1989 saw the release of the UK's first CD single, issued for 'Like A Prayer' in 3" format. Only three singles were pressed in 3" format, 'Like A Prayer', 'Express Yourself' and 'Cherish'. All originally came factory sealed in a special clear plastic outer WEA casing, as was used for the German 3" releases. These little delights, once opened concist of a miniture gate-fold glossy card sleeve with an equally fabulous disc.

The first jewel cased 5" CD appeared for 'Dear Jessie' which was also pressed in a special picture disc limited edition, now the rarest commercial CD single pressing from UK.

Jewel cased CDs have been released for every single since, offering no fewer than 47 different UK pressings and about 21 more if you count the gate-fold, mispressings, card sleeve pressings and the 3" singles!.

Most regular CDs don't rearly offer too much excitement for collectors, 'Crazy For You' and 'Power Of Good-bye' being two great exceptions, as all copies of these two appear to have been pressed with picture disc graphics, Crazy For You can be found for around £15 in mint condition, POG is a lot cheaper.

Another interesting pressing is 'Erotica' which has gold and black disc graphics, but is not at all scarce here in UK.

Another graphical CD was issued for 'Beautiful Stranger' which came with yellow clover leaf variation, inlike the promo version which included a unique blue disc. 'Music' posed the latest graphical disc design with a pink horseshoe graphics on the CD1 and brown on the CD2!

Limited Editions have become a British speciality with over seventy pressings in total to collect since the 'Madonna' album which was supposidly released in poster sleeve way back in '83. CD singles account for ten of these limited editions and all seem to be very collectable.

1. The first limited edition CD single, as already mentioned was Dear Jessie (given a special CDX prefix), the others included:
2. Secret (CD2), which came in Remixes format, offering ??????.
3. Take A Bow (CDX), came with three free Photo Prints, sold in album style casing not jewel casing.

4. Bedtime Story (CDX), came in a beautiful Story Book limited edition, concisting of a card book-like casing containing pages of a story book illustrated with drawings and the lyrics. This comes complete with a second, card, 'dummy' disc and was originally factory sealed.
5. You'll See (CDX) was issued with fab '96 calendar and unique gold disc design.
6. Oh Father (CDX), came with four free postcards.

7. One More Chance (CDX), came with tight fitting poster sleeve shrunk wrapped when new.
8. Don't Cry For Me Argentina (CD2), issued with Dance Remixes, as the sleeve is titled and the disc is yellow not black.
9. Another Suitcase In Another Hall (CDX), issued with a set of B&W postcards, comes in album style casing.
10. Ray Of Light (CD2), came with four newer remixes and different sleeve variation.
11. Drowned World (CD2), came with four mixes, but different variation to CD1 and white sleeve varaiation.
12. Nothing Rearly Matters (CD2), came with different mix variation and 'close up' picture sleeve variation.
13. American Pie (CD2), came with different mix variation and dark-pink disc design and very scarce 'close-up' sleeve design.
14. American Pie (CD3), came with five mixes incl the scarce Calderone mixes, also includes scarce 'far-away' sleeve design.

Gate-fold CD Singles are another source of British CD pressings.

Basically, CD's made for the UK charts are generally made in Germany (as are album formats) but there does appear to be an initial supply of each CD release coming from pressing plants from within the UK, all of which carry slightly different characturistics to the regular German pressings including (on most) a unique gate-fold insert cover. All thirteen gate-fold CDs are featured below, with many other, non gate-fold top-up issues also mentioned, Enjoy....

