Editing Like a Virgin (album) (section)

== Composition ==
[[Alexis Petridis]] from ''[[The Guardian]]'' described ''Like a Virgin'' as a "cocktail of [[post-disco]] [[dance music|dance]] music, with a dash of [[hip-hop]] and a surprisingly large shot of choppy, angular [[new wave music|new wave rock]]".<ref name="GuardianRanked" /> Nicole Horning, author of ''Pop Music: Chart-Toppers Throughout History'', categorized it as a [[dance-pop]] album in a style of new wave, which melded [[disco]], rock, [[1960s in music|sixties]] pop, and synthesizer, or synth-based, electronic music.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horning |first=Nicole |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRaDDwAAQBAJ&dq=Madonna+like+a+virgin+dance-pop&pg=PA60 |title=Pop Music: Chart-Toppers Throughout History |date=2018-12-15 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC |isbn=978-1-5345-6541-8 |language=en}}</ref> Noted as an "80s [[teen-pop]]" take on [[Marilyn Monroe]]'s "[[Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend]]", opener "[[Material Girl]]" is a [[synth-pop]] song with [[disco]] and new wave elements.<ref name="HoldenNYT" /><ref name=singlesEW>{{cite magazine |last1=Arnold |first1=Chuck |title=Madonna's 60 best singles, ranked |url=https://ew.com/music/2018/08/15/madonnas-60-best-singles-ranked/ |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=April 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815230537/https://ew.com/music/2018/08/15/madonnas-60-best-singles-ranked/ |archive-date=August 15, 2018 |date=August 15, 2018}}</ref><ref name="AVRankingThomas">{{cite web |last1=Erlewine |first1=Stephen Thomas |author1-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |title=40 years of Madonna: The Queen of Pop's greatest songs, ranked - 31. Dress You Up |url=https://www.avclub.com/essential-madonna-40th-anniversary-best-songs-ranked-1850672035 |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |access-date=April 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726122828/https://www.avclub.com/essential-madonna-40th-anniversary-best-songs-ranked-1850672035 |archive-date=July 26, 2023 |date=July 26, 2023}}</ref> A [[tongue-in-cheek]] [[satire]] on the superficiality and materialism of the 1980s, Madonna sings in a shrill voice about how she won't accept men who cannot provide her with wealth and luxuries, because ''we are living in a material world''.<ref name="ClassicPopMakingof" /><ref name="rikky15" /><ref name="claude1">{{harvnb|Guilbert|2002|p=43}}</ref> Throughout the song, a robotic male voice repeats the hook ''living in a material world''.<ref name="rikky15" /> The second track, "[[Angel (Madonna song)|Angel]]", begins with the sound of twinkling synths and giggles.<ref name="LAVRankedTracks" />  It is an "ode to heavenly love" with a new wave overtone, built on an ascending [[hook (music)|hook]] consisting of a [[three-chord song|three chord]] sequence, which serves for the [[song structure (popular music)#Verse|verse]] and [[refrain]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Madonna's 50 greatest songs: 18. 'Angel' (from ''Like a Virgin'', 1984) |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/madonnas-50-greatest-songs-126823/angel-from-like-a-virgin-1984-99267/ |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=April 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222082329/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/madonnas-50-greatest-songs-126823/angel-from-like-a-virgin-1984-99267/ |archive-date=December 22, 2018 |date=July 27, 2016}}</ref><ref name="rikky15" /> One of the lyrics is taken from [[Public Image Ltd]]'s "[[Death Disco]]" (1979), while Rodgers provides [[pizzicato]] guitars.<ref name="StylusLAV">{{cite web |last1=Soto |first1=Alfred |title=Madonna - ''Like a Virgin'' / ''The Immaculate Colection'' |url=http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/diamond/madonna-like-a-virgin-the-immaculate-collection.htm |website=[[Stylus Magazine]] |access-date=April 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026010317/http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/diamond/madonna-like-a-virgin-the-immaculate-collection.htm |archive-date=October 26, 2007 |date=August 23, 2007}}</ref>

