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The Let's Get Unconscious Era


groovyguy
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Other Timelines:

 

·         The Pre- Madonna Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11688-the-pre-madonna-era/?p=542015

·         The First Album Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/11796-the-madonna-first-album-era/?p=547412

·         The Like a Virgin Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12035-the-like-a-virgin-era/?p=557045

·         The True Blue Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12055-the-true-blue-era/?p=557777

·         The Who’s That Girl/You Can Dance Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12085-the-whos-that-girlyou-can-dance-era/?p=558619

·         The Like a Prayer Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12134-the-like-a-prayer-era/?p=560321

·         The Immaculate Breathless Blond Ambition Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12230-the-immaculate-breathless-blond-ambition-era/?p=562946

·         The Erotic Body of Girlie Sex Show Era http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/12452-the-erotic-body-of-girlie-sex-show-era/?p=570519

Artwork & Packaging:  http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652319

Legacy:  http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652320

 

Sources: 

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATIONS by Bruce Baron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'll_Remember

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedtime_Stories_(Madonna_album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_(Madonna_song)

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1994.html

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1995.html

Genesis Timeline by Nightshade

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1993.html

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1994.html

http://madonna-mdolla.blogspot.com/2008/08/madonna-1995.html

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/madonnadotrefugees/full-list-of-unreleased-madonna-songs-t144.html

https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/category/1994/

https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/category/1995/

Timeline:

1993 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652321·        

Jan-April 1994 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652322

May-August 1994 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652324

September-October 1994 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652325

November-December1994 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652326

1995 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652327

1996 http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652328 

 

Unreleasedhttp://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652329 

 

Bedtime Stories Press:   http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/bedtime-stories-promo-tour/

Bedtime Stories Memorabilia:  http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/bedtime-stories-promo-tour/ / http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652331

Bedtime Stories Pictures:   http://madonnaunderground.com/madonna-live/album-promo/you-can-dance-promo-tour/

 

 Videos: http://www.madonna-infinity.net/forums/index.php?/topic/14849-the-lets-get-unconscious-era/&do=findComment&comment=652330

 

OVERVIEW / BACKGROUND

 

·         Madonna promoted Bedtime Stories by going on a full on scale promotional tour

·         Madonna made her debut at Wetten Dass with both Secret and Take A Bow

·         She performed with Babyface at the American Music Awards where she sang Take A Bow live, her ‘ear’ didn’t work so she could not hear herself

·         With Babyface she performed at Italian festival San Remo, they performed Take A Bow

·         In France she was a guest at Studio Gabriel, she sat down for an interview with fans in the studio

·         Ruby Wax finally had the chance for an interesting interview to say the least

·         During the MTV Special No BULL! The Making Of Take A Bow Madonna showed her disappointment for constantly being number 2 on the charts and wanting to be number 1, her wish came true, Take A Bow reached the top spot on the charts and stayed there for 7 weeks

·         Madonna won the MTV Award in 1995 for best video for Take A Bow

·         Madonna sent the Take A Bow video as her audition tape for the leading part in Evita, it worked, Madonna starred as Eva Peron

·         Secret was only sung live for the first time during the Drowned World Tour in 2001

·         The cover sleeve to Bedtime Stories was printed incorrectly and Madonna’s face was upside down, hair up (in the original pic she’s laying on a bed but her head was now facing upwards), it was corrected, however nowadays you still see the incorrect version more than the correct one (hair down)

·         Madonna organized a pyjama party in New York and read a bedtime story to the crowd, she danced to music by Junior Vasquez

·         Bedtime Stories received positive reviews and was welcomed by the media

·         In Holland Bedtime Stories peaked at number 13

·         Madonna performed at the Brit Awards with a sensational performance of Bedtime Story, during the press conference she said she was 99% sure she was going on tour, however Evita made sure that didn’t happen

 

Madonna's initial work on the album had started with Shep Pettibone, who produced her fifth studio album, Erotica (1992). However, she found out that they were doing the same vein of music from the previous album, which did not please her. At the time, Madonna was a fan of Babyface's song "When Can I See You" (1994), and became interested in working with him, as she wanted "lush ballads" for her record. They would collaborate on three songs for the album in his studio in Beverly Hills, with "Forbidden Love" and "Take a Bow" ending up on the album. Recalling the latter's development, the producer commented, "I wasn't so much thinking about the charts. I think I was more in awe of the fact that I was working with Madonna. It was initially surreal, but then you get to know the person a little bit, and you calm down and then it's just work. And work is fun". He also said that for "Forbidden Love", "She heard the basic track and it all started coming out, melodies and everything... It was a much easier process than I thought it would be".

Through Babyface, she met with then upcoming young producer from Atlanta called Dallas Austin. Together they composed two songs for the album, "Secret" and "Sanctuary". The former was originally produced in its demo form by Pettibone, under the name "Something's Coming Over Me", however Austin reworked the demo and made it a different song musically. On September 27, 1994, the song was released as the lead single from Bedtime Stories. The cover art of the single showed a new look for Madonna, with blonde hair and style compared to the look of 1930s American actress, Jean Harlow. Shot by photographer Patrick Demarchelier in black-and-white, the image showed the singer slouched on a sofa with her dress down and revealing her translucent brassiere. Unusual for the mid-1990s, Madonna talked about the new single on the Internet leaving an audio message for her fans, as well as a snippet of the song.

Hello, all you Cyberheads! Welcome to the 90's version of intimacy. You can hear me... You can even see me... But you can't touch me... do you recognize my voice?... It's Madonna. Often imitated, but never duplicated. Or, should I say, often irritated? If you feel like it, you can download the sound file of my new single "Secret", from my new album, Bedtime Stories, which comes out next month. I just shot the video in New York, and will be premiering an exclusive sample of it online. So check back soon. In the meantime, why don't you post me a message and let me know what you think of my new song. And by the way, don't believe any of those online imposters pretending to be me... ain't nothing like the real thing. Peace out.

Madonna's backup singers Donna De Lory and Niki Haris were called in to provide harmonies on "Survival". She commented, "The minute you walked in [the studio], she was giving you the lyric sheet. That was the atmosphere—we're not here to just hang out. It's fun, but we're here to work and get this done". De Lory recalls the sessions for "Survival" took a "couple of hours" and there were no retakes. During recording sessions, Madonna was interested in working with Austin after he produced Joi’s debut album The Pendulum Vibe (1994). According to the singer, "She wanted to know, 'Who is this? Who produced it? How did this happen?'"

Aside from this, however, Madonna also wanted to explore the British club musical scene, where genres such as dub had been growing in popularity. In such a way, she decided to work with several European producers and composers within the electronic scene, including Nellee Hooper, who pleased Madonna due to his "very European sensibility". Inviting Hooper over to Los Angeles, sessions started taking place in the Chappell Studios of Encino, California. Björk accepted the offer to write a track for Madonna's album, and wrote a song initially named "Let's Get Unconscious". Once the song demo had been finished, Hooper and Marius De Vries rearranged the track and the final version was called "Bedtime Story", which became the album's third single. Academic Georges Claude Guilbert, author of Madonna As Postmodern Myth, felt that the album's title was a pun; "[Madonna] is referring to (possible erotic) stories told at bedtime (in bed). In a way (the album) is really a book of stories you can tell your kids at bedtime [...] sexuality explained to children [...] Madonna has always thought that children should be better informed in that aspect".

 

 

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Artwork

The artwork for Bedtime Stories was shot by French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, at the Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel in the United States in August 1994. She also worked with hairstylist Sam McKnight for the pictures, which were directed by Fabien Baron. McKnight recalled that it was a "low-key" photoshoot featuring less than 50 people, and was conducted on Madonna's birthday, hence it was wrapped up fast since the singer had to go for her party. The cover was released online, and depicted the singer upside down, looking upward with heavy make-up, a nose ring, blond hair, and simple neon fonts. Inspired by actress Jean Harlow, the singer sported over-plucked eyebrows for the photos which were designed by makeup artist Francois Nars.

Michael R. Smith from The Daily Vault website stated that the artwork was "colorful" and was seen by him as one of the high points of the release. The packaging for Bedtime Stories featured white plastic digitray holding the CD, while the cover was sky-blue paper with a velvety texture. British journalist Paul Du Noyer gave a detailed description of Madonna's image change with the album, during an interview with the singer for Q magazine, saying:

Madonna looks both older and younger than she does in the photos and the videos: a little more lined and possibly tired, but also less mature and grand. Her manner is quite teenaged, not femme fatale. She seems up for mischief, and yet quite conscious of her power. At the same time, her very frankness is almost innocent. These combinations are odd, and they give her the air of a prematurely wise child. Her current style is 1930s Hollywood meets early 1970s flash: Jean Harlow and Angie Bowie. She is not bewitching, but is certainly beautiful. She wears the nose stud that so troubled Norman Mailer in a recent interview. If you saw her in the street, you'd think: she looks like a girl who looks a bit like Madonna.

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Legacy

According to journalist Mary von Aue from Vice magazine, Bedtime Stories is the "most important" album released by Madonna. For months leading up to its release, the promotion associated cited the record as an apology for the singer's sexually provocative imagery. Critics had also hoped for a return to more innocent form of music. However Madonna instead chose to portray herself as unapologetic for her imagery, as well as talking about scrutiny that female musicians faced. Madonna went opposite to what was being portrayed as the theme of the album in the promotional campaigns, and continued addressing her critics and people who had tried to shame her for being provocative. Philadelphia's Patrick DeMarco described that "this was a record that cemented Madonna as the icon we know today". Jamieson Cox from Time called the album as "underrated", while The Plain Dealer's Troy Smith explained that it was "overlooked" because was "sandwiched between her most controversial work (Erotica) and, arguably, her best (Ray of Light)". He praised songs like "Take a Bow" which considered as "the best romantic ballad of her career".

Von Aue added that "Today, Bedtime Stories is not the first album that comes to mind in Madonna's legacy. It is, however, the most relevant to many of the cultural conversations that are still happening. Had she acquiesced to the public's call for apology, it could have set a dangerous standard for how the public can decree an artist's silence, and it would have allowed the categories for female singers to remain in place".

Bianca Gracie from Idolator website wrote that "Bedtime Stories proved that Madonna never lost her edge; she just decided to soften it so that her image could regroup. When listening to the sultry undertones and R&B influences threaded throughout it, you come to realize how flawlessly the singer could change up her persona while still sounding genuine". Gracie believed that Bedtime Stories was an album with "timeless sound" and signified an evolution of Madonna as an artist, acting as the front-runner to her more experimental album like Ray of Light (1998). However she noted how the album never let go of the sexual provocation associated with Madonna and how the singer chose to turn against what people expected from her at that time—being apologetic.

