Madonna - Early Years (CD 2001)

In 1981, Madonna took a job as backing singer for avant garde German artist called Otto Von Wernherr. She lent her vocals to three of his songs: "Wild Dancing", "Cosmic Climb", and "We Are The Gods". Her actual participation on the tracks was minimal consisting of repetitive chorus lines behind Otto's monotone, spoken, flat and German accented vocals.

Inevitably, when Madonna became huge in the mid 1980s, Otto remixed the songs to bring Madonna's voice out to the front, released them on a UK label and repackaged them as Madonna songs. Still marketed as "Madonna (& Otto Von Wernherr) In The Beginning" this CD is almost like a "Best Of" compilation of extended dance mixes of the songs which have been reissued againa and again for the last two decades.

The tracks are horrific and the countless re-releases and picture discs featuring the songs are just a way of getting Madonna fans to part with their cash. If you're a completist collector, you'll want to have one version of it, but other than that this CD isn't worth the plastic its made from. The horse has well and truly been flogged to death.