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Flowers are the sex organs of flowering plants.

A sex organ, or primary sexual characteristic, as narrowly defined, is any of the anatomical parts of the body which are involved in sexual reproduction and constitute the reproductive system in a complex organism; flowers are the reproductive organs of flowering plants,^[1] cones are the reproductive organs of coniferous plants,^[2] whereas mosses, ferns, and other similar plants have gametangia for reproductive organs.^[3]

Human genitals[link]

The visible portion of the human genitals for males consists of scrotum and a penis, for females it consists of the labia, clitoris and vagina. Women have two genital orifices, the vagina and urethra, while men have only one, the urethra. Both male and female genitals have many nerve endings, resulting in pleasurable and highly sensitive touch.^[4][5]

In several human societies, particularly in conservative ones, genitals are considered erogenous zones and are considered a public indecency and sometimes even illegal if left uncovered in public.^[6]

Summary[link]

In mammals, sex organs include:

Female	Male
Bartholin's glands cervix clitoris clitoral hood clitoral glans (glans clitoridis) Fallopian tubes labium ovaries Skene's gland uterus vagina vulva Human female external sex organ with pubic hair removed	bulbourethral glands epididymis penis foreskin glans penis prostate scrotum seminal vesicles testicles Human male external sex organs

Development[link]

In typical prenatal development, sexual organs originate from a common anlage anatomy during early gestation and differentiate into male or female variations. The SRY gene, usually located on the Y chromosome and encoding the testis determining factor, determines the direction of this differentiation. The absence of it allows the gonads to continue to develop into ovaries.

Thereafter, the development of the internal reproductive organs and the external genitalia is determined by hormones produced by certain fetal gonads (ovaries or testes) and the cells' response to them. The initial appearance of the fetal genitalia (a few weeks after conception) looks basically feminine: a pair of "urogenital folds" with a small protuberance in the middle, and the urethra behind the protuberance. If the fetus has testes, and if the testes produce testosterone, and if the cells of the genitals respond to the testosterone, the outer urogenital folds swell and fuse in the midline to produce the scrotum; the protuberance grows larger and straighter to form the penis; the inner urogenital swellings grow, wrap around the penis, and fuse in the midline to form the penile urethra.

Each sexual organ in one sex has a homologous counterpart in the other one. See a list of homologues of the human reproductive system.

In a larger perspective, the whole process of sexual differentiation also includes development of secondary sexual characteristics such as patterns of pubic and facial hair and female breasts that emerge at puberty. Furthermore, differences in brain structure arise, affecting, but not absolutely determining, behavior.

Plants[link]

This section requires expansion.

Flowering plants[link]

Sexual reproduction in flowering plants involves the union of the male and female germ cells. The sex organs, contained within the flower, may contain both male and female sex organs (these are known as perfect, bisexual, or hermaphrodite) or only one of the two (known as imperfect or unisexual). Also, those plants whose flowers are unisexual may contain both male and female flowers, or there may be purely male and female plants of the same species.

During a plant's sexual reproduction the stamen (male sex organ) produces pollen from an anther. These male germ cells are carried to the pistil (female sex organ), with the ovary at its base where fertilization can take place. The male germ cells can be carried by air, rain, water, insects or other symbiotic animals, or simply by gravity.

Terminology[link]

The Latin term genitalia, sometimes anglicized as genital area, is used to describe the externally visible sex organs, known as primary genitalia or external genitalia: in males, the penis and scrotum; and in females, the clitoris and vulva.

The other, hidden sex organs are referred to as the secondary genitalia or internal genitalia. The most important of these are the gonads, a pair of sex organs, specifically the testes in the male or the ovaries in the female. Gonads are the true sex organs, generating reproductive gametes containing inheritable DNA. They also produce most of the primary hormones that affect sexual development, and regulate other sexual organs and sexually differentiated behaviors.

A more ambiguously defined term is erogenous zone, subjectively, any portion of the body that when stimulated produces erotic sensation, but always prominently including the genitalia.

Anatomical terms related to sex[link]

The following is a list of anatomical terms related to sex and sexuality:

See also[link]

References[link]

v t e Human regional anatomy (TA A01.1) Head Forehead · Ear · Jaw · Face (Cheek, Eye, Nose, Mouth, Chin) · Occiput · Scalp · Temple Neck Throat · Adam's apple Trunk Chest (Breast) · Abdomen (Navel) · Back · Pelvis (Sex organs) Limbs Upper limb Shoulder · Axilla · Arm Elbow · Forearm Wrist · Hand · Finger (Thumb · Index · Middle · Ring · Little) Lower limb/ (see also leg) Hip · Buttocks · Thigh Knee · Calf · Crus Ankle · Heel · Foot · Toe (Hallux · Long  • Third  • Fourth  • Fifth) · Sole General anatomy: systems and organs, regional anatomy, planes and lines, superficial axial anatomy, superficial anatomy of limbs

Look up organ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Organ may refer to the following:

Biology and medicine[link]

