| The Immaculate Collection | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Greatest hits album by | ||||
| Released | November 13, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | 1983–1990 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 73:32 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
| |||
| Madonna chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from The Immaculate Collection | ||||
| ||||
The Immaculate Collection is the first greatest hits album by American singer Madonna, released on November 13, 1990, by Sire Records. It contains fifteen of her hit singles recorded throughout the 1980s, as well as two brand new tracks, "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me". All the previously released material were reworked through the QSound audio technology, becoming the first ever album to use it. Meanwhile, the new material saw Madonna working with Lenny Kravitz and Shep Pettibone. The album's title is a pun on the Immaculate Conception, a Marian dogma of the Catholic Church.
The release of the album was accompanied by a same-titled home video release, an EP titled The Holiday Collection, and a box set titled The Royal Box. "Justify My Love" was released as the lead single from the album, with a controversial music video featuring overtly sexual imagery. After being banned by MTV, the video was released on VHS and became the best-selling video single of all time. It also became Madonna's ninth number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single, "Rescue Me", had the highest debut on the chart since the Beatles' "Let It Be" (1970) and peaked at number nine.
The Immaculate Collection received universal acclaim from critics, who deemed it a defining retrospective of 1980s music. The album reached number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, while topping the charts in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Earning elevenfold platinum from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it became Madonna's second diamond-certified album in the United States. The Immaculate Collection has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling compilation album by a solo artist ever and one of the best-selling albums of all time. It has been featured on all-time critic lists by several publications, including Blender which named it the greatest American album of all time.