 

Take a Bow

Author Santiago Fouz-Hernández points out that unlike Madonna's previous music videos, much of the religious imagery is associated with the torero, not Madonna, due to the fact that religious images are a strong part of the bullfighting ritual. It has also been argued that in the video Madonna "subverts the gender structure and masculine subjectivity implicit in traditional bullfighting." This is achieved through the "feminization of the matador and the emphasis on Madonna's character" and also through Madonna's "dominant gaze" as she watches the matador perform." Roger Beebe, one of the authors of Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cellphones, noted that the video was an example of "how music, image, and lyrics of a song possesses their own temporality". He explained that the "graceful" nature of the song was contrast to the repetitive scenes in the video, which he felt indicated that the protagonist has long been engaging in the activities, including the "demoralizing sex scenes". In Madonna as Postmodern Myth, author Georges-Claude Guilbert felt the video "defied feminists of the Marilyn Frye and Adrienne Rich variety, who see in the video a disgusting example of passé female submissiveness." Madonna responded to this criticism by stating "I don't believe that any organization should dictate to me what I can and cannot do artistically.” Guilbert also noted the usage of religious iconography in the video, especially dubious representation of the Virgin. He explained that most of the times Madonna and the torero make love through the television screen, implying that "one of their purity had to be maintained always"

Bedtime Story

"Bedtime Story" has been cited as one of the songs with the most unfulfilled potential in Madonna's career, nonetheless, the song did enjoy some success, being a club "favorite" in the mid-1990s. It has been described as the record that foreshadowed Madonna's usage of electronic music in her later work, especially Ray of Light (1998), which according to Vicente, owes "its contemplative and electronic techno rave character to 'Bedtime Story'". O'Brien wrote in Madonna: Like an Icon, that the song "foreshadowed [the singer's] move towards electronica" and labelled it an "embryonic moment that went a lot further on the next few albums". De Vries recalled that tackling the song "seemed to set something free in Madonna. She was straining at the leash a little bit, to find some other languages to speak, and 'Bedtime Story' was an embryonic moment that went a lot further on to the next few albums." In a review for the Bedtime Stories album on a whole, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the song was "the germ that would later inspire Madonna to seek out and conquer electronica with the likes of William Orbit and Mirwais"

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1993:

January 1: the Madonna Special #1 comic book was released by Revolutionary Comics.

Revolutionary Comics (1989–1994) was a U.S. comic book publisher best known for the series Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics, launched in 1989. Founded by publisher Todd Loren, the line featured unlicensed biographies of rock stars, told in comic book form but geared for adults, often with very adult situations (nudity, drug use, violence, etc.).

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June 5Just A Dream, written and produced by Madonna & Patrick Leonard and performed by Madonna’s long-time backing singer/dancer Donna De Lory, peaked at number-ten on Billboard’s Dance/Club chart. The song was released as the second single from De Lory’s self-titled 1992 album for MCA Records.

Just A Dream had originally been written and recorded during the Like A Prayersessions. Although Madonna had clearly intended that the album move beyond the boundaries of pure dance/pop and crossover into other styles, she reportedly felt that including Just A Dream would have tipped the balance too far in the direction of rock. When De Lory approached Madonna a few years later about the possibility of providing a song for her first album, Madonna offered Just A Dream, sensing that the song’s rock-edge would be better suited to Donna’s vocal style than her own. Madonna did, however, allow the use of her own vocals on the track, which can be heard blending with Donna’s in the song’s chorus, bridge and, most prominently, during its fadeout.

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While unconfirmed, it is assumed that no new production-work – aside from the addition of De Lory’s lead vocal – took place on the released album version of Just A Dream, with the the original Like A Prayer session tracks carried over to Donna’s version and Madonna’s original lead vocal being mixed down to background vocals. The original cut, featuring Madonna’s complete lead vocal track, has yet to surface.

Check out the video for Donna’s version of Just A Dream at the 13:00 minute mark in the following video interview compilation featuring Donna discussing our favorite topic – Madonna:

https://youtu.be/Q_VwOTBmIm8

June 21: Madonna attended the New York premiere of Sleepless In Seattle. She was joined by her friends Jenny Shimizu, Rosie O’Donnell and her brother Christopher Ciccone.

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July 8: Madonna began rehearsals for The Girlie Show World Tour.

The original rehearsed set list included the following songs:

Erotica
Fever
Vogue
Rain
True Blue
Express Yourself
Deeper and Deeper
Why’s It So Hard
In This Life
The Beast Within
Like A Virgin
Bye Bye Baby
Live to Tell
La Isla Bonita
Holiday

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September 9: Dangerous Game (starring Madonna, Harvey Keitel and James Russo) premiered at the 50th annual Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.

The director, Abel Ferrara had this about the film:

It was just another one of our films that never came out. But on that one, the audience didn’t really like the film. Madonna killed it. The first impression people get on a movie is the one that never gets out of their mind. So after Madonna got so trashed for doing Body of Evidence, she thought she was going to beat the critics to the punch and badmouth the film. And she actually got good reviews. She never got a good review from the Voice or The New York Times in her life, but she got good reviews for this movie, which she came out and trashed. I’ll never forgive her for it.

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October 1: Madonna appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris photographed by Ellen von Unwerth. An exclusive interview conducted by Martine Trittoléno was also featured.

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October 14: Rolling Stone magazine featured Madonna (several times) in an article featuring The 100 Top Music Videos.  Rolling Stone included the following Madonna music videos: Express Yourself at #10, Like A Prayer at #20, Borderline at #24, Vogue at #28, Justify My Love at #43 and Oh Father at #66 – Madonna had more videos on the list than any other artist or group.

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November 17:  Madonna arrives in Sydney, Australia and, as a gift, she is presented with a didgeridoo, a sacred Aboriginal instrument that only men are allowed to play or touch; the Australians are enraged to see her accept it as a gift.
 

November 19: Madonna performs at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia. Dangerous Game premieres in New York, NY.

November 19: the movie Dangerous Game premiered in New York City. Madonna shared top-billing with co-stars Harvey Keitel & James Russo in director Abel Ferrara’s gritty and experimental film about film-making. It was one of the first productions by Maverick Pictures, the film arm of Madonna’s multimedia company that was born in partnership with Warner Bros. the previous year. In some countries, the film was released under its original title, Snake Eyes, which could not be used in the U.S. due to a previous trademark on the name.

Given Maverick’s production involvement, it is perhaps unsurprising that the film’s credits include some names that should be familiar to many Madonna fans:

·         Madonna’s longtime manager and founding partner in Maverick, Freddy DeMann, as executive producer

·         Madonna’s assistant at the time, Missy Coggiola

·         her frequent costume designer, Marlene Stewart

·         her stylist, Hiram Ortiz–who not only styled her for the film but also appears as her stylist onscreen

·         Madonna’s then-future manager, now the late Caresse Henry–at the time an assistant to DeMann

·         songs by Maverick-signed music groups Proper Grounds & UNV

·         Madonna’s eldest brother, Anthony Ciccone, as locations production assistant

Unhappy with Ferrara’s final cut of the film–which was reported to have been drastically altered from the movie that had been pitched to the actors–Madonna did not attend the premiere and, in Ferrara’s view, killed the movie’s shot at achieving wider distribution after badmouthing it in the press. Ironically, Ferrara noted, the reviews of Madonna’s strong performance in the film (which was certainly more natural, raw & vulnerable than any of her previous big-screen appearances) are among the best she had received as an actress at the time.

Dangerous Game was re-released on Blu-ray in North America on November 17, 2015 by Olive Films. It includes both the theatrical and the “unrated” versions of the movie.


November 20: Madonna - Live Down Under: The Girlie Show (taped Nov 19 at Sydney Cricket Ground) is broadcast on HBO-TV. In Australia, Madonna cancels a scheduled concert at Sydney Cricket Ground due to severe weather conditions.

Madonna – Live Down Under: The Girlie Show was broadcast on HBO. Live Down Under was the channel’s most watched original program of the year.

The November 20 show was to be filmed at the Sydney Cricket Ground and aired on HBO, however, severe weather conditions forced the cancellation of the show, so the November 19 show (which had been taped at the same venue the night before as a “safety show”) was aired instead.


November 24: Madonna performs at Brisbane Anz Stadium, Brisbane, Australia.

November 25 1993, Madonna’s Bye Bye Baby debuted at #39 on the Swiss Hit Parade chart, and after three weeks it rose to a peak of number 28, before dropping off the chart.

The Bye Bye Baby single cover was shot by Herb Ritts. 

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November 26,27,29: Madonna performs 3 sold-out concerts at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia.
 

November  27: Madonna is named Most Popular International Solo Female Artist at the 3rd annual Australian Music Awards.


December 1: Madonna performs at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia.
December 3,4: Madonna performs 2 sold-out concerts at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia.
 

December 7,8,9: Madonna performs at the Fukuoka Dome, Fukuoka, Japan.
 

December 13,14,16,17,19: "The Girlie Show" ends with 5 sold-out concerts at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan.

December 31: Madonna throws a New Year’s party at her home in Miami after finishing her Girlie Show Tour two weeks earlier. Shep Pettibone attends, and this could be the time work for the next album was first discussed.

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1994 Jan-April

During 1994, Madonna started recording her sixth studio album. She collaborated with R&B producers such as Dallas AustinDave "Jam" Hall, and Babyface, and also enlisted British producer Nellee Hooper to the project. It became one of the very few occasions where she collaborated with well-known producers, the first since Nile Rodgers on Like a Virgin(1984). When asked about the record, Madonna said she wanted people to concentrate on the musical aspects of it, and would like the songs to speak for themselves. She also commented that it was because she was not interested in giving many interviews and being on the cover of magazines. She described the album as "a combination of pop, R&B, hip-hop and a Madonna record. It's very, very romantic". In an interview with The Face magazine, Madonna explained her inspirations behind Bedtime Stories as well as the reason for teaming up with R&B song producers.

I've been in a reflective state of mind. I've done lot of soul searching and I just felt in a romantic mood when I was writing for [the album] so that's what I wrote about... I decided that I wanted to work with a whole bunch of different producers. [Icelandic singer-songwriter] Björk's album was one of my favorite for years—it's brilliantly produced. And I also wanted to work with Massive Attack. So obviously, he was on the list. Nellee was the last person I worked with, and it wasn't until then that I got a grip of what the sound of the whole record was, so I had to go back and redo a lot.

January 23: Bye Bye Baby re-entered the New Zealand singles chart, ultimately peaking at #43. The track had initially charted in the country for a single week in late November of 1993.

January 28: It is officially announced that Madonna’s new single, “I’ll Remember” will be released on the soundtrack to the Alek Keshishian film, With Honors, on March 1.

Jan. – Feb: SPECULATION: Madonna probably did most of her writing and recording with Shep Pettibone at this time. She also wrote and recorded “I’ll Remember” with Patrick Leonard and Richard Page.

LATER: During a press conference for the album in West Hollywood, Madonna tells Cleo magazine:

"I started writing this album with Shep," she explains, "but I felt like I was writing the same kind of music over and over again. I was more interested in going back to the music that I originally started with which is R & B."

To that end Madonna brought in a crack team of today's hottest R & B producers. Dave Hall, who's turned out hits for Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, was brought in for several tracks, as was Nellee Hooper, who's along with co-writer Bjork contributes the collection's most radical departure in Bedtime Story. Madonna calls Babyface, whom she worked with on Forbidden Love and the exquisite Take a Bow, an "amazing songwriter and a poet" and says that writing with him is like "playing a great game of tennis with another great tennis player." She then goes on to boast that the two wrote both songs in one afternoon, roughly the time it takes me to do my laundry.

A fourth collaborator, Dallas Austin, who's best known for his work with TLC and Boys II Men, was chosen for his "great minimalist approach and youthfulness," two qualities that come through on the album's first single, Secret.

"The song is about hope and discovering the secret," Madonna says then explains why she chose 1960's Harlem as the milieu for the song's video. "Most people have a preconceived notion that there's only despair and sadness there, but there's a lot of beauty. When I lived in Harlem I saw so many incredible things and the song is about a secret, something so simple, something that's right in front of you, that you don't even appreciate or recognize it."

