Madonna and "Like A Virgin," the single from her album of the same name, topped the charts for the first time on February 9, 1985. The song has inspired many covers that have been essentially exact reprints of the original, but it's also inspired many distinct reboots as well that Madonna may nit have seen coming. We've collected five of the latter for your consideration.
"Like A Virgin" by The Lords of The New Church (1985)
The Lords of The New Church was one of the more unlikely acts to take a stab at what would become one of Madonna's biggest hits. The pop star, albeit controversial, was ultimately just that: a pop star. Lords was comprised of members of The Dead Boys, the Damned and The Barracudas...in other words, punk and goth rockers with no interest in the Top 40. The band would cover "Like A Virgin" almost as soon as it came out, changing Madonna's innocent approach (the lyrics, albeit undoubtedly sexual, were relatively tame in nature) were made much more overt by Stiv Bators' grunts and whines, while guitarist Brian James dirtied up the instrumentals with some distorted guitar soloing. The song stayed loyal to its roots however, with the primary keyboard line staying constant throughout.
"Like A Surgeon" by Weird Al Yankovic (1985)
Weird Al realizes that his shtick only works if he stays up with the times so he also released his version of "Like A Virgin"-the play-on-rhymes "Like A Surgeon." Although the idea is obvious, Yankovic works in some more layered humor, noting at a point that he's more bothered by the fact that his patients are dying before they can pay than the fact that they;re dying at all. This single is also notable for being the only parody idea in Yankovic's catalogue (reportedly) that he borrowed directly from from another. Madonna joked to a friend about "how long it would be" before Yankovic made a song titled "Like A Surgeon" since the name was so obvious. He obliged (presumably because "Like A Sturgeon" would be a tougher adaptation).
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Moulin Rouge! was a colorful mess of modern music thrown in the Bohemian Movement of turn-of-the-20th-Century Paris, so why not include some Madonna as well? Alas the single wasn't used during a love scene between Nicole Kidman's Satine and Ewan McGregor's Christian, but rather as a foil used by Jim Broadbent's Harold Zidler to fool the Duke of Monroth into believing that she's gone to confession, instead of being ill with tuberculosis. So instead you've got two moderately old dudes singing the song to each other, which makes it a rather interesting interpretation.
Glee (2010)
Glee has never been afraid to push the limit, and neither is Madonna, hence the naturally sexy nature of "Like A Virgin." The Fox musical show went for broke during "The Power of Madonna" episode however, staging the presentation of the track as not only one love scene, but three. Jesse and Rachel (Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele), Finn and Santana (Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera), and Will and Emma (Matthew Morrison and Jayma Mays) all shack up simultaneously in a quickly cutting back-and-forth two-minute performance of the track.
"Like A Virgin" by Cristina Scuccia (2014)
Many have used Christian imagery in their work as a tool to further stoke controversy. Madonna had already pushed buttons with the religion-is-sex themes of "Like A Prayer" so she upped the ante by including burning crosses in the music video. Cristina Scuccia wasn't playing games with the nun outfit in the music video version of her "Like A Virgin" however: She really was an Ursuline nun. She appeared on The Voice of Italy television competition, blew the world away with her legitimate vocal chops and commitment to the habit, and upon winning chose "Like A Virgin" as he first single. That's odd because despite it's title, the point of the song implies that the vocalist is no longer a virgin. Which, theoretically, Scuccia totally is. It's not our business but...just seems odd is all. Her second single was "Blessed Be Your Name" for what it's worth.