• Organ (anatomy), a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function
• Organ pipe coral, a marine organism native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans
• Stenocereus thurberi, the organ pipe cactus plant

Music[link]

• Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
  • Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
  • Pipe organ, a musical instrument that produces sound when pressurized air is driven through a series of pipes
  • Theatre organ, a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra
• The Organ, an indie rock band

Organizations and government[link]

• Division (business) within an organization; i.e., Organs of United Nations
• Organs of state, branches of power within a government
• Organ, Hautes-Pyrénées, a commune in France
• Organ-e Kord, a village in Qazvin Province, Iran
• Organ-e Tork, a village in Qazvin Province, Iran

Media[link]

• Organ (film), a 1996 Japanese film
• Organ (magazine), a UK music magazine run by Organart
• The Organ (newspaper), an underground newspaper published in San Francisco

Term[link]

• Any official magazine, newsletter, or similar publication of an organization.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Immaculate Collection is the first greatest hits album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on November 9, 1990 by Sire Records. It contains fifteen of her hit singles from 1983 to 1990, as well as two new tracks, "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me". The title of the album is a loose pun of the Immaculate Conception, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain of the original sin. This name follows Madonna's religious-themed songs and videos, as well as the second section of her Blond Ambition World Tour, which also employed religious motifs. An extended play titled The Holiday Collection was issued in Europe to accompany the compilation and the re-release of the single "Holiday". It contained tracks omitted from this album: "True Blue", "Who's That Girl" and "Causing a Commotion". It is the first album ever to use an audio technology called QSound.^[1]

The LP version

The album was ranked at number one on the Blender magazine's list of "100 Greatest American Albums of All Time". In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named the album the 278th greatest album of all time. It became Madonna's second album to be certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of over 10 million copies across the United States. It spent the second highest number of consecutive weeks at number one for a female solo artist in the U.K., being at number one for a 9 week stint (until the release of Adele's 21 in 2011, who has spend 23 weeks atop). The album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide,^[2] making it the best-selling compilation album by a solo artist and one of the best selling albums of all time. "Justify My Love", the album's first single, became Madonna's ninth number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and was one of her most controversial singles due to its sexually explicit music video. "Rescue Me" was released as the second single and became the highest-debuting single on Hot 100 by a female artist at that time, entering the chart at number fifteen and peaking at number nine.

Background[link]

Originally titled Ultra Madonna, the name was changed as Warner Bros. felt that it was too similar to the name of dance artist Ultra Naté. Madonna dedicated the album to "The Pope, my divine inspiration". This led to many believing it was dedicated to Pope John Paul II, but it was actually dedicated to her brother, Christopher Ciccone, who had spent the year on tour with Madonna ("The Pope" is one of his nicknames). The production of this album is notable for its use of QSound; all songs were mixed in using it, except "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me". A QSound mix of "Justify My Love" was later released on the US maxi-single to the song.

All of the songs on The Immaculate Collection (with the exception of the two new songs) were remixed by Shep Pettibone alongside either Goh Hotoda or Michael Hutchinson and some were also edited down from their original lengths in order to decrease the overall running time. While all the vocals remain the same as in the original recordings, "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself" feature different music backing Madonna's vocals than their original album release. It was decided that a mixture of ballads and pop-dance hits would be included, although there wasn't space for every single that Madonna had released. "Justify My Love" became the first single to promote the album, and created a furor over the sexual video and the controversy in regards to who wrote it. (Poet Ingrid Chavez claimed she wrote part of the lyrics, alongside credited lyricist Lenny Kravitz.) The single shot to number one in the U.S. and number two in the UK. A second release, "Rescue Me", was released in early 1991, which also went top ten.

Warner Bros. released an EP in the UK and Europe titled The Holiday Collection which had the same design as The Immaculate Collection. The full-length version of "Holiday" was included alongside "True Blue", "Who's That Girl", and the Silver Screen Single mix of "Causing a Commotion". The re-released "Holiday" eventually went to No. 5 in the UK charts, while a re-release of the ballad "Crazy for You" (using the new remixed version) peaked at No. 2. Blender magazine ranked the album at number one on their list of "100 Greatest American Albums of All Time".^[3] In 2003, the album was ranked number 278 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In November 2006, the album was confirmed by the British Phonographic Industry to be the biggest selling album by a solo female artist in British history, and the tenth biggest selling album of all time in the UK by any artist.^[4] On January 1, 1991, a box set entitled The Royal Box was released which included either a Cassette/VHS (US-only) or Satin CD Digipak/VHS (US, Germany/UK) with additional postcards and poster. The VHS version also included the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards performance of "Vogue".

