GHV2

GHV2
File:Madonna GHV2.png
Greatest hits album by Madonna
Released	November 12, 2001
Recorded	1991–2000
Genre	Pop dance electronica
Length	68:26
Label	Maverick Warner Bros.
Producer	Madonna Shep Pettibone Dave "Jam" Hall Dallas Austin Nigel Wright Alan Parker Andrew Lloyd Webber David Caddick Nellee Hooper William Orbit Patrick Leonard Babyface Mirwais Ahmadzaï Guy Sigsworth Mark "Spike" Stent
Madonna chronology
Music (2000)Music2000 GHV2 (2001) American Life (2003)American Life2003

GHV2 (an abbreviation of Greatest Hits Volume 2) is the second greatest hits compilation album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 2001, by Maverick Records. It contains a collection of songs from 1992 to 2001, selected by Madonna who mentioned that she only wanted "songs that I could listen to five times in a row" included on it. As a result, the album includes several singles which were not big hits, like "Bedtime Story", "Human Nature", "What It Feels Like for a Girl" and "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", and omits other releases like "American Pie", "I'll Remember", "You'll See" and "This Used to Be My Playground". It was a follow-up to The Immaculate Collection (1990) and was released to coincide with the live home video, Drowned World Tour 2001. The album did not contain any new recordings, but a promotional single "GHV2 Megamix" was released to promote it with mixes by Thunderpuss, John Rocks & Mac Quayle and Tracy Young.

The album was originally titled Greatest Hits: The Second Coming but was changed prior to its release as Madonna wanted it to have a title which was memorable. The RIAA certified it Gold and Platinum on December 12, 2001, denoting one million shipments in the United States. Worldwide, the album has sold more than seven million units. A promotional only remix album, GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991–2001, was released to accompany it.

Background

The album was originally titled Greatest Hits: The Second Coming, but Madonna decided to change the name to GHV2 just before it was released as "it's a title you will remember" and also because of "laziness", due to the fact that she had just finished the Drowned World Tour and was about to begin filming Swept Away. Other titles considered were Hit Lady – Greatest Hits Volume 2 and The Immaculate Collection Part Deux. The compilation was released on the eleventh anniversary of The Immaculate Collection, featuring a selection of hits ranging from "Erotica" (1992) to "What It Feels Like for a Girl" (2001). Madonna felt that because it was a "greatest hits", it should only contain previously released hit songs.

In an interview with BBC's Jo Whiley, Madonna said about the selection of the GHV2 tracks, "I only wanted songs that I could listen to five times in a row." Like The Immaculate Collection, there were many other popular singles excluded. "American Pie", which was a big hit, was excluded as a "punishment", because Madonna regretted including it as an "International bonus track" on her album Music. "It was something a certain record company executive twisted my arm into doing, but it didn't belong on the album so now it's being punished," she said.

The cover picture is from a 2001 photo shoot for the Drowned World Tour, by Regan Cameron. The logo in the right corner says "Madonna", and "GHV2". The Japanese lettering (モヂジラミミヂ) is the result of typing the letters 'M-A-D-O-N-N-A' on an English keyboard but with the keys re-mapped to their positions on a Japanese 'kana' keyboard. It can be pronounced as "Mo-Ji-Ji-Ra-Mi-Mi-Ji" and does not mean anything in Japanese. The proper translation for Madonna is: マドンナ. "GHV2" can also be seen on the cover picture on Madonna's eye. Kevin Reagan contributed artwork to the inner sleeve. A special edition of GHV2, featuring the same track listing, but some additional artwork, was released in December 2001. Hidden in the inner sleeve album artwork of both editions of GHV2 is a quote from "Human Nature": "Express Yourself, Don't Repress Yourself."

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Robert Christgau	(B+)
PopMatters	(favorable)

The compilation received generally positive reviews. AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "During the '90s, Madonna was a true album artist, even as she was making singles as tremendous as "Take a Bow," "Deeper and Deeper," "Ray of Light," "Don't Tell Me," and the non-LP "Beautiful Stranger". Taken on their own, most of these are still pretty tremendous, but tossed together on GHV2, the end result is less than the sum of its parts, even if this is a good way to get all of Madge's '90s hits at once." Robert Christgau said that "she gleans goodies from the overrated Bedtime Stories and Ray of Light, mixes in the glorious soundtrack-only "Beautiful Stranger" and the dismal soundtrack-only "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," and hands it all over to Mirwais for sonic tweaking I'm not interested enough to pin down", while calling it as "an essential package." PopMatters said "Chronological sequencing would have made it easier to follow the course of Madonna’s musical evolution. But would these changes have made GHV2 a significantly better album? Probably not. As it stands, it’s the best summary of Madonna’s second decade as a performer we’re going to get—at least until a massive box set appears."

Promotion

Madonna made an appearance at the 2001 Turner Prize award ceremony and mentioned that she "had a new record out called GHV2". She gave the award to Martin Creed and gave a controversial speech and said, "At a time when political correctness is valued over honesty I would also like to say right on motherfuckers!" This was on live TV before the 9 p.m. "watershed", and an attempt to "bleep" it out was too late. Channel 4 were subsequently given an official rebuke by the Independent Television Commission.

In 2001, six and five track CD samplers were released to radio stations to promote the release of GHV2. The six-track radio samplers consisted of "Erotica", "Bedtime Story", "The Power of Good-Bye", "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", "Music" and "Don't Tell Me", while the five-track radio samplers had "Deeper and Deeper", "Human Nature", "Secret", "Frozen" and "Music".

