Twenty-one years ago this week, Madonna debuted at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Rescue Me.”

The second of two new tracks featured on her 1990 greatest hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection (“Justify My Love” was the other), “Rescue Me” was the highest-debuting single by a female artist in chart history at the time of its release. That record has since been broken several times over, but it’s noteworthy that Madonna achieved her then-impressive ranking of “Rescue Me” based solely on radio spins. A commercial single wasn’t yet available for purchase, and I recall quite a delay until it was eventually released. Three weeks after its chart debut, “Rescue Me” reached its #9 peak, becoming Madonna’s 22nd top ten hit.

Co-written and produced by club DJ/remixer Shep Pettibone (“Vogue,” “This Used To Be My Playground,” most of Erotica), “Rescue Me” features one of Madonna’s best-ever vocal performances. She digs deep on this one, and rarely has she sounded so unbridled on record, especially in the song’s last minute. The “R-E-S-C-U-E me” bit offers some serious R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the Queen of Soul from the Queen of Pop:

Unbelievably, Madonna has never performed “Rescue Me” in concert. Can we get an online petition started to ensure that changes with her upcoming world tour, something that reads, “We believe in the power of love,” at the top?

Maybe Madonna’s silent treatment towards “Rescue Me” is related to old accusations that she stole that line (and other inspiration) from Deee-lite’s “Power Of Love,” which was released a few months before she and Shep Pettibone hit the studio. Two decades on, Lady Miss Kier sure seems to still carry a giant chip on her shoulder regarding the matter, commenting upon current charges of Madonna’s lyrical illegitimacy.

“Rescue Me” isn’t available for download, as The Immaculate Collection is missing from iTunes and other services. 2001’s GHV2 is also absent, so I assume both were removed so as not to compete with the career-spanning Celebration. Still, it’s a shame that “Rescue Me,” which didn’t make the cut of that 2009 compilation, can’t currently be purchased as a single. The mixes of “Rescue Me” are fantastic too, featuring samples from other Madonna songs (“True Blue,” “Open Your Heart,” “Justify My Love”). I’m sending out an SOS.