On September 9 1994, the filming for Madonna’s Secret music video began. The black and white music video was directed by photographer Melodie McDaniel and was filmed on September 9, 10, 11, 1994 at the Lenox Lounge and on location on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York.
On August 31 1996, Madonna’s Take A Bow spent its 38th and final week on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Recurrent chart in the USA at #9.
On May 19 1995, the music video for Human Nature premiered on MTV.
Madonna had initially planned to have friend and collaborator Alek Keshishian direct the video for Human Nature. Keshishian had even been named as the director in ICON Magazine, but for unknown reasons this shoot was cancelled during pre-production. Madonna later called in another recurring collaborator – Jean-Baptiste Mondino – to direct the clip instead.
The video marked Madonna’s first collaboration with Jamie King, who can be spotted as a dancer in the video.
The digital single was loaded with 15 remixes, including some promo-only cuts never before available commercially:
On January 5 1995, Madonna’s fabulous Bedtime Stories album was certified platinum (for shipment of 1 million units).
Barbara O’Dair reviewed the album for Rolling Stone magazine:
After the drubbing she has taken in the last few years, Madonna deserves to be mighty mad. And wounded anger is shot through her new album, Bedtime Stories, as she works out survival strategies. While always a feminist more by example than by word or deed, Madonna seems genuinely shocked at the hypocritical prudishness of her former fans, leading one to expect a set of biting screeds. But instead of reveling in raised consciousness, Bedtime Stories demonstrates a desire to get unconscious. Madonna still wants to go to bed, but this time it’s to pull the covers over her head.
Still, in so doing, Madonna has come up with some awfully compelling sounds. In her retreat from sex to romance, she has enlisted four top R&B producers: Atlanta whiz kid Dallas Austin, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Dave “Jam” Hall and Britisher Nellee Hooper (Soul II Soul), who add lush soul and creamy balladry. With this awesome collection of talent, the record verily shimmers. Bass-heavy grooves push it along when more conventional sentiments threaten to bog it down. Both aspects put it on chart-smart terrain.
A number of songs — “Survival,” “Secret,” “I’d Rather Be Your Lover” (to which Me’Shell NdegéOcello brings a bumping bass line and a jazzy rap) — are infectiously funky. And Madonna does a drive-by on her critics, complete with a keening synth line straight outta Dre, on “Human Nature”: “Did I say something wrong?/Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex (I musta been crazy).”
But you don’t need her to tell you that she’s “drawn to sadness” or that “loneliness has never been a stranger,” as she sings on the sorrowful “Love Tried to Welcome Me.” The downbeat restraint in her vocals says it, from the tremulously tender “Inside of Me” to the sob in “Happiness lies in your own hand/It took me much too long to understand” from “Secret.”
The record ultimately moves from grief to oblivion with the seductive techno pull of “Sanctuary.” The pulsating drone of the title track (co-written by Björk and Hooper), with its murmured refrain of “Let’s get unconscious, honey,” renounces language for numbness.
Twirled in a gauze of (unrequited) love songs, Bedtime Stories says, “Fuck off, I’m not done yet.” You have to listen hard to hear that, though. Madonna’s message is still “Express yourself, don’t repress yourself.” This time, however, it comes not with a bang but a whisper.
On November 5 1994, Madonna’s Secret hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.
Here’s what Larry Flick from Billboard had to say about Secret:
“The lushly layered album mix simmers with a strumming acoustic intro that breaks into a languid funk/R&B beat. As Madonna delivers a solid performance that emphasizes her increasingly strong lower vocal range, a meticulously woven arrangement of quasi-psychedelic colors and raw hip-hop elements percolates. Naturally, the hook is pure pop candy, sticking to the brain after one spin.”
On November 3 1994, Madonna began filming the Take A Bow music video in Ronda, Spain.
The video was directed by Michael Haussman. Haussman later directed the follow-up video to Take A Bow, You’ll See (in 1996).
Take A Bow was filmed between November 3 and 8 in Ronda. The bullfighting scenes were filmed at Plaza de Toros de Ronda.
The video depicts Madonna as a bullfighter’s neglected lover, yearning for his unrequited love. The bullfighter in the video was played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz.
Today In Madonna History 