Welcome to the World Cassette Singles Guide, a new area added to the Madonna Ultiography Collector's Guide web site. This area, when complete will show information and scans of the world'd most interesting and most collectable Madonna cassette singles from many countries around the world. Feel free to offer information and scans where you can, all help is gladly accepted.

Well, as with America and Canada, the UK has produced a whole array of interesting cassette singles. UK cassette singles always come in plastic cases with card insert sleeves making these very collecable.

The first ever cassette single was issued back in 1988 for Causing A Commotion, and is now highly sort after and when released went by virtually un-noticed!!. This particular pressing is very rare now and near impossible to find.

The next cassette single was produced for Like A Prayer (top left); this is usually thought of as the first UK pressing but is definately the second. From here onwards there has been a cassette single pressed for every Madonna single release. 38 in total!, excluding mis-pressings & other duplicates.

Most cassette singles have come in plastic cases with clear covers to show the insert sleeve. Most do seem to still be available for between £3 and £6 in mint condition here in the UK.

More highly collectable cassettte singles include Express Yourself (row 3) and Cherish (row 2) simply because of their early release date. Express Yourself also produced a mega rare 'CX' catalogue number prefix version that was withdrawn just before it was due to be released so copies are almost impossible to acquire! Expect to pay from £30 upwards for a copy, probibly a lot more.

The first four cassette singles, and many others consisted of a single card insert sleeve printed both sides. Others, starting with 'Dear Jessie', came with a slightly bigger card insert that was folded into the cassette casing. These were printed on the outer side only.

Other early pressings include Vogue, Hanky Panky Justify My Love, reissued 1991 Crazy For You, Rescue Me, 1991 Reissued Holiday and A League Of Their Own.

A rather rare cassette single and one that also went by un-noticed accompanied the Holiday Collection CD. This cassette single came with the same 4 tracks as the CD and includes identical picture sleeve; this is not the same as the regular Holiday cassette single (pictured below) that came with just two tracks: Holiday and True Blue. Expect to pay upwards of £20 for a mint copy of the Holiday Collection cassette single!

The Erotica album saw a whole number of releases with as many cassette singles. These were: Erotica, Deeper & Deeper, Bad Girl, Fever and Rain.

Deeper And Deeper came with cool 'upright' insert design. While 'Rain' had the 'black hair' sleeve variation instead of the 'water' shot used in USA and other countries.

I'll Remember was next, followed by the Bedtime Stories album and yet more cassette singles: Bedtime Story (with black and clear cassette body), Secret, Take A Bow.

Interestingly, the 'Take A Bow' cassette single initially surfaced with mis-pressed '4:31' track time on the cassette body, which was then replaced by copies showing the correct '4:25' time on the cassette body. The inserts showed the correct time throughout! Otherwise look out for various varaitions in cassette body colours which include black and clear plastic.

Evita produced three related cassette singles: You Must Love Me (with black and clear cassette body), Don't Cry For Me Argentina and Another Suitcase In Another Hall.

The album Something To Remember followed with cassette singles issued for One More Chance and You'll See. Ray Of Light followed with cassette singles issued for: Frozen, Ray Of Light, Power Of Goodbye, Drowned World and Nothing Rearly Matters.

The Spy Who Shagged Me was the soundtrack single by Madonna for the film of the same name. This was followed by American Pie which came out to promote another film: The Next Best Thing. This track was then added to the new Music album in many countries.

Don't tell Me was different in that it came in card slip case, similar to the USA cassingles.

Well I hope this was helpful. And please email me if you can add info or additional scans to this area! See MIS for complete discographies with catalogue numbers and valuations!

There are no such promotional versions of the commercial cassette singles issued here in the UK, but there has been a number of interesting promotional only variations. The most common type are 'Instore Promotional Cassettes', but there are also two other types: 'Tape To Tape' and 'Chopemout'.

WEA INSTORE PROMOTIONAL CASSETTES: These are WEA compilaton cassettes that include a selection of 'latest releases' and are issued to record stores to play to visitors. While they are not issued in colourful picture sleeves they do have collector appeal.

TAPE TO TAPE PROMOTIONAL CASSETTES:

CHOPEMOUT PROMOTIONAL CASSETTES: