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Posted by: liamk97 11th December 2014, 10:23 PM

“You deserve an award for the role that you play”

On 11 December 1994, 20 years ago today, one of Madonna's most beautifully poetic singles, 'Take a Bow', hit the UK charts.

Background
Following the controversy surrounding album Erotica and the publication of her book Sex in 1992, Madonna decided to take her career in a different direction. She took the genre of New Jack Swing which was present on the former album but mixed it with contemporary R&B rather than dance music. One of the producers she worked with was Babyface - famous at the time particularly for his work on Whitney Houston's I'm Your Baby Tonight and Toni Braxton's debut - and together they created 'Take a Bow'. Its lyrics address the theme of unrequited love or at least unbalanced love. However I feel this song can be interpreted in many different ways; a song that anyone can compare their personal experiences with, which is probably the beauty of many Madonna songs. Any Shakespeare lovers may recognise the line "all the world is a stage and everyone has their part" refers to his play As You Like It.

The music video sees Madonna presented as the neglected lover of a bullfighter (Emilio Muñoz) in the 1940s. The director Michael Haussman later filmed the video for 'You'll See' which is viewed as a follow-up, with Madonna and Emilio reprising their roles. Of course, a Madonna music video wouldn't be complete without controversy - animal right activists complained about the apparent glorification of bullfighting. Nevertheless, the video did receive positive reviews - Madonna picked up the award for Best Female Video at 1995's MTV Video Music Awards and influenced the videos for Justin Timberlake's 'Sexy Back' and Britney Spears' 'Radar'.



Critical & Commercial Reception
'Take a Bow' was acknowledged as one of the best tracks from Bedtime Stories by critics. Billboard praised its "immediately memorable melody and chorus", "engaging romance-novel lyrics" and consider Madonna's voice "sweet and quite soulful". An article on PopMatters from 2012 ranked it her 15th best single and was recognised as her fourth biggest hit in the US.

When 'Take a Bow' was released as the second single, it helped Bedtime Stories make a big rebound on the US chart. Not only that, it was a huge success in its own right, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks - a personal best - and saw Madonna earn her 11th #1 and 23rd Top 5 (both further records). It also reached #1 in Canada and the Top 10 in Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand.'Take a Bow', however, was not so successful in the UK, peaking at #16 and ending her run of 35 consecutive Top 10 singles.

UK Chart Run: 17-16-18-21-25-32-44-61-71-96-128-136-131-188-152-x [15wks]

US Chart Run: 45-18-14-12-8-5-5-4-4-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-4-6-11-11-15-21-21-28-27-31-37-44-44-x [30wks]

Live Performances
Madonna has yet to perform 'Take a Bow' on any of her tours, although she was reported to have rehearsed it at her Re-Invention World Tour before it was removed from the set-list. The most memorable performance was at the American Music Awards, introduced by Tom Jones. Babyface was also present as he sings the backing vocals to the song.

Posted by: mr_aly 15th December 2014, 10:26 PM

I only really started to properly appreciate this over the past couple of years, but I regard it quite highly now and listen to it frequently.

Posted by: liamk97 15th December 2014, 11:05 PM

Agreed - I remember when I first bought Celebration, before I had heard most of Madonna's pre-Ray of Light stuff, and I found it a bit of a chore to listen to 'Live to Tell' and 'Take a Bow' back to back. However now, as my tastes have matured more and I've paid attention to the lyrics and her voice, I can really appreciate them both.

Posted by: ClausofKubrick 16th December 2014, 11:15 PM

I similarly didn't really pay attention to it for a while but it's lovely when i listen now.

It features in an episode of FRIENDS too if i remember correctly?

Posted by: liamk97 16th December 2014, 11:43 PM

Wiki says yes! Final episode of Season 1. Can't say I've ever been a Friends fan ( ) but they have good taste!

Posted by: vibe 17th December 2014, 08:16 AM

I've always enjoyed this track. Really baffles me that it was her first song not to reach the top 10 in the uk!!
She mustn't have done any promo at all.

Posted by: gooddelta 17th December 2014, 11:09 AM

Love this, it appears during an airport scene of Friends with Ross and Rachel iirc.

Posted by: Mango Ho Ho 17th December 2014, 12:15 PM

I'm gonna go against the grain here and say that this is one of my least favourite Madonna singles. Not that it's a bad song by any stretch of the imagination but there are so many other Madonna singles I'd choose to listen to over this. I'm still gutted it broke her run of 35 consecutive Top 10 singles though

Posted by: liamk97 20th December 2014, 02:09 PM

I can't find any UK performances - the main promotion I can find was the performance at American Music Awards which would obviously only have effect in the US. So I suppose it's not too surprising that it missed the Top 10 in that sense but considering it's regarded as one of the best from Bedtime Stories, it is surprising.

Posted by: slowdown73 20th January 2015, 11:17 PM

Songs like "take a bow" put her recent efforts to shame. No comparison at all.