However, problems between Madonna and the producer arose and he ended up leaving the project; she then called John "Jellybean" Benitez, her boyfriend at the time, to work on the remaining songs.

[6][7] The single's success led to the label approving the recording of an album, but Madonna chose not to work with either Bray or Kamins, opting instead for Warner Bros. producer Reggie Lucas.

[9] According to Andrew Morton, the singer wrote the lyrics to "Lucky Star" on a yellow legal notepad, and created the music on a Casiotone keyboard with a cassette player Kamins had given to her.

[12][13] However, problems between Madonna and Lucas soon arose, as she felt he was "moving [the songs] away from the sparse form of the original demos", something she did not approve of; the producer ended up leaving the project without altering the tracks.

[5] In the case of "Lucky Star", Benitez added additional guitars and vocals, a "synthesized disco beat with soulful flourishes", and elements of New Wave.

[2] Personnel working on the song included Fred Zarr on keyboard arrangement and synthesizers, alongside Dean Gant; Paul Pesco on guitars, Benitez was in charge of audio mixing, and Bobby Malach played tenor saxophone.

[21][22] According to Rikki Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, the label wanted to release "Lucky Star" as a stand-alone single, but changed their mind after "Holiday" began receiving heavy radio play and reached the first spot of Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart.

[26][27] "Lucky Star" has received positive reviews since its release; Billboard's Brian Chin named it the best song on the album, while the staff of Cash Box singled out the singer's "distinctive vocals and lyrical knack".

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine singled out "Lucky Star" as "effervescent", and as one of the "great songs" on his review of the Madonna album;[36] for Stewart Mason, from the same portal, it's a "dead simple" track with an "absolutely bare-bones arrangement and antiseptically clean production, but for some reason, it works.

[17] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani commented that "Lucky Star" had, "unknowingly prefaced [Madonna's] foray into the glittery halls of electronic-pop".

[37] From the same magazine, Eric Henderson said that, "['Lucky Star'] sets the tone [of the album] right off the bat", and named it a "sonic monster worthy of David Mancuso's fine-tuned system at the Loft".

[12] While Pitchfork's Jill Mapes opined that, with songs like "Lucky Star", Madonna had "helped resituate electronic dance-pop at Top 40’s apex", it was described as an "enjoyable earworm" by The Advocate.

[41] Also from PinkNews, Marcus Wratten deemed "Lucky Star" the third best song on Madonna, calling it "fizzy, effortlessly cool and subtly sexy".

[43] Louis Virtel, writing for The Backlot, named "Lucky Star" the singer's 19th best, referring to it as "so determinedly chipper that you might forget its naughtiest element – the way Madonna croons".

[44] The Arizona Republic's Ed Masley noted how "young and innocent" the singer sounded, and concluded that, "sometimes a sassy delivery and a slinky post-Chic disco groove is all it takes to launch a proper pop sensation"; he named it Madonna's 9th greatest song.

[18] "Lucky Star" was considered the singer's 26th best song by Entertainment Weekly's Chuck Arnold, who described it as a "radiant twirler [that] feels as if it comes equipped with its own disco ball".

[45] In Billboard's ranking, where it was placed at number 16, Katie Write praised Madonna's composition and referred to "Lucky Star" as an "irresistible dance hit".

[64] The music video for "Lucky Star" was directed by Arthur Pierson, and produced by Glenn Goodwin; Wayne Isham was in charge of photography.

[68] In the video, Madonna wore a black outfit consisting of a mesh crop top, fingerless lace gloves, skirt over leggings, and stars and crucifixes dangling from her ears and around her waist.

[71] Peter Goodwin commented that, although "Lucky Star" is not a narrative video, the singer played at least three characters ― the peeper in sunglasses, a break dancer, and a seductress.

[17] The Quietus' Matthew Lindsay referred to it as a "showcase for Madonna as auto-erotic magnet", and noted that at one point, the singer did a pose similar to Keith Haring's Radiant Baby.

[75] Matthew Jacobs highlighted the singer's "seminal look", and said that, "['Lucky Star'] spawned the bulk of the copycat costumes still seen at Halloween parties far and wide", and made her a fashion icon.

[76] It came in at the same spot of The Backlot's ranking; Louis Virtel wrote that, "even on a stark white backdrop, Madonna is a resplendent shooting star", highlighting her "hungry stare" and dance moves.

On the first one, Madonna wore a black crop top beneath a vest with a silver cross pattée, matching fringed gloves and miniskirt, leggings, low-heeled leather boots, and a crucifix earring in one ear.

[81] From the Chicago Tribune, Scott A. Zamost and Elizabeth Snead felt that, although Madonna's voice sounded strong, she was "drowned out frequently and annoyingly by an overpowering back-up band" in numbers such as "Lucky Star".

[97] Six years later, the song's music video was mentioned in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction; the character Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) tells her boyfriend Butch (Bruce Willis) that she wants a stomach "like Madonna when she did 'Lucky Star'".

[99] "Lucky Star" was mentioned on American television series Modern Family: Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) reveals that when he was 12, his father caught him dancing to the song, which he refers to as "the most embarrassing thing that a boy can do".

[104] In 2014, "Lucky Star" was sung by Chris Colfer on "Old Dog, New Tricks", the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of American musical television series Glee.

[105] Carly Rae Jepsen sampled the track on her 2017 single "Cut to the Feeling" and, five years later, a cover by Eva Noblezada was included on the soundtrack for the film Luck.