• The first of these gate-folds appeared in early '93 for "I'll remember". This pressing included an additional silver rim around the otherwise white disc and the disc itself carried no outer 'rights' wording, a common factor with all these pressings. The very inner part of the disc gives credit to 'Nimbus': "MASTERED BY NIMBUS". Finally, on one gate-fold edition, both the disc and sleeve give '6:49' track time for "Why's It So Hard" (was otherwise '5:13' on the regular CD). While another includes usual disc time at '5:13' but longer sleeve time? Anyone know which one is the correct time?
• At this point it's probably worth mentioning that as well as a gate-fold sleeve, these pressings generally has some kind of disc design difference to the regular German made pressings that follow, and many do not carry german origins, ie 'Made In Germany' is missing from both disc and sleeve.
• The next gate-fold came out for "Secret", only this time the inner part of the disc credited "Mayking": "MASTERED BY MAYKING". "Mayking" was then credited on four more of the 12 preceeding Madonna gate-fold releases: "Take A Bow" "Bedtime Story" - possibly all pressings!; "Human Nature" - with slightly darker coloured disc and no outer rights wording, although German origin is given on the disc (and typographically removed from the sleeve); and "One More Chance" - with slightly darker coloured disc and thin silver rim (no outer wording on the regular pressing either).
• "Oh Father" gate-fold offered "DISCTRONICS" manufacture and unique 'white' disc; the regular being black. This was followed by "Another Suitcase In Another Hall", which although carried outer disc wording, carried the British Equivelant. As did "You Must love Me", although this pressing did not come with the gate-fold sleeve? - so how many other non gate-fold sleeve pressings carried irregular manufacturing referance?
• Another type of gate-fold pressing and one definately not made in Germany, first appeared for "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". This gave credit to "CD PLANT UK", and didn't carry any outer wordings. "Ray Of Light" followed suit and it's disc was totally blue with no silver outer disc and the german origins have been removed from the sleeve (both CD1 and CD2, although the second was a single sleeve only release! (Do you have a gate-fold CD2 version?)).
• "Frozen", "The Power Of Good-bye" & "NRM" (both CD1 & CD2) carried reference to 'DOCDATA; the latter three came with single insert sleeve, not gate-fold. (If you have any UK bought CD singles with different reference or with gate-fold sleeves please let me know)
• "Music", issued in September 2000, offered a non German made gate-fold sleeve for all it's CD singles, CD1 and CD2. Most pressings gave reference to 'Disctronics' and included the 'W----' catalogue number prefix. These pressings came without German manufacture on bother the disc and sleeve, and also the front logo does not have "Made in Germany" on the left side. However these are not techically top-ups.
• There are another source of possibly top-up CD 'Music' singles, all of which came WITH German! manufacture on their disc, sleeve and on the front logo (left side). The inner disc has the European '9---' catalogue number prefix. These also have gate-fold sleeves. These are scarce and most pressings have the 'Disctronics' wording.

AND SOME KIND OF THEORY!: The lack of German outer 'rights' wording and immision of 'German' manufacture referance on disc and sleeve on most, as well as the fact that these particular copies come out with the initial record store supplies, certainly points to some kind of Top-Up theory.

WHAT ABOUT NON GATE-FOLD TOP-UP CD: The first would have to be the rare 'floral' back sleeve album "Like A Virgin" (covered in "Original Or Reissue" section of the book). This carried "NIMBUS ENGLAND" on the disc and "Printed In England" on the back sleeve. Since "Like A Virgin", 'Nimbus' credits have also appeared on the pic-CD - "Crazy For You" and "Fever". Others include "Rescue Me" and "Rain" with 'Disctronics' and "Deeper And Deeper" with 'Mayking'; all exclude the outer wordings. I have also noticed that most limited editions (which are also initial releases) are pressed by theses companies.

Finally, one other format, pressed even earlier than limited editions are our promotional CD's, both 'DJ' prefix and 'Instore' titles, all of which appear to carry 'Mayking' or 'Disctronics' markings.

I GUESS!: These pressings carrying referance to 'Mayking', 'Nimbus', 'Disctronics', 'CD Plant UK', and 'DOCDATA' are pressed seperately from the traditional 'Aldsorf' ones. And the fact that these pressings only appear early in the release cycle, indicates that they are produced to keep the selling ball rolling before the main 'Alsdorf' supply reach our island.

There are a couple of other commercially pressed hideaways which only the real finicky collector would have noticed, the most collectable being three mis-pressings of "I'll remember".

The three mis-pressings are all CD singles and all are considered rare:
1. The first had the live track timing, 'Why's It So Hard', incorrectly written as 6.49'. This was also issued in gate-fold sleeve.
2. The second, and far more rare had no live track at all, it was missing
3. The last and even more scarce, carried 'In This Life - live' instead of 'Why's It So Hard - live'

Finally, three card sleeve CD singles were sold in the shops here in UK?. All appear to be German but were definately sold in the UK as British pressings.

1. Take A Bow appeared first. This does appear to be either German or French and comes with a silver disc, not white as found with the regular British copies, yet this was definately sold in the UK at the regular CD single price
2. Bedtime Stories appeared next. This concisted of the regular 5-track commercial CD slipped into a card sleeve, but the sleeve credited just two tracks? The sleeve carried the British 'W----' catalogue number which makes it different from the German or French sleeves. These sold in 'HMV' and other big stores and sold at the regular CD single price.

3. You'll See was the last pressing. This came with regular track listing and appears to be either German or French judging by the disc inscription. The card sleeve carries a large pink title sticker.

UK promotional pressings have always been highly collectable as so few have actually been manufactured and when pressed, often less that 1000 are made. This I guess is partly due to the size of the UK, small in comparison to the States where promotionals are pressed in much larger number. As I can remember, the first UK promos were considered very hard to find and only came in vinyl format. Back in '85 I remember recieving a letter from a collector who was selling transcription pressings and acetates of Madonnas early releases, I did not bother to buy any, and since then I have never seen any of these presssings up for sale and certainly know now that these, if exist, would be unbelievably rare and ultimate collectors items for even the richest collectors.

