On December 6 1994, Madonna’s Take a Bow was released (as a physical single). Take A Bow was selected to be the second single from Madonna’s sixth studio album Bedtime Stories.
The ballad was written and produced by Madonna and Babyface.
Billboard Single Reviews gave the song a very positive review:
The follow-up to the top five smash Secret is a plush pop ballad that pairs La M with the red-hot Babyface, who has become best friend to many a diva in recent times. As close to perfect as top 40 fare gets, this single has a delightful, immediately memorable melody and chorus, engaging romance-novel lyrics, caressing live strings, and a lead vocal that is both sweet and quietly soulful. A lovely way for the singer to close ’95 — and one more good reason to investigate her essential Bedtime Stories collection.
On December 5 1994, Madonna began filming the music video for Bedtime Story at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, CA.
The video marked her second collaboration with director Mark Romanek and featured cinematography by Harris Savides. To assist in the process of developing her ideas for the video into something more tangible, Madonna again turned to storyboard artist Grant Shaffer, who had previously collaborated on her videos for Deeper And Deeper and Rain.
Madonna recalled the inspiration for the video in an interview with Aperture magazine:
“My Bedtime Story video was completely inspired by all the female surrealist painters like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. There’s that one shot where my hands are up in the air and stars are spinning around me. And me flying through the hallway with my hair trailing behind me, the birds flying out of my open robe – all of those images were an homage to female surrealist painters; there’s a little bit of Frida Kahlo in there, too.”
The effects-laden video was shot over six days and has been noted by Madonna as being one of the more grueling video shoots of her career. Filming of a scene that featured Madonna bathing in blue-coloured water yielded unexpectedly colourful results; when Madonna emerged from the water, she later recounted, it quickly became apparent that her skin had been temporarily stained blue.
Fortunately any on-set difficulties were not evident in the final product. Following several months of post-production work, the video’s stunning surrealist imagery was enthusiastically received by viewers upon its release in March, 1995.
A very special thank you to artist Grant Shaffer for generously sharing a selection of his original storyboards used in the development of the Bedtime Story video! We’d like to invite readers to check out more of Grant’s art on his official website – including his sketches for Deeper And Deeper, Rain and Madonna’s Japanese Takara commercial.
On October 4 1994, Madonna’s Secret music video premiered on MTV. The video was directed by Melodie McDaniel. An official remix video (the Dan-O-Rama Remix) was also released. The remix video was set to Junior’s Luscious Club Edit, and was the first remix video to hit #1 on MTV’s music video countdown.
On July 19 1994, Madonna contributed Goodbye to Innocence to the Just Say Roe benefit CD.
When Madonna went to record her vocals for Goodbye to Innocence during the recording of the Erotica album , she started singing Little Willie John’s song Fever instead of singing the original words. Shep Pettibone and Madonna decided to record it, as they felt it sounded good. As they did not know the words, Madonna called Seymour Stein from Sire Records, and within an hour, they had the Peggy Lee version, and the original version of the song. Fever was the last song to be recorded for the album, in August 1992, and it was finished within a month later.
Lyrics:
I don’t wanna say goodbye
There are some who believe that I owe them something
But they’re wrong, I owe nothing to no one but myself
And there are some who say they created me
But only my parents will have that acclaim
I took it from there, I am to blame
Say goodbye to anonymity
I have to (have to, have to) say goodbye
To privacy, but most of all
To innocence
To innocence
To innocence
My life is not a game that I play to entertain you
And if you can do it better, then you’re welcome to my fame
I’m not gonna waste my time correcting myths and rumors
You believe what you wanna believe
Say goodbye to anonymity
I have to (have to, have to) say goodbye
To privacy, but most of all
To innocence
To innocence
To innocence
I don’t wanna say goodbye
I don’t need a reason to cry
Kinda makes me wanna
Kinda makes me hafta
Stop and think about it
Stop and think about it
Stop and think about it
Do I want to?
I don’t (getting up and down)
I don’t (getting up and down)
I don’t (getting up and down)
Up-up, d-d-down, up-up-up
I don’t (getting up and down)
I don’t (getting up and down)
I don’t (getting up and down)
Up-up, d-d-down, up-up-up
Listen up
It always comes down to this
It always comes down to this
Some people have a snake at the base of their spine
That would suck out your life, that would take all your time
They’re called feeders
They’re not believers but you must not fear it
They’re takers
You know you better stop, stop and think about it
Your innocence
Your innocence
Your innocence
I don’t wanna say goodbye to innocence
I don’t need a reason to cry, innocence
Hold on to your innocence
Hold on (hold on, hold on), hold on to innocence
Hold on
Stop and think about it, say goodbye, think about it
On May 16, 1994, Madonna’s I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors) hit #1 on the Canadian Top 100 Singles chart by RPM.
The song remained at the top of the Canadian singles chart for five weeks, surpassing Like A Prayer to become Madonna’s longest-running #1 single on the Canadian charts at that time. It was finally displaced on June 20th by All-4-One’s hit, ISwear – the same song that blocked I’ll Remember from reaching the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., where it spent four weeks locked at #2.
