Like A Virgin (song) - Composition

Composition

Composed as a dance-oriented song, the intro of "Like a Virgin" consists of two hooks. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, the song is set in common time, with a moderately dance-groove tempo of 118 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of F major with Madonna's voice ranging from the tonal nodes of high-tone G₃ to low-tone C₅. According to Rikky Rooksby, the bassline on the intro is a re-working of the three-note bass motif present in the Four Tops' 1965 song "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", where Chuck Berry provided the chord arrangement. The bassline also has some similarity with Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" especially during the second verse. Madonna sings the song in her high register while drum arrangement by Tony Thompson is heard alongside the bassline, which is also supported by a synthesizer arrangement, giving it a circular progression through all the seven diatonic chords of I–IV–VIIo–III–VI–II–V–I.

Regarding the lyrics, Madonna had commented: "I like innuendo, I like irony, I like the way things can be taken on different levels." This statement highlighted the ambiguity of the lyrics of the song, which is hung on the word 'like'. Rooksby interpreted the meaning of the song in different ways to different people. He said that for women who were really virgins, the song encouraged them to hold their compose before they engaged in their very first sexual act. For sexually experienced girls, the song meant that they would be able to re-live the feelings of their first sexual encounter all over again. For the boys, the song presented a narcissistic image of them making the girl forget her past encounters and enjoy the sexual act as if for the first time.