February 24Madonna attends a performance of jazz singer Jimmy Scott today at Tavern on the Green in NYC, and told photographer Andreas Johnsen that “Scott is the only singer who’d ever really made me cry.” In a photo op with Scott, she has her “I’ll Remember” video hair.

February 25: Madonna attends the second Jimmy Scott performance at Tavern on the Green. She later gives him a cameo spot in her “Secret” video.

March 1: "Madonna is seriously brunette once again. And she's also seriously at work on a new album. After the somewhat disappointing Erotica (it only went triple platinum - like this is so bad?), Madonna is determined to just kill 'em with this new offering. Everybody close to the Big M is happy she's concentrating so intensely on her music." (Austin American-Statesman)

NOTE: No idea why this newspaper claimed Erotica went triple platinum.


March 12: Madonna makes a surprise unannounced appearance at the AIDS Dance-A-Thon benefit in San Francisco, CA.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/madonna-dance-a-thon.jpg


March 15: "I'll Remember" was released by Warner Bros. Records as the soundtrack single of the film With Honors. It was a radical change in image and style for Madonna, who had received some negative critical and commercial feedback over the prior two years due to the release of her book Sex, the studio album Erotica and the film Body of Evidence. Warner Bros. had Madonna sing the song after noting most of her previous soundtrack singles had achieved commercial success

Contemporary critics praised the song, hailing it as one of her best works. It was nominated for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television at the 37th Grammy Awards and Best Original Song at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards. "I'll Remember" was also a commercial success, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming her fourth number-one hit on the Adult Contemporary chart. It also topped the singles charts in Canada and Italy.

The ballad was initially composed by musician Richard Page before being reworked by Madonna and Patrick Leonard. According to Page, "Madonna was brought in... she changed all my lyrics for the better. She really did a great job." Regarding her feelings for the song, Madonna commented,

"I think most of the time when my records come out, people are so much distracted by so much fanfare and controversy that nobody pays attention to the music. [...] I can't tell you how painful the idea of singing 'Like a Virgin' or 'Material Girl' (1984) is to me now. I didn't write either of those songs, and wasn't digging very deep then. I also feel more connected emotionally to the music I'm writing now, so it's more of a pleasure to do it.”

The song starts with a C major chord sequence and is used on the flattened seventh key of the sequence. But the actual key of the song is D major. It is set in a time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. Madonna's voice spans from F3 to G4. A much stronger arrangement of drums are used in the second verse. The chorus uses the chord sequence of D–G–Bm–A while the first two lines of each verse uses the chord progression of C–D–C–D7–C–D–Bm–A. During the intermediate line "I learned to let go of the illusion that we can possess", the structure changes to D/F–Bm–G–D–A–G–A.[6] Backing vocals are used on the later choruses for support with the strings, cascading down to a minor arrangement before the third one.

March 15: Madonna attends the 8th annual Soul Train Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA. with Rosie Perez. Madonna is sporting a new nose piercing.

LATER: In an interview, Babyface said she sought him out to work with after hearing Toni Braxton’s “Breathe Again” – a song which wins Best R&B/Soul Single at the awards tonight and her debut album wins Best R&B/Soul Album - Female. Babyface wins Best R&B/Soul Album – Male. Toni Braxton also performs this evening, as does Babyface.

At some point around this time, Madonna decided she wanted to do an R&B record and therefore she chose the best producers in R&B.

LATER: When they wrote together (M + Babyface), she visited Babyface’s studio in his Beverly Hills home. (Boston Globe 12/16/94)

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/soul-train-94-awards-5.jpg

March 17: The music video for I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors)premiered on BBC1-TV’s Top Of The Pops in the UK.

I’ll Remember began as a collaboration between Richard Page (of 80’s band Mister Mister) and Patrick Leonard. Leonard had been asked by Madonna to score Alek Keshishian’s film With Honors, and had also been collaborating with Page on an upcoming Toy Matinee album. When Leonard played an early demo of I’ll Rememberfor Madonna, she loved it and decided to record it with new lyrics she had written. The song was produced by Madonna & Patrick Leonard, with Page providing additional backing vocals.

Madonna had previously crossed paths with Richard Page when he presented her with a trophy at the 1987 American Music Awards 

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/ama-1987-richard-page.jpg


March 20: Madonna wins a Razzie Award for Worst Actress in Body Of Evidence at the 14th annual Golden Raspberry Awards at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Academy Room, Los Angeles, CA.
 

March 21: Madonna’s I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors) music video premiered on MTV.

The video was directed by Alek Keshishian. The androgynous portrayal of Madonna in the video, was appreciated critically for breaking gender barriers.

March 22Madonna is currently gathering ideas for songs – a new album is being planned and could be out by year’s end. (ICON Fanzine)

LATER: Shep Pettibone stated that he did “months of pre-production” for this album which included some demos. As pertains to the Shep collaborations, Pettibone revealed in an interview (which needs to be sourced) that the material was inspired by The Spinners (whose Philly soul work with Thom Bell was anthologised by Atlantic Records in 1992). Philly soul and Salsoul later received a major revival in the mid 1990's.

Pettibone Sessions:

1. “Love Won’t Wait” – written and recorded but later shelved. Pettibone would later give the songs to U.K. boy-band star Gary Barlow to record and he will later take the song to No. 1 in the UK in 1997. The demo which is described as “quite strong” has a pop-music angle to it with some cheesy keyboard effects.

2. “I Will Always Have You” – the original recorded and unreleased version of “Inside of Me.” The original is more of a quality power ballad along the lines of “Crazy for You” and “You’ll See” than the released version.

3. “Bring It” – written and produced but never released. This song is reportedly of far lesser quality than the other tracks Pettibone and Madonna produced for this album.

4. “Something’s Coming Over Me” – the original recorded and unreleased version of “Secret” that was abandoned. The original track was more in the style of “Vogue” with an erotic “Donna Summer Love to Love You Baby” disco theme.

POSSIBLY: “Goodtime” & “Tongue Tied” – songs listed in the Warner Chappell copyright database written by Madonna and Shep. These could be from a different time period but remain unreleased with little known of their nature.

March 24: Madonna is seen with Tupac Skakur in NYC at the broadcast of S.N.L. – she also (reportedly) smokes pot with Snoop Dogg (the musical guest that night) in his dressing room. 2Pac and Madonna (around this time) record a demo for “I’d Ratha Be Ya Lova.”

March 29: "MADONNA ALERT: Yes, that was the Material Girl in town last week [Atlanta]. Our music writers told us that Madonna has a possible recording deal in the works with a local producer, but details are still being hammered out and final word is expected next week." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

March 30: While recording new material for her upcoming album in New York, Madonna attends several NY Knicks games at Madison Square Garden.

Madonna Interview : Late Show with David Letterman (March 31 1994)

http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-late-show-with-david-letterman-march-31-1994
 

March 31: Madonna guested on CBS-TV’s Late Show With David Letterman: during the 20-minute interview, she said the word “fuck” 13 times, made obscene remarks and wisecracks, refused to leave the set and was rude to her host; her lewd and vulgar behavior caused a public and media controversy and Letterman also expressed his displeasure by her appearance on his show.

https://youtu.be/wtyxIfwoEns

https://youtu.be/u_-PXJMHFgw

April 2: Early reports say that Madonna’s next album will be a return to her Like A Virgin days of pure dance-pop.

April 2: In the United States, I’ll Remember  debuted at number 35 on the Hot 100 chart for the Billboard issue dated April 2, 1994. After eight weeks, the song reached a peak of number two on the chart. It stayed there for four weeks, being blocked from the top spot by All-4-One's "I Swear". The song became the fifth single by Madonna to peak at the number two position and tied her with Elvis Presley for the most number two songs on the Hot 100. However, this record was broken by Madonna in 1998, when her single "Frozen" peaked at two. The song also topped the Adult Contemporary chart for four consecutive weeks, becoming Madonna's fourth number-one for this chart following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", and "Cherish".

In the United Kingdom it debuted at ten on the chart and reached seven the next week. It was present for a total of eight weeks on the chart. According to the Official Charts Company, "I'll Remember" has sold 100,090 copies in the United Kingdom, as of August 2008. Across Europe, the song became a top 40 hit in Belgium, France, Netherlands and Switzerland. The song reached the top-ten in Australia, Ireland and Sweden and peaked the chart in Italy. It peaked just outside the top 40 in Germany.

April 8: The album is expected in the fall of ’94.

April 12: Madonna sent a handwritten note to David Letterman wishing him a Happy Fucking Birthday.

The letter – sent less than two weeks after her infamous profanity-laced appearance on the Late Show – teasingly takes Letterman to task for having used the controversy to his advantage.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/madonna_to_letterman_1994.png

 

April 12: "Madonna and Atlanta-based producer Dallas Austin danced the night away Sunday (April 10) at Velvet's Disco Hell after sealing a deal to work together. "Dallas is going to be working on Madonna's upcoming project," confirmed Claude Austin, the producer's brother and vice president of D.A.R.P. Inc. (Dallas Austin Recording Projects). "She came down a couple of weeks ago and listened to some tracks he put together for her liked them. Now they are in the process of writing." Dallas Austin, known for his cutting-edge work with such platinum-selling acts as TLC, Boyz II Men and Another Bad Creation, has three record labels here (Rowdy, R & Beats and Limp), whose rosters include the Billboard award-winning duo Illegal and Atlanta newcomer Joi." (Atlanta Journal Constitution).

April 13-20: Madonna is currently in Atlanta writing and recording material with Dallas Austin. He was recommended by Babyface with whom she has already written several songs with for the album. Babyface says in a USA Today article (published later on) that she sought his services after hearing Toni Braxton’s “Breathe Again” which was a No. 3 hit in November 1993.

LATER: Dallas Austin and Madonna will have written several other songs for this record.

Austin Sessions:

1. “Keep On” – written by Madonna, Dallas Austin, and Colin Wolfe. This quite possibly an early version of “Don’t Stop.”

2. “Right On Time” – written by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

3. “Honesty” or “Your Honesty” – written, recorded and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

4. “Freedom” – written, recorded and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

5. “Let Down Your Guard” – written, recorded and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

LATER: Madonna will later say in an interview that she wanted to work with Dallas Austin because she “just loved” the work he did with Joi Cardwell on The Pendulum Vibe. In the same interview, she also said she didn't really want to work with Dave Hall, but her record company made her. She said after she got together with him, she liked him alot.

April 16-17: Liz Rosenberg confirms that Madonna is in Atlanta this weekend working on her new album. Dennis Rodman is with her.

April 19: MTV News reports Madonna has already written material with Babyface and Dallas Austin for her next release.

April 24Madonna is back in Los Angeles working on her album.

April 26: The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was released by Warner-Reprise Video on VHS and laserdisc.

The concert – recorded on November 19, 1993 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia – was a re-edited version of the concert special that had aired live on HBO. It was directed by Mark “Aldo” Miceli, who directed the live screens on Madonna’s 1990 and 1993 tours, as well as the Blond Ambition Japan Tour 90 VHS/laserdisc release. The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was nominated for a Grammy in 1995 for Best Long Form Music Video and was also one of the first concerts to be commercially issued on DVD in 1998.

 

Madonna attended the Los Angeles premiere of the Alek Keshishian film, With Honors.

