A Letter From the Publisher

By John A. Meyers cr; SEAN BYRNES

To report this week's cover story on Rock Phenomenon Madonna, TIME Show Business Correspondent Denise Worrell joined the trash-flash star's concert tour for a week, traveling from Dallas to Houston to Austin to New Orleans. "I was surprised by her face," says Worrell. "It is beautiful and strange, very pure, and free of all indecision and self-doubt." Backstage before a concert, Madonna tried on a white leather vest and a miniskirt layered with fringe. Recalls Worrell: "Twirling before a mirror, fringe flying, she sang out, 'If I ever married a cowboy, this is what I'd wear!' And she would."

Star and correspondent found they had things in common. "We both grew up in Michigan," says Worrell, "we both went to Roman Catholic girls' schools, and we both couldn't wait to move to New York City. After comparing notes on nuns and their influence on our formative years, Madonna and I got along fine." So well, in fact, that their conversations make up one of the longest interviews TIME has ever run.

TIME reporters interviewed scores of teenage Madonna look-alikes. Miami's Joseph McQuay sought them out at Florida concerts and found them obsessed with their idol. "From their brand of cigarettes to the mole on each upper lip, on the night of the concert they were Madonna," marvels McQuay. At a Manhattan disco frequented by the star, New York Correspondent Cathy Booth was mobbed by tulle-bedecked teenagers venting their opinions of Madonna.

The cover story was written by Contributor John Skow, a veteran show business and celebrity chronicler whose daughter Lizie, 18, herself a fledgling pop singer, helped him with his American Scene piece last February on the Grateful Dead. Says Skow, 53: "I am now one of the world's oldest Dead Heads." His TIME cover subjects include Model Cheryl Tiegs, Singer Linda Ronstadt and Actresses Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. Skow dined with Madonna and her band at Chez Helene in New Orleans and discovered "that we both liked Judy Holliday and soft-shell crabs."

The cover image was taken by Francesco Scavullo, a top photographer of glamorous women. Scavullo has been shooting Madonna for the past two years "as her star rose," he says. The four-hour cover photo session in Hollywood, Fla., was arranged by TIME Picture Researcher MaryAnne Golon. "For a memento shot of the three of us," says Golon, "Madonna insisted we dance. 'I'll teach you a step,' she told us. She had us whirling around. When we finished, she cried, 'You're both hired!' "