Madonna vs Stardust - Music Sounds Better With Holiday (2024 TMC Garage Flip)

A bit of a rant here, so bare with me. Released on a white label 12'' in 1998, the original mashup was played heavily on radio stations and at nightclubs. Madonna's 1984 post-disco hit "Holiday" and the legendary French House track "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust. It was considered as an official single but Madonna didn't want it to happen, and so it was ultimately shelved. Not because she didn't like it, but at the time she had just released her "Ray Of Light" project which presented her as a thoughtful, spiritual, mature artist. This mashup would have only reminded the public of Madonna's playful edgey urban phase from the mid-80's. At later stages in her career, during two of her tours, she performed live versions of this mashup.

"Music Sounds Better With You" was a hugely influential house track at the time of its release, peaking at #2 in the UK and within the top ten in multiple other European countries. The track prominently features a sample from the song "Fate" by Chaka Khan. It's a well known fact that one of Stardust's members was Thomas Bangalter, best known as one half of Daft Punk.

While this bootleg mix is loved by many, it's only ever been out on vinyl, with very rough mastering. Also at the time the original creators of the mashup, Stuntmasterz (who also made that famous Modjo vs Brandy & Monica mashup - which ultimately did see an official release) didn't have an acapella to work with and so elements from both tracks are sometimes clashing. I have the original white label vinyl and it sounds quite rough. It adds to the charm actually, giving it a dirty sound, but for my mix I wanted to make something a bit cleaner.

I reconstructed the loop from the original Chaka Khan song but instead of bringing Madonna's vocal three semitones down to compliment the instrumental, I brought the sample three semitones up to bring it in key with Madonna's original vocals. This meant the sample would also play faster, so I went for a 135 BPM garage track, using elements from the Club Asylum sample pack, among other things. I sped up Madonna's vocals to fit with the track, and recreated some elements from the 1998 bootleg, as well as some more updated sections. As always, I hope you enjoy!