Madonna contributed I’ll Remember (the theme song) to the soundtrack which was distributed by Maverick Records.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-1.jpg

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https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-3.jpg

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-4.jpg

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1994 May-August

 

“Madonna makes dance!” by Madonna : Harper’s Bazaar (May 1994)

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1994-madonna-harpers-bazaar.jpg

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-articles/madonna-makes-dance-madonna-harpers-bazaar-may-1994

May 1: Madonna and Babyface have already written a couple of songs. (Washington Post)

May 2: Reports say that Madonna’s work with Babyface and Dallas Austin continues the vein of hiphop and R&B that she experimented with on Erotica with André Betts.

May 6: Z-100 reports the new album will be out in October.

May 14: "Madonna: The Girlie Show - Live Down Under" hits US #3 on Top Music Videos chart. Madonna attends the opening of Planet Hollywood restaurant in Miami, FL.

Madonna: The Girlie Show – Live Down Under hit #3 on the US Top Music Videos Chart.  The live video recording was released on April 25 1994.

Dominic Griffin from Daily Variety had this to say about the release:

Madonna danced, sang, and more specifically entertained her way through this two-hour concert set. Madonna’s comments aside, this show was purely for the cameras and the viewing audience at home. Expertly shot with multi-cameras including a crane and an onstage SteadiCam, the show was shot in close quarters, with an occasional pan of the vast audience. After a slow start, the show, which included nine costume changes, never once let up. Madonna showed great energy and amazing stamina throughout.

May 16: In Canada, the song debuted at 52 on the Canadian RPM Singles Chart. After seven weeks it reached the top of the chart for the RPM issue dated May 16, 1994. The song was present on the chart for 24 weeks, and was ranked at number two on the Year-end RPM chart for 1994.

Madonna’s I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors) became the number-one single in Canada. The song remained at the top of the Canadian singles chart for five weeks before finally being dislodged on June 20th by All-4-One’s hit, I Swear. Incidentally, it was 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 in its peak position of number-two.

May 18: Madonna makes a surprise appearance on NBC-TV's The Tonight Show (hosted by Jay Leno).
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1b5h3e

May 28: "I'll Remember (Theme From With Honors)" hits US #2.

I’ll Remember (Theme From The Motion Picture With Honors) peaked at #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Sales chart (one week), Hot 100 Airplay chart (five weeks) and Top 40 Mainstream chart (three weeks).

This combined push allowed the single to reach its overall peak of #2 on the Hot 100 Singles chart.

Had the single’s slower growing success on the Hot AC chart (which would peak at #1 for four weeks beginning June 11th) aligned with its sales peak on May 28th, I’ll Remembermight have advanced to the top spot on the Hot 100. Instead, a very respectable four-week run at #2 would have to do.

 

Matthew Rettenmund ranks the Guerrilla Beach Mix of I’ll Remember (by William Orbit) as the #9 of 25 Best Madonna Mixes. Here’s what Matthew says about the remix:

Madonna’s easy-listening staple I’ll Remember from the hard-to-watch With Honorsgot a deep remix by Orbit, which could be heard as spacey or as originating at the precipice of a vast ocean. (I’m thinking of Sinead O’Connor’s “Jackie” here.) I’m embarrassed I forgot this remix when I first created this list, but I’m not embarrassed to say I think it’s markedly superior to the lovely but unassuming original.

 

June 5: Atlanta Journal: The Madonna sightings around the city at the dance club Velvet, Barnes & Noble and local art galleries may be in shorter supply, as she plans to wrap up work with local producer Dallas Austin this weekend. "She has been working feverishly to complete her album [expected in October]," says her spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg. "She's back in town to wrap up her cuts with Dallas, and if all goes well, she'll be leaving after this weekend." [June 4-5]

June 9: A British tabloid reports that Nellee Hooper is working with Madonna on her new LP. Hooper recently co-produced Björk’s Debut. Hooper is also from the original collective that spawn Massive Attack, and he was one half of the elegantly-groovey Soul II Soul (“Back to Life,” and “Keep On Movin’”). He also produced Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

June 14: "I'll Remember (Theme From With Honors)" single is certified gold (500,000 units).

The single spent a total of 26 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 14, 1994. It was one of the best-selling singles of 1994, having sold 500,000 copies within that year.

June 15: Dangerous Game is released on home video.

Dangerous Game was released on home video. The film was directed by Abel Ferrara, and starred Madonna, Harvey Keitel and James Russo.

In 2007, Ferrara recalled,

It was just another one of our films that never came out. But on that one, the audience didn’t really like the film. Madonna killed it. The first impression people get on a movie is the one that never gets out of their mind. So after Madonna got so trashed for doing Body of Evidence, she thought she was going to beat the critics to the punch and badmouth the film. And she actually got good reviews. She never got a good review from the Voice or The New York Times in her life, but she got good reviews for this movie, which she came out and trashed. I’ll never forgive her for it.


June 18: Madonna’s I’ll Remember reached #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the USA.

I’ll Remember topped the Adult Contemporary chart for four consecutive weeks, becoming Madonna’s fourth number-one on this chart following Live to TellLa Isla Bonita and Cherish.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/madonna-ill-remember-adult-1.jpeg

 

June 24: Madonna attends "The Beat Goes On: The LifeBeat Benefit Concert" at the Beacon Theatre, New York, NY.

June 25: Madonna’s I’ll Remember peaked at #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the USA.

This early in-house interview for Warner Bros. was recorded Summer 1994 in Atlanta while working with Dallas Austin and previews three songs; "Secret", "Take A Bow" and "Human Nature". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztSJzPMqLFQ&feature=youtu.be

The rougher mix of "Secret" heard during this presentation was released promotionally in the US as "Drum Mix". Despite the listed run time of 6:39, it's actually only a few seconds longer than the version on Bedtime Stories and may have been an earlier mix of the song prior to stripping back the opening verse to an acoustic arrangement. The string track is also more subdued on this version.

http://www.tokyomusicjapan.com/auction/PROCD7243R.jpg

July 19: The album is scheduled to be released on October 25, 1994.

July 19: Madonna contributes "Goodbye To Innocence" to benefit CD Just Say Roe.
Madonna contributed Goodbye to Innocence to the Just Say Roebenefit 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.

https://youtu.be/fZCDH0pMQko

July 26: Madonna files a temporary restraining order against 26-year-old Todd Lawrence, a deranged fan who is stalking Madonna at her Los Angeles, CA mansion and also claims to be her husband.

July:  Madonna films a cameo appearance as a singing telegram girl for Wayne Wang and Paul Auster movie Blue In The Face.

August 8: US magazine writes:

“Critics may have sounded the death knell for MADONNA, but it ain't over till the phat lady sings. This time around, the bullet-breasted diva performs R&B songs, one of which is produced by hit-magnet Babyface.”

August 10: Storyboard artist Grant Shaffer meets with director Mark Romanek today at Venice Beach video editing company Spot Welders to discuss storyboards for the “Bedtime Story” video. He plays Shaffer the completed song and shows him photographs (from the Paolo Roversi shoot) to give him an idea of what he (Romanek) has in mind. Madonna calls Romanek from Florida during the meeting to discuss schedule and budget.

August 14: According to the LA Times, Madonna just turned in her album to Warner Bros. and it is reportedly a full-out R&B affair:

Madonna's look changes all the time, but her music has stayed fairly consistent. But she's taken off in a new direction for her upcoming album. The collection, just turned in to Warner Bros. Records, which distributes her Maverick label, is reportedly a full-out R&B affair.

The sometimes-blond bomber enlisted four top R&B producers to help her out: Babyface, Dallas Austin, Dave Hall and former Soul II Soul member Nellee Hooper. Hooper, in turn, brought in Icelandic sprite Bjork (whose 1993 solo album he produced) to write a new song, "Bedtime Story."

There's no title picked yet for the album, which is expected to be released in late fall or early winter-in other words, in time for Christmas shoppers.

August 21: Liz Smith says that Madonna held a post-show party for her Maverick act Candlebox who played in Miami tonight. Madonna brought her new white pitbull-terrier, Pepito which was a recent birthday gift from a female friend. Pepito may end up in the album photos with Madonna.

August 22: Madonna’s upcoming album is tentatively titled Secrets and will feature samples of several “classic” songs. The clearance for copyright approval is the reason for delay.

August 23A contact at Sire Records leaks the scoop that the album’s title is really called Bedtime Stories. She says that this is a working title and is subject to change.

August 23: Todd Lawrence is sentenced to one-year in jail on misdemeanor charges for stalking Madonna.

August 27: The first single, “Secrets” is schedule to hit radio on Sept. 27. Extended dance remixes of the song are also expected for clubs.

August 28: Babyface co-produced two songs on Madonna’s upcoming set.

August 30: Although the album has reportedly been done for awhile, there is still an issue with clearing several samples from classic songs used on various tracks for the album, thus the late (October 25) release date.

Early titles to emerge are:

“Oops, I’m Sorry” – Madonna lashing out at her critics

“For You” – About her loneliness at the top

“Inside of Me”

A tune written by Björk

A song with a co-performance by Me’Shell NdegeOcello


 

Madonna Interview : Esquire Magazine (August 1994)

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1994-madonna-esquire.jpg

http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-esquire-magazine-august-1994

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1994 September-October

 

September 1: People at Maverick Records say the album is “going to be R&B influenced…it’s good stuff.”

September 1: Madonna was named Diva of the Decade by CD Review magazine.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/cd-review-madonna-diva-decade.jpg

September 7: Madonna worked with several producers on her upcoming album, including Babyface, Dallas Austin and Nellee Hooper (of Soul II Soul fame). MTV describes it as “romantic pop with an R&B edge.”

September 8: Madonna and David Letterman present the Best Video Of The Year award to Aerosmith for "Cryin'" at the 11th annual MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY.

Madonna presented the award for Video of the Year at the MTV VMA’s. She was escorted onstage by David Letterman, poking fun at their supposed feud following Madonna’s infamous profanity propelled appearance on Letterman earlier that year.

The appearance was intended to generate buzz for her soon-to-be-released single, Secret and its accompanying album, Bedtime Stories.

 

September 8: During the MTV VMA Pre-show in NYC, Tabitha Soren talks to Björk about the new track she wrote for Madonna’s album, and the Icelandic singer says the song was written "more as a favor to her friend" (Nellee Hooper) whom Madonna had asked for a song. Also, according to Carlos Leon later, today is the day he met Madonna jogging in Central Park. Carlos will later be Lola's father.

LATER: Björk contributed the track “Sweet Intuition,” a paean to the intuitive forces of the world. This song eventually became “Bedtime Story.” Björk’s version would end up as the B-side to her 1995 hit, “It’s Oh So Quiet.”

September 9: Madonna films the “Secret” video in Harlem with Melodie McDaniel directing. Art direction by Fatima. The shoot, which was supposed to be top secret eventually sees 100’s of people showing up. Madonna is reportedly not very nice during the shoot.

NOTE: Madonna’s male love interest in the video is up-and-coming 6’2 Barbados model Richard Elms. He becomes the new Guess! supermodel in 1996. He co-starred in a CK ONE ad campaign shot in 1994 by Steven Meisel.

September 9–11: The Secret video was filmed during, 1994 at the Lenox Lounge and on location on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. McDaniel and her team scouted out low-rent, speak-easy locations and they did street-casting, assembling off-beat characters, from transvestites to card tricksters and edgy Harlem teenagers. However, when it came to filming there was a problem—McDaniel's approach was to start the camera and let the cast improvise, but Madonna wanted direction. She would sit on the chair and when McDaniel said "Action", she would still sit there saying impatiently, "What am I doing? What am I doing? Hello?" The director was overawed by Madonna's big entourage and had held herself from speaking her mind about the singer's look. She later asked Madonna to appear edgy like Jennifer Jason Leigh's character in the 1990 drama film Last Exit to Brooklyn. Madonna had her hair and makeup re-done and it was the final look for the video.