Holiday 'SAM800', is generally considered the first UK promo CD single, and what a fine pressing it is. The CD comes in jewel casing with regular picture sleeve, but unique to the UK. The disc has 'SAM800' catalogue number. It has 'Edit' mix only. The 'SAM' prefix is commonly used in the UK and was first for 12" white label promos. Pressings carrying this catalogue prefix are totally official and are indorsed by Sire records. There has only been one other 'SAM' promo CD and this was a various artist promo titled, "Ten Titles To Fall For" 'SAM916' and includes Vogue. Both pressings are now scarce and fetch around £15 mint.

A year later, in 1992, another source of UK promotional CD's appeared.

These were issued by 'WEA' and are totally official and come in various artist format, ie. compilation of different artists. WEA various artist promo CD's are made for record stores and other music outlets and to date four have included Madonna tracks:

1. Erotica with 'PROMO CD 37' catalogue number.
2. Deeper And Deeper with 'PROMO CD 39'.
3. I'll Remember'
4. One More Chance with 'PROMO CD 92'.

Later 'Instore' CD pressings came with a more colourful title sleeve and disc graphics, but still carry the traditional promotional wording and 'Play Load & Often' inscription.

These are fairly scarce but can be acquired for under £10 if you look hard enough. Instore CDs from the new design include:

1. 'Ray Of Light' on 'Xmas 98' promo CD. BIG | BIG2
2. 'Drowned world' on 'No. 23' promo CD. BIG | BIG2

Last and certainly not least and by far the most collectable promos are those with 'Sire' catalogue numbers.

These promo pressings are directly associated with the commercial release and even include an identical catalogue number, with the addition of a 'DJ' or 'DJ2' prefix.

The first ever promo came out in 1994 for 'Take A Bow', this came with a special promotional card title insert which was slipped into the inner casing, as did 'One More Chance'. However promotional CD's more commonly come in jewel casing and regular picture sleeve, 'Bedtime story' (DJ2) & 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' (DJ), 'Human Nature' and 'POG', all of which may at least include some kind of promotional wording. More collectable jewel cased pressings are those with unique title sleeves, 'Oh father', 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' (DJ2), 'Ray Of Light', 'Drowned World', 'Little Star' and 'NRM'.

Promotional CD's with different or unique disc designs seem to fetch the highest prices, which include 'Bedtime Story' with pink disc, 'Human Nature' with great 'typed' graphics, 'Ray Of Light', 'Drowned World' with unique aqua-blue graphics, 'Little Star' with it's fantastic pattern patchwork and special DJ promo sticker (two different sticker one and sticker two), 'Nothing Really Matters' with slate-purple coloured disc and centre graphic, 'Beautiful Stranger' release with cool psychadelic sleeve and swirly blue disc graphics, and 'American Pie' PRO1802 2 mix CD and 5 mix CD 'PRO1819', both of which come with cool white disc design.

The promotional CDs for 'Music', 'Don't Tell Me', 'What It Feels Like For A Girl' and 'Amazing', were similar to 'American Pie', 'Beautiful Stranger' and 'Drowned World', in that they were all pressed for Europe, not solely UK. So they all have European catalogue number prefix. There were two Music CDs, the first had hard casing, insert sleeve, pink disc graphics and just an 'Album Version'. The second CD was a rarer issue coming in jewel caing, full p/s, brown grahics and three 'Edits' (PR 02055).

"see the UK promotional discography for all UK promo CD's"

OTHER PROMO CDS: MEGA RARE "LOVE TO INFINITY" PROMO

The 'Love To Infinity' remixes of 'Into The Groove', previously only available on the DMC promos in the UK, have been released in 'Edit' form on the 'LTI' promo CD. This CD was currently fetching mega-bucks throughout the year 2000, up to £200 max at you know where in the UK!. This CD has 4 Edit versions of the 'love to infinity' mixes on it. It's four mixes are: 'Special Edition Mix', shorter mix than the DMC version but its got all the "now I know your mine" bitss on it, the 'Burning Club Mix' is ok, the 'Gyroter Mix' is brilliant, and the Funktastic Mix' is an edit of the DMC version. (Cheers Nick the boy T).

There have been two previous promo CDs featuring the 'Love To Infinity' mixes. Both issued on the DMC catalogue. The first was 'The Club Class' CD (CC1) which includes the full length 'Funktastic Remix' (7:00). The other was the DMC 'CD 183' which included the full length 'Special Edition Mix' (10:22). Both come with DMC title sleeve and titled backing sleeve and are strickly DJ only pressings.