"Sidewalk Talk" is a song by American record producer John "Jellybean" Benitez from his first extended play, Wotupski!?!

"Sidewalk Talk" received mixed reviews from critics, with David Nick Ybarra questioning Buchanan's credit as lead vocalist, instead of the better-known Madonna.

In 1983, Madonna met John "Jellybean" Benitez, who worked as a DJ at the Funhouse club in lower Manhattan.

Instrumentation featured in the track included bass guitar by Marcus Miller, synthesizer by Boyd Jarvis, Fred Zarr, and Bray, electric guitar by Ira Siegel, percussion by Bashiri Johnson and Trevor Gale, and drum programming by Benitez and Bray.

[9] Billboard magazine's dance music reviewer Brian Chin said that the song "touched base" with the Top-40 mainstream radio audience.

Maura Johnston from the magazine noted that the song was similar in composition to other production work of Benitez, like Madonna's "Holiday" (1983), and described it as distilling "the essence of New York—full of fast-moving possibility and flash, but to be handled with caution in order to be survived.

"[13] Regarding the song's credits, Ybarra also found it mysterious that a relatively unknown singer like Buchanan received lead vocal billing, while Madonna was relegated to backing vocalist.

[15] "Sidewalk Talk" debuted at number 48 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the issue dated December 22, 1984.

[17] In an article published in Billboard, Chin noted that "Sidewalk Talk" was an unusual song to reach the top of the dance chart, since it was not released till then in commercially available 7-inch or 12-inch forms.

Chin added that the song's "emergence without a hard copy, so to speak, is highly uncharacteristic of a market, in which the 'commercial twelve' is a given for a long-show pop record."

[19] The song was released in 7-inch and 12-inch formats after eight months and entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 80 on the issue dated November 16, 1985.

It reached a peak of number 47 on the UK Singles Chart on the issue dated February 1, 1986, and was present for a total of four weeks.