Ciccone Youth

Sonic Youth‘s 1988 side-project Ciccone Youth uses a xerox of a Herb Ritts shot of Madonna as the cover and samples Madonna’s vocals on their cover of Into The Groove.

At the time it was released it was on an indie label so it was possible that it was overlooked by Madonna’s camp. But when it was re-released on Geffen there’s no way they could get away with this without approval.

But now the liner notes in the new, remastered/expanded edition of Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation confirm that Madonna herself actually approved the original indie release of Ciccone Youth:

“The album cover [of Ciccone Youth], a b&w xerox enlargement of Madonna‘s face, was a brilliant and contemporary design. Sonic Youth had utilized found images in album covers before, but this was testing the limit. We sent copies of the vinyl album to Warners to be passed on to Madonna via her sister who worked in the art department there. Word came back that she had no problem with it acknowledging she remembered the band from her NYC Danceteria days.”

Today’s Fact of the Day is brought to you by Justin Russ aka Sonicboy from Toronto, Canada.