minute of the recording sessions and the mixing process, Corsaro commented: "Nile was there most of the time, but she was there all of the time. She never left". Composition and lyrics Composed as a dance-oriented song, the intro of "Like a Virgin" consists of two hooks. According to the sheet music published by Alfred Publishing Inc., it is written in common time, with a moderately groove tempo of 118 beats per minute; Madonna's vocals range from the tonal nodes of low-tone G3 to high-tone C5. Rikky Rooksby wrote in The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna (2004) that the bassline on the intro is a re-working of the three-note bass motif present in the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" (1965), where Chuck Berry provided the chord arrangement. The bassline shares similarities with Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (1983), especially during the second verse. Madonna sings in her high register, while drum arrangement by Tony Thompson can heard alongside the bassline; this is 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. In the second chorus, the singer exclaims the title phrase, followed by a Hey! sung in falsetto; the outro has "breathless" ad-libs such as "can't you hear my heart beat... for the very first time?". Lyrically, "Like a Virgin" has been described as an "ode to a lover who makes the singer feel like new". Madonna 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". According to Rooksby, the song can be interpreted in many different ways: actual virgins are encouraged to hold their compose before their first sexual encounter; in the case of men and more sexually experienced women, however, the lyrics talk about how they can re-live the feelings of their first sexual encounter. Release and critical reception "Like a Virgin" was released as the album's lead single on October 31, 1984. Rodgers wanted "Material Girl" to be released as lead single but "Like a Virgin" was chosen instead, a decision Madonna herself found "quite controversial". Afterwards, the song was included on the singer's compilations, The Immaculate Collection (1990), and Celebration (2009). Upon release, "Like a Virgin" was met with generally positive reviews from music