charts on fire in some capacity or other. As such, she was primed and ready to take her career to the next level with her sophomore effort, LIKE A VIRGIN, and – as history reveals – that’s precisely what she did.

The title cut did wonders for LIKE A VIRGIN’s sales figures, of course, but the album contained plenty of other radio-friendly fodder that mainstream audiences lapped up even more enthusiastically than they did its predecessor. “Material Girl,” “Angel,” and “Dress You Up” were all huge hits, and while “Into the Groove” was a late addition to the proceedings, it was eventually added to the track listing and became a huge hit as well.

As a result of all of these hit singles, the sales for LIKE A VIRGIN continued to grow and grow, probably exceeding just about everyone’s expectations…with the possible exception of Madonna herself, of course. This is the album that helped define her career, and she put everything she had into it, so she probably watched LIKE A VIRGIN rack up record-breaking sales, smiled to herself, and said, “Everything is going exactly according to my plan…”