Live To Tell - Background and Writing

Background and Writing

After Madonna finished The Virgin Tour, she asked producers Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray to write some songs with her and produce her third studio album, True Blue (1986). "Live to Tell" was originally written by Leonard for the soundtrack of Paramount's romantic drama film Fire with Fire. "My managers represented the guy who was directing the film; it was his first film. I saw a little piece of the film, and I had the script. I wrote a theme and I said, 'What if I could get Madonna to write the lyrics for it?'", said Leonard.

However, Paramount rejected the song, believing that Leonard was incapable of creating the score for the film. It was then that Leonard presented the song to Madonna. She decided to use it for At Close Range, the new film of her then-husband, actor Sean Penn. Madonna wrote the lyrics of the song onspot, and made a demo recording on a cassette. She presented the song to the film's director James Foley, who after hearing the track, decided to enlist Leonard as the person to write the score for the film, as per suggestions by Madonna.

Leonard was working with Michael Jackson, on some transcriptions for his Bad album, when Penn called him at the home of Foley. There he got to know that Madonna had suggested he write the score for At Close Range, and had also asked who was going to sing "Live to Tell", since the song was written from a man's perspective. Leonard, although he had initially envisioned a male voice interpreting the song, decided to use Madonna as the main vocalist and used the demo version as the main vocal with backup drums only. He later recalled that "it was so innocent and so shy. It's as naive, as raw, as raw can be and that's part of what gave it all its charm." In a 1986 interview, Madonna said that the mood on the song was inspired by a different facet of her image makeover and her desire to focus on something different.