Borderline
Lyrics
Something in the way you love me won't let me be
I don't want to be your prisoner
So baby won't you set me free
Stop playing with my heart
Finish what you start
When you make my love come down
If you want me let me know
Baby let it show
Honey don't you fool around
Just try to understand
I've given all I can
'Cause you got the best of me
Borderline
Feels like I'm going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Borderline
Feels like I'm going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Keep on pushing me baby
Don't you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Something in your eyes is making such a fool of me
When you hold me in your arms
You love me 'til I just can't see
But then you let me down
When I look around
Baby you just can't be found
Stop driving me away
I just wanna stay
There's something I just got to say
Just try to understand
I've given all I can
'Cause you got the best of me
Borderline
Feels like I'm going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Borderline
Feels like I'm going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Keep on pushing me baby
Don't you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Look what your love has done to me
Come on baby set me free
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
You cause me so much pain
I think I'm going insane
What does it take to make you see
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Keep pushing me, keep pushing me
Keep pushing my love
(You just keep on pushing my love)
Common baby
(Over the borderline)
Common darling
Yeah
Credits
Written by Reggie Lucas
Produced by Reggie Lucas
Synthesizers by Dean Gant, Fred Zarr and Ed Walsh
Electric and acoustic pianos by Dean Gant and Fred Zarr
Guitars by Reggie Lucas and Ira Siegal
Drum programming by Reggie Lucas and Leslie Ming
Tenor saxophone by Bobby Malach
Electric bass by Anthony Jackson
Background vocals by Gwen Guthrie, Norma Jean Wright, Madonna, Brenda White and Chrissy Faith
Album
Single
This love song received a lot of critical acclaim for being the most harmonically complex song of the album. In the US it was released as 4th single (between Holiday and Lucky Star) on February 15, 1984. Peaking at #10 it became Madonna's first US Top 10 hit. In 1998 it was certified Gold by RIAA for shipping 1 million copies.
In the UK it was released as 5th single (after Holiday and Lucky Star) on June 2, 1984 but only peaked at #56. Its re-release in January 1986 scored better with a #2 position (only to be blocked from #1 by Billy Ocean's 'When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going'). Shipping more than 500,000 copies was good for her first Gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry.
Video
This was the first video by Mary Lambert, who would later also direct Like A Virgin, Material Girl, La Isla Bonita and Like A Prayer. In this video we see Madonna as a colorful street girl, toying with one of the boys. Then a photographer gets interested in her and she lets him take pictures while she sips champagne. Later though she gets bored and tries to win back the heart of her boyfriend. Lambert creates a contrast with color scenes in the street (with the boyfriend) and black & white scenes during the photoshoots. It was the first Madonna video that got sustained play on MTV.
Tour
Performed for the first time on the Virgin Tour, Madonna certainly didn't do justice to this great single as she cut out the second verse and quickly ran through the song in only two minutes. The performance was uneventful with Madonna all alone onstage just walking around.
It took an incredible 23 years for Madonna to finally put Borderline back in a tour setlist. The Sticky & Sweet version got an early 80s rock makeover featuring Madonna, dressed in the Old School outfit, playing her colourful electric guitar, turning this sweet song into a rocking anthem. On the 2009 leg, instead of Borderline, another oldie got the spotlight: Dress You Up.
Madonna surprised everyone when she made a surprise appearance at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 9, 2016 to perform Borderline for the first time on a TV show since its release 32 years earlier. Wearing baggy suit pants and a tie, the performance with her live band was low-key with just a few solo dance moves, putting all the focus on the original song.