September 12: Madonna’s new song “Secret” reportedly has lyrics inspired by Hinduism. The song is scheduled to hit radio on Sept. 19. (Entertainment Weekly)

September 14: the lead single from Madonna’s Bedtime Stories album, Secret, was made available for download on the internet through America Online (AOL) and CompuServe.

Before the single was made available, Madonna posted this message for her fans:

Hello, all you Cyberheads! Welcome to the 90’s version of intimacy. You can hear me… You can even see me… But you can’t touch me… do you recognize my voice?… It’s Madonna. Often imitated, but never duplicated. Or, should I say, often irritated? If you feel like it, you can download the sound file of my new single Secret, from my new album, Bedtime Stories, which comes out next month. I just shot the video in New York, and will be premiering an exclusive sample of it online. So check back soon. In the meantime, why don’t you post me a message and let me know what you think of my new song. And by the way, don’t believe any of those online imposters pretending to be me… ain’t nothing like the real thing. Peace out.

BILLBOARD (09/17/1994): Madonna’s Sneak Peak

Warner Bros. Records will preview Madonna’s upcoming album online as part of the label’s extensive activities with America Online and Compuserve. Subscribers to either computer service can listen to a chunk of the album's debut single, "Secret," beginning Wednesday (14), a week before the single goes to radio, and also can access album information and artwork. Madonna herself will provide a personal introduction to the audioclip. Warner also plans to preview the single's videoclip online at a laer date, prior to it's TV debut. Madonna's new album "Bedtime Stories", is due October 25.

September 15: Tracklisting is released:

1. Survival (Dallas Austin/Nellee Hooper)

2. Secret (Dallas Austin)

3. I’d Rather Be Your Lover (Dave Hall)

4. Don’t Stop (Dallas Austin) Daniel Abraham remix

5. Inside of Me (Dave Hall/Nellee Hooper)

6. Human Nature (Dave Hall)

7. Forbidden Love (Babyface)

8. Love Tried to Welcome Me (Dave Hall)

9. Sanctuary (Dallas Austin) Hooper remix

10. Bedtime Story (Nellee Hooper)

11. Take a Bow (Babyface)

September 17: The Junior Vasquez dance mixes of “Secret” hit the clubs with a bang.

September 20: "Secret" was released on September 20, 1994 as the lead single from the album by Warner Bros. Records as well as Maverick and Sire. "Secret" was based on a demo by producer Shep Pettibone, which was reworked by Dallas Austin, with whom Madonna was working on Bedtime Stories. The track was written and produced by the singer and Austin, with Pettibone as co-writer.

The song was released accompanied by eight different remixes by DJ Junior Vasquez, who re-used Madonna's vocals, but changed the composition of the track completely. Unusual for a singer in the mid-1990s, Madonna talked about the new single on the Internet, leaving an audio message for her fans as well as a snippet of the song. "Secret" received favorable reviews from music critics, who praised Madonna's vocal delivery and its mid-tempo R&B groove, deeming it seductive and soulful.

The song was also a commercial success. In the United States, it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In the United Kingdom, it reached a peak of number five, becoming her record-breaking 35th consecutive top-ten single on the UK Singles Chart. Elsewhere, it reached number one in Canada, Finland and Switzerland, and the top five in Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, New Zealand and Spain.

With the single's cover art and its accompanying music video, Madonna ushered in another image change, inspired by the look of Hollywood actress Jean Harlow. The black and white video was directed by photographer Melodie McDaniel, who was chosen by the singer due to McDaniel's previous short films. It features Madonna as a singer in a nightclub in Harlem, New York. Interspersed with scenes of daily life in the neighborhood, the video ends with Madonna uniting with her lover and their supposed child. The video sparked academic discussions about what might constitute the lyrical secret of the song.

"Secret" begins with the sound of an acoustic guitar and wah-wah and just the sound of Madonna's voice singing over it, before opening up to a sparse, retro rhythm section. A descending chord sequence follows and around the one minute mark, the drums start with Madonna singing the chorus "Something's coming over, mmmmmmmm". It is entirely supported by the strings and Madonna's lower harmonies allude to songs by Kurt Cobain. According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, the descending chords are supported by the ascending strings—an example of contrary motion used in music. During the middle section, another wah-wah guitar solo is added alongside the strings. Near the end, the melodies add an upper harmony for differentiation with the verses.

According to Musicnotes.com, the song is set in the time signature of common time and progresses in 96 beats per minute. The composition is set in the key of E minor with Madonna's vocal ranging from G3 to G4. "Take a Bow" contains a basic sequence of B7–Em7–D–Cm7–C during the opening verses, and B7–Em–D–C during the chorus its chord progression. Madonna's voice remains at the center of the song's production, as she sings lyrics such as "happiness lies in your own hand".

September 20: Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection music video collection was certified triple platinum (for shipment of 300,000 units) in the USA.
 

September 27: "Secret" single is released.

Secret was released as the lead single from Bedtime Stories. Initially credited to Madonna & Dallas Austin upon its release, Shep Pettibone was later given a co-writing credit due to his involvement in the creation of an early demo version of the track entitled Something Coming Over Me. The demo – which has been described by the few who have heard it as having a club anthem vibe without the R&B overtones of the Austin version – was submitted by Pettibone to the Library Of Congress for copyright registration but has yet to leak. The released version was produced by Madonna & Dallas Austin, and is the only song on the album to feature Austin’s untouched production work. Austin’s other contributions to the album were either reworked with new production (Survival) or remixed (Sanctuary) by Nellee Hooper or Daniel Abraham (Don’t Stop)‏.

 

To promote the release of Secret, Madonna made her virgin attempt at reaching out to fans and potential listeners via the burgeoning world wide web with a playful audio teaser:

“Hello all you cyberheads! Welcome to the 90’s version of intimacy…you can hear me, you can even see me, but you can’t touch me! Do you recognize my voice? It’s Madonna. Often imitated but never duplicated. Or should I say – often irritated? If you feel like it, you can download the sound file of my new single Secret from my new album Bedtime Stories which comes out next month. I just shot the video in New York and will be premiering an exclusive sample of it online, so check back soon. In the meantime, why don’t you post me a message and let me know what you think of my new song. And by the way, don’t believe any of those online imposters pretending to be me…ain’t nothing like the real thing! Peace out.”

While the North American single used only the instrumental version of Secret on its flip-side, many other markets, including European territories, were treated to an unreleased outtake from the Bedtime Stories sessions. Perhaps fearing that the distinctly American R&B influence of Secret may have had limited appeal in Europe, Warner made the strategic decision to include an added incentive for European fans to pick up the single – undoubtedly spurring an increase in the number of copies exported to North America in the process. Although non-album b-sides are a relatively rare occurrence in Madonna’s catalogue given the large number of singles she has released through the years, Let Down Your Guard (written and produced by Madonna & Dallas Austin) is particularly peculiar due to its labeling as a “Rough Mix Edit.” This disclaimer-like appendage seemingly suggests that either Madonna or her record label deemed it necessary to explicitly caution listeners that the song was not indicative of the more polished production work that would be featured on the Bedtime Stories album proper. Indeed, the idiosyncratic nuances of Austin’s production (with its tip-of-the-hat to early Prince material) is largely what makes Let Down Your Guard such an unguarded and enjoyable obscurity – rendering its disclaimer redundant.

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September 29: Madonna and 3 ex-dancers reach an out-of-court settlement on a lawsuit they filed against her in 1992.

September 30: Insiders report that pre-production has already begun on a video for the title track, “Bedtime Story.” Casting agents for the video are currently looking for elderly Asian women.




.
 

 

BILLBOARD (October 1, 1994): Mo's Secret: We have barely tired of Madonna's genius (and somewhat under-appreciated) 1992 opus, "Erotica," and the button-pushing diva steps forward with a delicious new slice of dance floor drama. She previews the upcoming Maverick/Sire collection, "Bedtime Stories," due in stores Oct. 25, with "Secret," a romantic kicker that comes in several wildly different incarnations. Co-produced by La M with hip-hop maven Dallas Austin, 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.

Citizens of the club community are more likely to subscribe to a pair of outstanding house interpretations by Juniour Vasquez. His "Luscious" mix strobes with vibrant keyboards and an elastic bassline. His treatment of Madonna's vocal is sharply attuned to the unusual levels of a club sound system without burying it behind the bassline. A tight edit of this mix would swing comfortably onto crossover radio airwaves.

Vasquez also tends to the requirements of harder heads on the expansive "Sound Factory" version, which runs amok with cathartic tribal percussion and ominous synth loops. Further enhanced by impending mixes by Bizarre Inc,. this single is a promising preamble to what will likely be a cool, new chapter in the career of dance music's most successful graduate.

October 3: The Wall Street Journal says that due to slow sales of Madonna’s last album, they are only shipping 3 million copies (worldwide) of her new record. Erotica initially shipped 4 million.

October 3: In Canada the song debuted at number 91 on the RPM Singles Chart the week of October 3, 1994, eventually peaking at number one for three consecutive weeks starting from November 14, 1994. On the RPM 1994 Year-End Chart, the song finished at number 23.

October 4: “Secret” premieres on MTV today. It features Madonna in a Harlem Renaissance-setting.

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.

October 5: Madonna arrives in Paris, France on a promotional tour for her new CD Bedtime Stories.

October 8: In the United States “Secret” debuted at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 issue dated October 8, 1994. It was the third highest debut of Madonna's music career at that time, following "Erotica" at number 13 (1992) and "Rescue Me" at number 15 (1991). According to journalist Liz Smith, "Secret" became the most requested song on US radios after it was sent for airplay, being spun on 152 radio stations and gaining around 1,900 spins. Following the release of the commercial CD formats the next week, the song debuted on the Singles Sales chart at number 31 with 18,000 units sold. Three weeks later it peaked on the chart at number three, staying for a total of 22 weeks; 11 of those were spent within the top ten. It also peaked at number three on both the US Hot 100 Airplay and Mainstream Top 40 charts and at number two on the Adult Contemporary chart. On the Hot Dance Club Songs chart it peaked at number one for two weeks, aided by the remixes from Vasquez. At the Year-end Hot 100 ranking for 1994, "Secret" was placed at number 84 and for 1995, it was ranked at number 71. "Secret" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 5, 1995, for shipment of 500,000 copies of the single. 

In the United Kingdom "Secret" debuted and peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart, staying on the chart for a total of ten weeks. According to the Official Charts Company, the song has sold a total of 117,957 copies in that region as of 2008. "Secret" became her 35th consecutive top-ten single since "Like a Virgin" (1984), which remains an unequaled record in British chart history. On the French Singles Chart, "Secret" peaked at number two for two weeks, staying on the chart for a total of 30 weeks. It placed at number 26 on the year-end chart and was eventually certified silver by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for shipment of 125,000 copies; the song has sold a total of 255,000 copies in France. The song also peaked at number one in Finland as well as Switzerland, charting on the Swiss Singles Chart for a total of 19 weeks. The song also placed within the top 10 on the charts in Italy, Spain, and Denmark, peaking at number three, number four, and number eight respectively. In Austria, the single missed the top 10, peaking at number 11, while in Ireland it peaked at number 16 on the Irish Singles Chart. In Sweden, the song peaked at number 12 and spent a total of 16 cumulative weeks on the chart.