The title track, "Like a Virgin", is a "mildly titillating" [[dance-rock]] song, in which the singer talks about how true love can make a girl feel ''shiny and new''.<ref name="HoldenNYT" /> The [[bass-line]] on the [[introduction (music)|introduction]] is a reworking of [[the Four Tops]]' "[[I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)]]" (1965).<ref name="rikky15" /> Madonna sings in a "little girl lost" voice the opening line ''I made it through the wilderness/Somehow, I made it through/Didn't know how lost I was until I found you''.<ref name="StereogumLAV">{{cite web |last1=Breihan |first1=Tom |title=The Number Ones: Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' |url=https://www.stereogum.com/2098072/the-number-ones-madonnas-like-a-virgin/columns/the-number-ones/ |work=[[Stereogum]] |access-date=April 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217001315/https://www.stereogum.com/2098072/the-number-ones-madonnas-like-a-virgin/columns/the-number-ones/ |archive-date=December 17, 2020 |date=September 16, 2020}}</ref> The drums, played by Tony Thompson, give the track "far more whallop than a [[drum machine]] ever could", according to Rikky Rooksby, author of ''The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna''.<ref name="rikky15" /> The lyrics to the fourth track, "Over and Over", talk about determination and picking oneself up from disappointments;<ref name="rikky15" /> ''I get up again, over and over'', Madonna sings in the refrain.<ref name="LAVRankedTracks" /> Instrumentation and production are sparse, featuring only a "silky" guitar.<ref name="rikky15" />

{{listen
 | filename     = Madonna-dress you up.ogg
 | title        = "Dress You Up"
 | description  = The last track to be added to the album, the [[refrain]] to "Dress You Up" has Madonna singing the phrase ''Gonna dress you up in my love/all over/all over''.
 | format       = [[Ogg]]
}}

"Love Don't Live Here Anymore" is the only ballad on the album, as well as the most [[soul music|soulful]].<ref name="LAVRankedTracks" /> The song echoes back to [[Philadelphia soul]], and features acoustic guitar and synth strings on the first half.<ref name="HoldenNYT" /><ref name="rikky15" /> Lyrically, it is about a woman being abandoned and "emptied of love".<ref name="tawa">{{harvnb|Tawa|2005|p=281}}</ref> Madonna sings in a "tearful, angsty" tone as the track "builds and the strings undulate, belting that last ''anymore'' until she's literally panting for breath".<ref name="Slantrank" /> Included only on the 1985 international re-issue of ''Like a Virgin'', Madonna's voice in "[[Into the Groove]]" is [[Double tracking|doubletracked]].<ref name="rikky2"/> The track has a "bumping" synth-bass line, while the lyrics celebrate "dancefloor escapism", and juxtapose music, dance, sex and love.<ref name=singlesEW /><ref name="DigITG" /><ref>{{cite magazine |title=The 100 greatest Madonna songs: Critics' picks |url=https://www.billboard.com/media/lists/100-greatest-madonna-songs-list-8469835/ |magazine=Billboard |access-date=April 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119200810/https://www.billboard.com/media/lists/100-greatest-madonna-songs-list-8469835/ |archive-date=November 19, 2021 |date=August 15, 2018}}</ref> "Dress You Up" is a "drum machine-driven" dance song with a [[nu-disco]] beat, consisting of a two-chord verse.<ref name="AVRankingThomas" /><ref name="rikky2">{{harvnb|Rooksby|2004|pp=19–20}}</ref> It features a guitar solo on its [[bridge (music)|bridge]], while Madonna sings about clothes she would like to drape over her lover, so that she can cover him with "velvet kisses", and caress his body with her hands.<ref name="AVRankingThomas" /><ref name="rikky2"/>

The seventh track, "Shoo-Bee-Doo", begins as a stripped-down piano ballad, before turning into a "deceptively bouncy ditty".<ref name="LAVRankedTracks" /> The song reminiscences [[doo-wop]] and [[girl groups]] like [[the Shirelles]] and [[the Ronettes]], while the lyrics deal with relationship problems, and Madonna trying to get through to her confused lover.<ref name="rikky2"/><ref name="LAVRankedTracks" /> Starting with the refrain followed by an opening verse, the eighth track "Pretender" is a synth-pop song about seduction and the insecurity felt by Madonna as she "[lets] things happen too fast" with a man who "isn't what he seems".<ref name="rikky2"/><ref name="LAVRankedTracks" /> ''Like a Virgin'' closes with "Stay", a song that features a fast triple rhythm with synths.<ref name="rikky2"/> The hook consists of the phrase ''stay, darling'' being repeated over and over.<ref name="LAVRankedTracks" /> Also present is the noise of someone slapping a microphone and a spoken sequence towards the end.<ref name="rikky2"/>