Critical reception[link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	(A-)[6]
Robert Christgau	(A+)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Sputnikmusic	3/5[9]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic graded the album five out of five stars. He starts by saying that "On the surface... [the album] appears to be a definitive retrospective of Madonna's heyday in the '80s". However, his opinion is that remastering in Q-Sound, making some of the songs faster than the original versions and other changes, makes it so "while all the hits are present, they're simply not in their correct versions." Nevertheless, he concludes that "until the original single versions are compiled on another album, The Immaculate Collection is the closest thing to a definitive retrospective."^[5]

Commercial response[link]

The Immaculate Collection was included on the list of BMG Music Club's top-selling albums in the United States at number #10. The album stayed atop the UK Albums chart for 9 weeks, breaking the record for the longest consecutive weeks at #1 by a solo female artist, a record that would not be matched until 2011 by Adele's album 21. On March 12, 2006, the album re-entered the UK charts more than 15 years after its release at #38 (it reached #1 on its original release in 1990).^[10] Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor was also in the top 20 at #13. In 2006, the album returned to Ireland's Top 100 Albums chart, entering at #21, charting higher than Confessions on a Dance Floor, which was at #95. On the week of April 28, 2008, the album rose 50 places from #122 to #72 on the official UK Albums Chart, the same week that Madonna's eleventh studio album Hard Candy was released internationally.

In the United States, The Immaculate Collection was certified Diamond (10× Platinum) by RIAA, becoming one of the best-selling albums in the country. In the United Kingdom, The Immaculate Collection was certified 12× Platinum by BPI for shipment of 3.6 million copies, becoming the second best-selling album by a female artist in British music history.

The Immaculate Collection was certified 11× Platinum by Australian Recording Industry Association, becoming one of the best-selling albums in Australia. In France, the album was certified Diamond for shipment of one million copies of the album. The Immaculate Collection has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it Madonna's best-seller and one of the world's best-selling albums of all time. It also remains the best-selling compilation album ever released by a solo artist.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Singles[link]

From this album, Madonna released four singles:

Track listing[link]

Additional notes

• All tracks: "1990 QSound Mix" except "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me"
• The iTunes version, released digitally in 2005, contains different versions of: "Lucky Star" (U.S. remix) – 7:15 and "Borderline" (remix) – 5:18^[15]
• * denotes additional production, ** denotes executive producer, ***denotes associate producer

Formats[link]

• CD — containing the 17-track compilation album.
• CD Limited Edition Box Set — The Royal Box containing a Satin Digi-Pak CD with VHS containing "Vogue" (from the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards), a 24" × 36" color poster and postcard assortment, housed in a lingerie-inspired LP sized box.^[16]
• CD Limited Edition Gold Edition — Rare 1995 Taiwanese exclusive limited 'Gold' edition in a unique gold-bordered slipcase.^[17]
• Cassette — containing the 17-track compilation album.
• Cassette Limited Edition Box Set — The Royal Box containing the Cassette version with VHS containing "Vogue" (from the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards), a 24" × 36" color poster and postcard assortment, housed in a lingerie-inspired LP sized box.^[16]
• LP — double disc, containing 17 tracks.
• LP Limited Edition Picture Disc — UK double picture disc, containing 17 tracks.^[18]
• Mini Disc — 17-track compilation, released 25 October 1999.^[19]
• VHS — 13-track video compilation, contains "Oh Father", not included on the audio releases, and "Vogue" (from the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards).
• Laserdisc — 13-track double disc video compilation, contains "Oh Father", not included on the audio releases and "Vogue" (from the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards).
• VCD — Asia only, 13-track video compilation, contains "Oh Father", not included on the audio releases and "Vogue" (from the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards).
• DVD — 13-track video compilation released in November 1999, contains "Oh Father", not included on the audio releases and "Vogue" (from the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards).^[20]
• iTunes version — released digitally in 2005, contains different versions of: "Lucky Star" (U.S. remix) – 7:15, "Borderline" (remix) – 5:18 and "Like a Prayer" (extended 12" version) – 7:24; all other tracks are the same as the original release.

[edit] The Holiday Collection

The Holiday Collection is an EP by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was released as an accompanying title to the greatest hits package The Immaculate Collection only in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Sire Records.^[21][22]

Background[link]

The EP was a CD and Cassette maxi-single with "Holiday" as the lead track. It includes three tracks which were omitted from The Immaculate Collection and had been big hits there; "True Blue" (#1), "Who's That Girl" (#1) and "Causing a Commotion" (#4).

This was the third time "Holiday" had entered the UK Singles Chart, the first in 1984 reaching number six and the second in 1985 where it reached number two, only being kept off the top spot by her own single "Into the Groove"). This time it reached number five. Some weeks after the CD was released, a very limited cassette was also released, with the same track listing.

Track listing[link]

UK CD / Cassette single

1. "Holiday" (album version) – 6:09
2. "True Blue" (album version) – 4:17
3. "Who's That Girl" (album version) – 3:58
4. "Causin' a Commotion" (Silver Screen single mix) – 4:06

Charts, certifications and procession[link]

Chart procession and succession[link]

See also[link]

• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in the United States
• List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom
• List of best-selling albums in Australia
• List of best-selling albums in France

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Immaculate Collection at MusicBrainz