October 9: Overseas, the “Secret” single has an unreleased B-side written and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin called “Let Down Your Guard.”

USA TODAY: Madonna’s “Secret” is a song about self-empowering spirituality inspired by Indian Hindu philosopher Mother Meera.

October 11-16: Madonna is in Paris doing interviews for the album’s release. She also struts on Jean Paul Gaultier’s fall fashion show as a Valkyrie pushing a baby carriage with a white puppy inside.

October 15: newswires shared photos of Madonna participating in Jean-Paul Gaultier’s spring/summer 1995 ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, France (the show took place October 14). The show focused on 30’s, 40’s and 50’s fashion.

This is what Jean-Paul had to say about his approach to the show:

“I tried to capture a synthesis of each period: the silhouette that was the most important, the print, the fabrics. It’s a mix of the periods I love and admire, what I remember most about each of them. But it wasn’t pretentious. I’m not trying to make it better than they did then, because it’s impossible to make it better.”

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October 19: E.W. “The new music revolution will be televised-sort of. It's taking place on computer screens.......Like movie trailers, these previews (also on America Online) provide a taste of tunes to come. Take Madonna's new "Secret," which debuted along with a breathy message on Sept. 15-over a week before the single hit the radio. CompuServ tallies 8,000 downloads in the first week and a half.”

October 20: WB reports the second single has already been selected – it will be the Babyface ballad, “Take A Bow.”

October 23: "Secret" entered the ARIA Singles Chart at its peak of number five the week of October 23, 1994, eventually charting for a total of fourteen weeks. It later landed at number 46 position on the Australian singles year-end chart. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) certified it gold for shipment of 35,000 copies. 

 

October 25: Madonna’s sixth studio album Bedtime Stories was released on October 25, 1994, by Maverick and Warner Bros. Records. Madonna collaborated with Dallas Austin, Babyface, Dave "Jam" Hall, and Nellee Hooper in order to move into a more mainstream sound.

pop and R&B album, Bedtime Stories explores lyrical themes of love, sorrow, and romance, but with a toned-down, less sexual approach. Critics described the album as "autobiographical", as the song "Human Nature" addresses the controversy surrounding her book Sex. Madonna also worked with Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk on the track "Bedtime Story", as she wanted to explore the British club musical scene, where genres such as dub had been growing in popularity.

When the self-orchestrated media onslaught that accompanied the release of her previous album Erotica largely overshadowed the brilliant work it contained, Madonna took a decidedly subdued approach when it came to promoting Bedtime Stories. Interviews conducted for its release were mostly in print with a greater emphasis being placed on music – it seemed as though Madonna had little patience at the time for interviewers who insisted on turning her private life into headlines. 

Both a sense of defiance and a hint of impatience with society’s intolerance to her boundary-pushing provocations carried over into the work itself, most notably with album opener, Survival and the sardonically biting Human Nature. But such sentiments were balanced with songs that were perhaps more personal and more poetic than she had offered on previous albums, with the possible exception of Like A Prayer. Feelings of longing, loneliness and loss – along with early glimpses into spiritual rediscovery – are at the emotional heart of the record, with songs like Love Tried To Welcome Me and Sanctuary containing some of her most ambitiously inspired lyrics, expanding on written works by George Herbert, Carson McCullers and Walt Whitman. 

Perhaps the album’s most notable triumph is for Madonna as record producer, as she successfully manages to design an overarching flow that seamlessly bridges the styles of her various collaborators and co-producers. Indeed, Bedtime Stories is a body of work that is much more successful as a whole than it is broken down into individual tracks, which may explain why it is frequently overlooked in comparison to her more singles-driven albums of the previous decade. Even the record’s mega-hit, Take A Bow hasn’t maintained the traction in the realm of public consciousness that some of her earlier and later hits have managed to do. But when played from start to finish, Bedtime Stories remains surprisingly relevant through its subtleties and nuances – aptly demonstrating that even for Madonna, sometimes less is more.

“So here’s my question –
Does your criticism have you caught up
In what you cannot see?”

 

Bedtime Stories received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the album's candid lyrics and production, and it was nominated for Best Pop Album at the 38th Grammy Awards. Commercially, the album was an improvement over Erotica. Debuting and peaking at number three on the Billboard200, the album was certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It also became her fifth number-one album in Australia and peaked within the top five in other international territories. Bedtime Stories has sold an estimated eight million copies worldwide.

The lead single from the album, "Secret", gave Madonna her record-breaking 35th consecutive top ten single on the UK Singles Chart, while "Take a Bow" spent seven weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Other singles released, "Bedtime Story" and "Human Nature", did not match the previous singles' success. In order to further promote Bedtime Stories, Madonna performed songs from the album on the American Music Awards of 1995 and the 1995 Brit Awards. A concert tour was also planned, but did not take place due to Madonna acquiring the title role in the 1996 musical film, Evita.

 

October 25: E.W. Review: B+

October 26: USA Today Review: 3 ½ stars out of 4

October 28Madonna flies to Antequera, Spain where she will film the video for “Take A Bow” this weekend. The video will feature a love story-scenario centered around a Spanish bullfighter and is based on the opera “Carmen.” The video will feature real-life bullfighter Emilio Muñoz and over 200 extras. The video costs her label six-figures.

LATER: The video is based on the 1941 film Blood & Sand starring Rita Hayworth.

October 29: BILLBOARD REVIEW (Oct. 29, 1994)

The Queen of Pop pulls another doozie from her bag of tricks, with the help from a cast of savvy conspirators. This time, rather than shocking with sexual antics, or evening trying to break musical ground, Ms. M sticks to a pop recipe that yields hits galore, with excess baggage. Most seductive offerings are pop smash “Secret,” catchy opener “Survival,” funky “I’d Rather Be Your Lover” (featuring Me’Shell NdegeOcello on bass), dancefloor gem, “Don’t Stop,” tribal jam “Human Nature,” and Babyface collaberation, “Take A Bow.” A holiday feast for Top 40, Rhythm Crossover and AC.

Madonna Interview : The Face (October 1994)

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Madonna Interview : Los Angeles Times (October 23 1994)

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1994 November-December

 

November 1: Madonna is voted Worst Actress, Worst Female Singer and Most-Overexposed Celebrity in US magazine reader's poll.

November 1: Madonna describes “Secret” as a “song about spirituality and empowerment. It contains an Indian/Hindu philosophy which says that God lives within all of us and that happiness lies in our own hands.”

November 3: 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 BowYou’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.

November 4: Madonna is still in Ronda, Spain today filming the running through the streets scene of “Take A Bow.” They end up shooting 10 hours of film for the whole video.

In an MTV Special taped this week in Spain:

Kurt Loder: I thought you played piano…

Madonna: Very primitively. I can, I mean…basic chord progressions, but I hear melodies in my head. I usually rely on them [producer/collaborators] to pound it out on the keyboard…that’s how I worked with Babyface anyways. I pretty much had a wishlist…of people that I really admired…or sort of had my eye on working with for some time. And Babyface and Dallas Austin and Nellee Hooper were at the top of that list, and then I ended up with working with Dave Hall cuz he was a friend of friend and he kept saying “You’ve gotta work with this guy!” I really didn’t know him at all. There were a few other people that were recommended, but songwriting is like – I mean collaborating with anybody it’s very intimate - it’s hard. Sometimes it doesn’t work with people. You get in a room and you don’t feel comfortable or so, I went through a few of those and…kicked ‘um right out.

November 5: The Bedtime Stories album enjoyed success in Europe, reaching the top five of most countries of the continent. It sold over 2 million copies across Europe, earning a double platinum certification from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).] On November 5, 1994, Bedtime Stories debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, behind Bon Jovi's Cross Road. It remained a total of 30 weeks on the chart. The album was certified platinum on November 1, 1994, by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of 300,000 copies. Bedtime Stories also peaked at number two in France, staying in the top 10 for five weeks and remaining a total of 22 weeks on the chart. It became a number four hit in Germany, remaining 37 weeks on the German Albums Chart, and received a platinum certification by Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) after moving in excess of 500,000 copies in that market.

 

November 5: "Secret" hits US #3.

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.”


November 5: Bedtime Stories entered the UK album charts at number-two. It was Madonna’s second consecutive studio album to miss the top position on the UK charts, but it would be her last until 2015’s Rebel Heart, which also topped out in the runner-up position.

Which album denied Bedtime Stories its shot at earning Madonna another number-one debut in the UK? A greatest hits collection by perennial favorite of hockey (or in this case–soccer) moms everywhere, apparently….Bon Jovi.

 

November 6: Bedtime Stories also performed well in Asia-Pacific. It debuted at number one on the ARIA Charts on November 6, 1994, and remained on the chart for 30 weeks. The album was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 140,000 copies. It experienced moderate success in New Zealand, debuting at its peak of number six, before dropping to number 16 the next week, and remaining for nine weeks in total. Bedtime Stories entered the Japanese Oricon Weekly Album Chart at number nine, continuing Madonna's uninterrupted streak of top ten hit albums there. In total, Bedtime Stories has sold an estimated eight million copies worldwide.

 

November 6: In New Zealand, the song ‘Secret’ entered the New Zealand Singles Chart at number 31 the week of November 6, 1994, eventually peaked at number five, remaining on the chart for a total of eight weeks.

November 7In Canada, the album entered the RPM Albums Chart at number four on November 7, 1994, and was certified double platinum by the Music Canada (MC) for shipments of 200,000 copies.

November 8Madonna describes the album: “This is a very, very romantic record. The idea going in was to juxtapose my singing style with a hardcore, hiphop sensibility and have the finished product still sound like a Madonna record.”

She says, “I began the process by meeting with hiphop producers whose work I most admired.” Of Nellee Hooper (Björk, Massive Attack, Soul II Soul), she says, “He has a very European sensibility which I appreciate.” Dave Hall came to her attention through his work for Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey.

The album was recorded throughout most of 1994 in New York City, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Of “Secret” she says, “It may sound like a love song, but it’s really about spirituality. It’s about God being in us all and not on a pedestal. It’s a self-empowering song that talks about happiness lying in our own hands, about being kind to yourself and other people.”

November 12: In the United States, Bedtime Stories debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart on the issue date of November 12, 1994, with 145,000 units sold in its first week. Despite a considerably weaker debut than its predecessor, Erotica (1992), which opened at number two with sales of 167,000 copies, its chart longevity made Bedtime Stories outsell Erotica in the end. Following Madonna's appearance on the American Music Awards, sales of the album increased by 19%. It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of more than three million units within the country. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album has sold 2,336,000 copies as of December 2016. This figure does not include sales from music clubs such as BMG Music Clubs where it sold 195,000 copies. 

November 12: Bedtime Stories hits US #3.

Madonna’s Bedtime Stories was the week’s highest debut on the Billboard 200 album chart, peaking at #3 with sales of 145,000 units.

While the figure represented a 15% drop in first-week sales from her previous long player, Erotica, the album proved to be a commercial grower in America – where the runaway success of its second single, Take A Bow, would push its overall U.S. sales tally well beyond that of its predecessor.

Illustrating urban/r&b’s U.S. chart domination at the time, Bedtime Stories was held back from the top spot by the Murder Was The Case soundtrack (performed by Snoop Doggy Dogg) and Boyz II Men’s II.