GHV2 Megamix

In November 2001, Maverick released a promotional megamix to promote the album. It was never released commercially. The "Thunderpuss GHV2 Megamix" was the most common version used by radio stations and the version used in the music video. The songs featured (in chronological order) were: "Don't Tell Me", "Erotica", "Secret", "Frozen", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", "Take a Bow" (these included on the Thunderpuss Club Mix Part I), "Deeper and Deeper", "Music" and "Ray of Light" (these included on the Thunderpuss Club Mix Part II). Other remixes were produced by Johnny Rocks & Mac Quayle and Tracy Young.

The remix went to #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 2001 and charted under the title "Madonna Megamix". The original Thunderpuss version has some spoken words at the beginning of "Deeper and Deeper": this was a recorded message used on the early Internet to promote the album Bedtime Stories. The "Thunderpuss GHV2 Megamix" video is compiled of images of live performances and 23 Madonna videos. It was directed by Dago Gonzalez of Veneno Inc.

GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991–2001

In December 2001, Maverick Records also released a promotional album GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991-2001, featuring remixed versions of tracks from the greatest hits compilation GHV2. Like the promotional megamix single release, it was not made commercially available. This compilation contains a remix of every song from the album GHV2, except "Take a Bow", "Don't Cry for Me Argentina", and "The Power of Good-Bye". The album was released as a double CD and a triple 12" set. It contains songs remixed by Victor Calderone, Junior Vasquez, BT, Sasha, Timo Maas, and Hex Hector.

Shep Pettibone was given writing credits for "Secret" for the first time in the liner notes. The collection contained two previously unavailable remixes; the "Luscious Dub Mix" of "Bedtime Story", produced by Mark Picchiotti and Teri Bristol, previously appeared only on the "Bedtime Story: Chapter II" promotional 12" single that was released in 1995. The album also contains a previously unreleased remix of "What It Feels Like for a Girl" produced by Chris Staropoli.

The artwork for the collection contained a collage of small images of Madonna, also used in the liner notes for GHV2. The title includes the year 1991 but does not include any recording from that year, the first being the 1992 single "Erotica". The only releases in 1991 by Madonna were from the 1990 The Immaculate Collection greatest hits collection; "Rescue Me" (February 26, 1991), "Crazy for You (Remix)" (February 18, 1991, UK release) and "Holiday"/The Holiday Collection (June 4, 1991, UK release).

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Deeper and Deeper" (7" edit)	Madonna Ciccone Shep Pettibone Tony Shimkin	Madonna Pettibone	4:54
2.	"Erotica" (Radio edit)	Ciccone Pettibone	Madonna Pettibone	4:33
3.	"Human Nature" (Radio version)	Ciccone Dave "Jam" Hall Shawn McKenzie Kevin McKenzie Michael Deering	Madonna Hall	4:31
4.	"Secret" (Edited version)	Ciccone Dallas Austin	Madonna Austin	4:30
5.	"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (Radio edit)	Tim Rice Andrew Lloyd Webber	Nigel Wright Alan Parker Lloyd Webber David Caddick	4:50
6.	"Bedtime Story" (Edited version)	Nellee Hooper Björk Marius DeVries	Hooper Madonna	4:07
7.	"The Power of Good-Bye"	Ciccone Rick Nowels	Madonna William Orbit Patrick Leonard	4:11
8.	"Beautiful Stranger" (William Orbit radio edit)	Ciccone Orbit	Madonna Orbit	3:57
9.	"Frozen" (Edited version)	Ciccone Leonard	Madonna Orbit Leonard	5:09
10.	"Take a Bow" (Edited version)	Babyface Ciccone	Babyface Madonna	4:31
11.	"Ray of Light" (Radio edit)	Ciccone Orbit Clive Muldoon Dave Curtis Christine Leach	Madonna Orbit	4:35
12.	"Don't Tell Me"	Ciccone Mirwais Ahmadzaï Joe Henry	Madonna Ahmadzaï	4:40
13.	"What It Feels Like for a Girl"	Ciccone Guy Sigsworth	Madonna Sigsworth Mark "Spike" Stent	4:44
14.	"Drowned World/Substitute for Love"	Ciccone Orbit Rod McKuen Anita Kerr David Collins	Madonna Orbit	5:09
15.	"Music"	Ciccone Ahmadzaï	Madonna Ahmadzaï	3:45

Charts, sales and certifications

Charts

Chart (2001)	Peak position
Australian Albums Chart	3
Czech Republic Albums Chart	19
Danish Albums Chart	19
Dutch Albums Chart	13
Finnish Albums Chart	11
French Albums Chart	2
German Albums Chart	3
Hungarian Albums Chart	8
Japanese Albums Chart	14
Mexican Albums Chart	8
New Zealand Albums Chart	8
Norwegian Albums Chart	5
Polish Albums Chart	21
Spanish Albums Chart	3
Swedish Albums Chart	23
Swiss Albums Chart	3
UK Albums Chart	2
U.S. Billboard 200	7

Sales and certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Argentina (CAPIF)	Gold	20,000
Australia (ARIA)	Platinum	70,000
Brazil (ABPD)	Platinum	125,000
Canada (Music Canada)	Platinum	100,000
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)	Platinum	50,000
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)	Platinum	33,179
France (SNEP)	Platinum	300,000
Germany (BVMI)	Platinum	300,000
Japan (RIAJ)	Platinum	200,000
Mexico (AMPROFON)	Gold	75,000
Netherlands (NVPI)	Platinum	80,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	Gold	7,500
Poland (ZPAV)	Gold	50,000
Spain (PROMUSICAE)	2× Platinum	200,000
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)	Platinum	40,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	2× Platinum	600,000
United States (RIAA)	Platinum	1,475,000
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

External links

• GHV2 at MusicBrainz (list of releases)