The RARE

Everybody UK 1982 version (Rusty Egan 12” Mix) NOT HQ

Although Madonna was signed to a label who had the potential to release records worldwide (Warner Brothers offshoot Sire), it was not until the end of the year that the UK division of the label got around to releasing the single in Great Britain. They decided that the single needed to be “British-ised”, so got sometime-DJ/member of Visage, Rusty Egan, in to remix the song. Egan created short and long vocal mixes, and short and long dub mixes - the short mixes for the 7”, the long mixes for the 12”. Rather bizarrely, the decision was taken that neither format would be issued in a picture sleeve - despite the fact that UK singles had been routinely issued in “proper covers” since 1977. The single would instead be housed in a generic Warners company sleeve - a black and white striped paper sleeve with the legend ‘7” Single’ for the 7”, a card sleeve with the legend ‘12” Single’ for the 12”.
Madonna reputedly thought little of Egan’s mixes which explains why mostly all of them have never re-surfaced on any other Madonna release. Both formats were soon deleted, which meant that when Madonna became a superstar in the years that followed, the increased desire to own this item helped to push it’s value upwards. A decade after it’s release, both formats were fetching £50 each on the collectors market, but with Madonna as big a star now as she was then, the value of both continues to rise - the scarcity of the mixes and the rarity of the vinyl itself being the contributing factors. Either format has been valued at £100+ for many years now, with a recent 7” copy on Ebay being offered for sale at the £250 mark. It is worth pointing out that NO copies were issued in a yellow Sire sleeve (Wikipedia used to show such an image on it’s “Everybody” page) but it’s the actual vinyl only that determines the value of this item - you can find the black and white sleeves in any old charity shop as they were used for other Warner’s singles that were sometimes reissued without picture sleeves during the 1980s.