 

November 14: MTV premieres a remix video for “Secret” tonight. The video is set to Junior Vasquez’s Sound Factory mix of the single.

“Secret” hit No. 1 in Canada and Finland.

November 16: Madonna begins filming Four Rooms: she appears as a witch in "The Missing Ingredient" segment starring Tim Roth, Sammi Davis, Amanda de Cadenet, Valeria Golino, Ione Skye, Lili Taylor, Alicia Witt and directed by Allison Anders.

Madonna played one of the witches, Elspeth, in the first segment of the film called, The Missing Ingredient, directed by Alison Anders.  Other actresses playing witches in the coven included: Valeria Golino (Athena), Alicia Witt (Kiva), Sammi Davis (Jezebel), Lili Taylor (Raven), Ione Skye (Eva) and Amanda de Cadenet (Diana).

This beautiful illustration of Elspeth is by Sarah Hedlund Design.  Check out Sarah’s Facebook and webpage to see more of her amazing work! We have published Sarah’s version of Elspeth with her permission.

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November 16: In the upcoming December issue of Rolling Stone #696, there is a quote from Babyface on Madonna:

“But I can talk about Madonna. She came over to my house and worked with real dedication. She’s a wonderful writer. She reconfirmed my interest in collaborating with artists who bring something to the table. We wrote two tunes – “Take A Bow” and “Forbidden Love” – and she contributed concept, melody and lyrics.”

Madonna, in turn, says of him:

“Babyface’s songs are like Rolls Royces…the design is classic, the ride is smooth, and they’re built to last.”

Madonna also said it was Babyface who recommended Dallas Austin for production and writing on the project.

November 18Madonna says in her interviews for the album that some of the lyrics were appropriated from famous poetry. Walt Whitman’s lines can be heard in “Sanctuary” and the song “Love Tried To Welcome Me” is inspired by a George Herbert poem, Love Bade Me Welcome.

November 18: Madonna released her second coffee table book, The Girlie Show, with 70-pages of photographs from the tour and a 3-song live CD, which included Like A VirginIn This Life and Why’s It So Hard.

The book was published in the US by Callaway.  The book sold 140,000 copies (the book is now out of print). The Girlie Show was also published in the UK, France, Germany and Japan.

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November 19: Bedtime Stories‘ lead single, Secret, peaked at #2 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S.

Secret would spend a total of 26 weeks on the Hot AC chart.

November 20: In a MuchMusic interview Madonna says she is currently working on the video for “Bedtime Story”with director Mark Romanek:

“It’s completely insane! It’s full of futuristic and special effects, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

November 23: Madonna was interviewed by Jana Lynne White at the St. James hotel in Los Angeles for Canada’s long-running, award-winning series, TheNewMusic. Jana had previously interviewed Madonna in 1992 during promotion for the Eroticaalbum.

November 25: Entertainment Tonight has an exclusive report with the special effects people working on the pre-production for the “Bedtime Story” video. They say they’ve built a body cast that shows Madonna’s “insides” and said she will also give birth to a flock of birds.

November 29: "Take a Bow" was released as the album's second single on November 29, 1994, by Maverick Records. It is a midtempo pop ballad written and produced by Madonna and Babyface. The song also appears on her compilation albums Something to Remember (1995), GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009). Following the sexually explicit persona portrayed by Madonna on her previous album, Erotica, the singer wanted to tone down her image for Bedtime Stories. She started collaborating with Babyface, whose work with other musicians had impressed her. "Take a Bow" was developed from this collaboration, after Madonna listened to the beat and the chords of the demo structure of the song.

Recorded at The Hit Factory Studios in New York, "Take a Bow" was backed by a full orchestra. It was also the first time that Babyface had worked with live strings, per Madonna's suggestion. Containing oriental pentatonic strings, giving the impression of Chinese or Japanese opera, "Take a Bow" lyrically talks about unrequited love, and Madonna saying goodbye. It received favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the song's soulful, poetic lyrics. It was a commercial success in the United States, becoming Madonna's eleventh number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for seven weeks. It also reached number one in Canada, and the top ten in Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand. The single had moderate success in the United Kingdom, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, ending Madonna's record-holding string of 35 consecutive top-ten hits there.

In Steve Sullivan’s Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings Volume 2, he reviews the hit single:

A gorgeous melancholy ballad of unrequited love, with the object of the singer’s affection being someone who hides behind a role playing mask which only she can see. Babyface makes the song virtually a duet with Madonna, echoing her words with his high tenor wafting dreamily behind her, and the song’s minimalist arrangement is impeccably elegant.

 

The music video for "Take a Bow" was directed by Michael Haussman, and was filmed in Ronda, Spain. The video depicts Madonna as a bullfighter's (played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz) neglected lover, yearning for his love. It won the Best Female Video award at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Journalistic and academic analysis of the video included its plotline, usage of religious iconography, themes and motifs of feminism and submission, as well as its impact on contemporary music videos. In order to promote Bedtime Stories, Madonna performed "Take a Bow" on a few occasions, including live with Babyface at the 1995 American Music Awards. In 2016, she added the song to the setlist of the Asian and Oceanian legs of her Rebel Heart Tour and her one-off Melbourne concert Madonna: Tears of a Clown.

"Take a Bow" was a commercial success in the United States, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was Madonna's second number-one single since Billboard started using Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS data for tabulating its charts, the first being "This Used to Be My Playground". The song topped the chart for seven weeks and is her longest-running number-one single on this chart. It was her 11th single to top the Billboard Hot 100 and her 23rd top five entry—both records for a female artist. She also replaced Carole King as the female who had written the most number-one songs. It was present on the chart for a total of 30 weeks, tying up with "Borderline" as Madonna's longest running song on the Hot 100. With the song reaching number one on the Hot 100, Madonna was at fourth place on the list of artists with most number-one singles on the chart: She was behind The BeatlesElvis Presley and Michael Jackson and The Supremes.In 2013, Billboard allocated "Take a Bow" the number four spot on its list of "Madonna's Biggest Billboard Hits", declaring it Madonna's second-most successful single of the 1990s decade after "Vogue".

"Take a Bow" became Madonna's fifth number-one single on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States, following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", "Cherish", and "I'll Remember". It was number-one for nine weeks. The song is also notable as Madonna's last single to make the top 40 of the US R&B chart. It also topped the Mainstream Top 40 chart, and reached number four on the Rhythmic chart.

"Take a Bow" had moderate chart success in the United Kingdom, where it reached a peak of number 16 on the UK Singles Chart. This ended Madonna's record-holding string of 35 consecutive top-ten singles on the chart from "Like a Virgin" (1984) to "Secret" (1994). According to the Official Charts Company, the single has sold 102,739 copies in the United Kingdom, as of August 2008. In Australia, "Take a Bow" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 21 on December 25, 1994, eventually peaking at number 15, and was present on the chart for a total of 17 weeks. The song peaked at number two on the Italian Singles Chart and number eight on the Swiss Singles Chart. In New Zealand, the single peaked at number nine on the New Zealand Singles Chart, spending a total of 13 weeks on the chart


November 29:  Madonna: Innocence Lost, a made-for-TV movie based on Christopher Andersen's 1991 book Madonna Unauthorized, premieres on Fox-TV. (Madonna is played by 26-year-old newcomer Terumi Matthews).

Madonna: Innocence Lost, the made-for-TV movie based on Christopher Andersen’s 1991 book Madonna Unauthorized, premiered on Fox-TV. Madonna was played by 26-year-old newcomer Terumi Matthews.

Pop Matters had this to say about the TV movie:

Based on Christopher Andersen’s 1991 biography Madonna Unauthorized, the film’s introduction borrows verbatim from a three-page letter Madonna wrote to Stephen Jon Lewicki to appear in his 1979 underground feature A Certain Sacrifice. In it (and in the voiceover by Matthews), she writes, “I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan where I began my childhood in petulance and precociousness. By the time I was in the fifth grade, I knew I wanted to be a nun or a movie star. Nine months in a convent cured me of the first disease. During high school I became slightly schizophrenic as I couldn’t choose between class virgin or the other kind. Both of them had their values as far as I could see.” It’s through quotes such as these that we are given the veracious-feeling lens of Madonna’s early days pre-New York and, subsequently, pre-fame.


November 30: MTV premieres “No Bull – The Making of ‘Take A Bow’” tonight.

Madonna’s second music video release from Bedtime StoriesTake A Bow, was released. The award winning music video (Best Female Video at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards) was directed by Michael Haussman in Ronda and Antequera, Spain.

The bullfighter in the video was played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz. Muñoz reprised his role with Madonna in the You’ll See music video, also directed by Haussman in 1995.


December 5: The filming for the “Bedtime Story” video starts today CA, directed by Mark Romanek in Los Angeles at Universal Studios. There is a crew of over 100 people working on the massive project.

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 Deeperand 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.

http://grantshaffer.com/music-videos-1/2016/3/2/bedtime-stories

December 6: 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.

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December 12:  Madonna attends the New York premiere of Robert Altman film Ready-To-Wear (Pręt-A-Porter).

December 17: BILLBOARD DANCE TRAX SECTION:

While radio programmers continue to nosh on "Take A Bow" from Madonna's glorious "Bedtime Stories" collection on Maverick, club denizens will be served reconstructions of the intense, Bjork-penned ambient house-er "Bedtime Story." Pending approval from La M, post productions by Orbital (a.k.a. the Hartnoll Brothers) and Junior Vasquez should begin to circulate toward the end of January. We are lathered with anticipation. Until then, D.J.'s who occassionally choose to chill thier crowds down with down-tempo grooves may want to check out the sleek, hip hop derived remixes of "Take A Bow" recently delivered by InDaSoul and Steve "Silk" Hurley...


December 20: Madonna attended the premiere of Ready to Wear (Pret-A-Porter).

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Madonna Interview : Q Magazine (December 1994)

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http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-q-magazine-december-1994

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1995

January 5: "Secret" single is certified gold (500,000 units), Bedtime Stories is certified 1x platinum (1 million units).

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.

 

January 11Madonna is #10 on Mr. Blackwell's 35th annual list of the worst-dressed women of 1994.


January 11Madonna recently hired one of the country’s top laser teams to do a large number of special effects for her next video, “Bedtime Story.”

January 27: Mark Romanek gives a presentation at an L.A. film school and previews the “Bedtime Story” video. He informs them that the video took about 4 months to produce (from start to finish) and cost around $2 million to make. The cost is primarily due to the numerous visual effects. He also says that Madonna is a “bitch” during shooting a video and only cares about how she will look. Her makeup prep takes 3 hours and additional digital work is done to make her look good as she is “extremely hard to photograph.”

Orlando Pita (Cuban hairstylist) does her hair for this video as well (he also did “Take A Bow”) and says the inspiration for the funky hair in “Bedtime Story” was “cotton candy.”

LATER: On an MTV special in December 1998, this video comes in at No. 8 as one of the MOST EXPENSIVE VIDEOS ever made at $1.3 million.


January 30: Madonna and Babyface perform "Take A Bow" at the 22nd annual American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA.

January: Jan Madonna releases her second book: The Girlie Show, with 70-pages of photographs, capital letter text and a 3-song live CD from "The Girlie Show" world concert tour of 1993.

February 9: Warner Music Australia says that the next single (after “Bedtime Story”) will be “Human Nature” and its video is already in pre-production.

February 9: "Madonna: The Girlie Show - Live Down Under" video is certified gold (50,000 units), Like A Virgin is certified 9x platinum (9 million units) and True Blue is certified 7x platinum (7 million units).

