Like a Prayer (album) fights, one of which led to a 60-day prison term, Madonna and Sean Penn filed for divorce. This incident inspired the song "Till Death Do Us Part". The rest of the songs were written within two weeks; with "Like a Prayer", "Cherish" and "Spanish Eyes" being written the first week. According to Leonard, "we wrote a song a day, and we didn't change them. And oftentimes the vocal that she did was the lead vocal, we didn't even change the lead vocal. That was it. She sang it. It was done". Recording artist Prince played the guitar on three songs
Like a Prayer (album) Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of three million units. After the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan era in 1991, the album sold a further 575,000 copies. "Like a Prayer" has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In Canada, the album debuted at number two on the RPM Albums Chart on May 1, 1989. It remained on that position during four weeks, before dropping to the third position the week of May 29, 1989. The album was present for a total of 37 weeks on the chart, and was certified five times