February 11: A remix video for “Bedtime Story” is already playing in dance clubs.

February 13: "Bedtime Story" was released as the third single from the album on February 13, 1995, by Maverick Records. "Bedtime Story" was written by Björk, Nellee Hooper and Marius De Vries; it was the only time Björk wrote a song for a Madonna album. She re-wrote a demo of the song to the current version, which was then produced by Madonna and Hooper. A mid-tempo electronic and house song with acidambient and techno influences, "Bedtime Story" has an underlying skeletal synth melody influenced by minimal trance music. The track was a departure from Madonna's pop-R&B-based outputs in favor of unconventional and electronic music. Lyrically it talks about the joys of the unconscious world.

"Bedtime Story" received favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the song's hypnotic and electronic style, and deemed it an underrated song which could have had great potential. The song was a moderate success, reaching the top ten in the record charts of United Kingdom, Italy and Australia, but missed the top 40 in United States, while peaking at number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The music video for "Bedtime Story" was directed by Mark Romanek and is listed as one of the most expensive music videos of all time with a cost of $5 million ($8.03 million in 2017 dollars). It features surrealistic and new age imagery, with influences from artists such as Remedios VaroFrida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington. The video received acclaim from critics and is permanently displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

"Bedtime Story" was performed at the 1995 Brit Awards in London with Madonna wearing a white Versace dress and a long wig, becoming one of the 30 best moments of the awards show history according to Marie Claire. A remixed version of the track was also used as a video interlude on her Re-Invention World Tour in 2004. Critics and scholars noted that the song foreshadowed Madonna's move towards electronic music in her future work.


February 13: Madonna makes a surprise appearance on CBS-TV's Late Show With David Letterman

In her first visit back to the Ed Sullivan Theater after her controversial 1994 appearance, Madonna presented Letterman with a Valentines Day gift.

And no, it was not her underpants…

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February 18: Madonna performs “Secret” and “Take A Bow” on Wetten Das, a German TV show taped in Ravensburg, Germany.

February 20:  Madonna performs "Bedtime Story" at the 14th annual Brit Awards at the Alexandra Palace, London, England. Also, Nellee Hooper wins for Producer of the Year.

February 22: Madonna performs "Take A Bow" at the San Remo Song Festival in San Remo, Italy.

February 23: Madonna is in talks with Alek Keshishian to direct the video for “Human Nature.”

February 25: "Take A Bow" hits US #1 for 7 weeks - her first #1 single in 3 years.

Take A Bow hit #1 in the USA on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  The hit single remained #1 for 7 weeks, and became Madonna’s 11th single to top the charts in the USA.

Billboard called the song a “plush pop ballad” that was “as close to perfect as top 40 fare gets.” Adding that the lead vocal was “both sweet and quietly soulful.”

February 25: In the United Kingdom, the song Bedtime Story entered the charts at its peak of number four on the week of February 25, 1995. It left the top 20 two weeks later, eventually spending nine weeks on the charts. In other European countries, the song also found some success. It peaked at number 38 in Belgium for one week only. 

February 27: "Take A Bow" single is certified gold (500,000 units), Bedtime Stories is certified 2x platinum (2 million units).

Madonna’s chart topping single, Take A Bow, was certified Gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies.

Matthew Jacobs (The Huffington Post) had this to say about Take A Bow:

Take A Bow is Madonna’s most poetic ballad. Much in the way that such hits as Borderline and Into The Groove act as the fuselage of ’80s pop … a lost-love elegy that squares nicely with the burgeoning female singer-songwriter movement of the ’90s. Don’t mistake its sleepy quality for stuffiness. This song is Madonna at her loveliest.

 

March 1: Madonna begins a series of promotional ad campaigns in various North American magazines for Gianni Versace fashions.


March 10: “Bedtime Story” premieres in selected U.S. theaters prior to the feature films.

 

March 13: After 10 years with CAA, Madonna changes agents by signing with the William Morris Agency.
 

March 15: Madonna is signed to star as the late Eva Peron in film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical Evita.
 

March 16: The Immaculate Collection is certified 6x platinum (6 million units).
 

March 18: Madonna, Z-100 NY and MTV are hosting a Bedtime Story Pajama Party at NYC’s Webster Hall. Madonna will be DJ-ing the bash with Junior Vasquez. Her new video “Bedtime Story” will premiere, followed by Madonna reading a bedtime story from an over-sized bed.

During this party, Madonna tells MTV that the video was inspired by the art of Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington.

LATER: The grape sequence with the foot on Arabic writing and the scene where the man covers the child with a blanket, are taken from the art cinema 1968 Armenian masterpiece "Sayat Nova"

March 18: Madonna hosts a pajama party for 1,500 fans at Webster Hall, New York, NY, to celebrate the premiere of "Bedtime Story" video broadcast live on MTV and also reads a bedtime story of Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk.


March 21: Madonna is featured in a public service announcement for VH1.
 

March 27: Madonna attends the post-Academy Awards party at Chasen's restaurant, Los Angeles, CA.

April 9: In Australia, "Bedtime Story" debuted and peaked at number five on April 9, 1995, where it stayed in that position for three weeks. It fell out of the top ten in the fifth week, and eventually exited the charts after a total run of nine weeks, falling to 44 on its last week in the charts.  April 13: "Bedtime Story" single is released.

April 13: On the Dutch Single Top 100 chart, "Bedtime Story"  entered and peaked at number 46 on April 15, 1995, and stayed on the same position the next week, with a total run of two weeks. "Bedtime Story" debuted at number nine in Finland, and peaked at number four the next week. 

April 20: Terry Anzaldo, head of promotions at Maverick, says in an interview that the next single is going to be “Human Nature” and then finally, “Forbidden Love.”

April 22: In the United States, the song debuted at number 72 on the US Billboard Hot 100, on the issue dated April 22, 1995. One week later, the song peaked at number 42, becoming the first Madonna single since "Burning Up" (1983) not to reach the top 40. If "Bedtime Story" would have been able to reach the top 40, Madonna could have become the third woman in the "rock era" with the most top 40 hits, behind Aretha Franklin and Connie Francis. She would have achieved a consecutive string of 33 top 40 hits, starting from her single "Holiday" (1983). 

Fred Bronson from Billboard explained that the song's loss of radio airplay and sales prevented it from peaking within the US top 40. "Bedtime Story" spent a total of seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it was successful on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart, where it peaked at number one and spent 16 weeks on the charts. Furthermore, it also charted on various Billboard genre charts, including the Rhythmic Top 40 at number 40, and the Top 40 Mainstream at number 38. On the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart, it reached a peak of number 46.

April 23: The Los Angeles Times reports (according to MTV): This month brings what is (according to MTV) the most expensive music video ever filmed: Madonna's “Bedtime Story,” a $2-million-plus affair that premiered in theaters recently as a short subject before making its cable debut.

April 25: After signing with the William Morris Agency on March 13, Madonna changes agents again by switching to ICM.

April 26: Music critics are hailing “Bedtime Story” as a masterpiece. The video, which reportedly was partially-inspired by Madonna’s childhood memories, is the most expensive video ever made at $2 million (although some insiders say it cost nearly $4 million).

April 28: Many U.S. radio stations are playing “Don’t Stop” in lieu of the less-radio-friendly “Bedtime Story.”

NY Daily News articles sites Madonna’s “Bedtime Story” video as encouraging heroin use by showing opium poppies and Madonna in a skeleton’s arms.

During the making of the “Human Nature” video – Madonna says: “The song is about breaking out of restraint, which is basically the point of the costumes. When I first called up Mondino and said that I wanted to do the video. I said that I wanted it to be more dance-oriented than the other things that I had done before.” Mondino used the S&M comic book artist Eric Stanton for inspiration, however Madonna says they wanted to make fun of S&M.

April 29: "Bedtime Story" hits US #42.

May 3: Maverick is releasing new remixes of “Bedtime Story” by Junior Vasquez:

  • Luscious Vocal Mix
  • Luscious Dub
  • Percappella Mix
  • Unconscious in the Jungle Mix

* Other than the mixes by Junior Vasquez and Orbital on the commercial maxi single, there exist four promo-only mixes by Mark Picchiotti and Teri Bristol. They appear on the Bedtime Story II Promo, available on vinyl and CD.

May 4USA Today confirms the next single release will be “Human Nature.”

May 6: "Bedtime Story" drops to #52 and completes Madonna's run of 32 consecutive Top 40 US hits.

May 7: Björk (on the “Bedtime Story” song) says in an interview:

“In a way it was more like a little present from me to Nellee. Even though I respect Madonna, probably she’s one of the persons I respect most in the world, and if there was someone I’d want to give a little present to she’d be one of them.

When I wrote the song for Madonna, it was the first time I did that especially to write a lyric that you really want, you look at that person, and you really want the person to say something and you really know what you want that person to say. And then you write a lyric like that to a person and I would love to do that. You never know I’ll be writing songs for people.”

 

May 7: In New Zealand, "Bedtime Story"  debuted at number 40 on May 7, 1995, moving up two positions to 38 which was its peak, and leaving the charts the next week.

May 11“Human Nature” is released at radio today in the U.S. and Jean Baptiste Mondino is rumored to be directing the dance-based performance clip.

May 14: Madonna has just purchased a new design by Body Worship that features a full-body black leather outfit and spiked head-dress. She’ll sport the suit in her new video “Human Nature” which is shooting in L.A. Jamie King provided choreography. [in August 1996, Jamie King will be nominated for the Bob Fosse Award for Choreography in L.A.]

May 18: “Take A Bow” was featured on the season finale of NBC’s hit sitcom “Friends.”

May 19: "Human Nature" video premieres on MTV.
 

May 22: “Human Nature” debuts on MTV.

May 29: Robert Hoskins, 37, is shot by a security guard outside Madonna's Castillo del Lago estate, Los Angeles, CA for trespassing on her property and threatening to marry or kill Madonna. Hoskins, who is shot in the arm and hip, is arrested on $150,000 US bail; Madonna is not at home during the incident.

June:  Madonna films a cameo appearance as the madam of a telephone sex service for Spike Lee movie Girl 6.
 

June 1: Madonna attends the Parkinson's Disease Foundation salute to Muhammad Ali at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, NY.

June 6: "Human Nature" is released and was written as an answer song to her critics, who had panned her provocative image of the previous two years and Madonna's release of sexually explicit works. Written and produced by Madonna and Dave Hall, "Human Nature" includes a looping sample from Main Source's 1994 track "What You Need", therefore its writers Shawn McKenzie, Kevin McKenzie and Milo Deering are also credited. The track was released on June 6, 1995, by Maverick Records as the fourth and final single from Bedtime Stories.

"Human Nature" is a R&B track where the sound of drums and the sample is heard looping throughout, with Madonna sarcastically asking rhetorical questions based on her real-life actions over the last two years. The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics who have later noted its anthemic and empowering nature. "Human Nature" became a moderate hit in the United States, peaking at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number two on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. In the United Kingdom, the single entered the chart and peaked at number eight and it also charted within the top ten in Italy.

The accompanying music video was directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, and features Madonna and her dancers dressed in latex and leather, while executing highly choreographed dance routines. Inspired by S&M imagery, the video later influenced the work of singers Rihanna and Christina Aguilera. Madonna has performed "Human Nature" on three of her concert tours, the last being The MDNA Tour of 2012, where it was the subject of controversy when the singer exposed her nipples during a show in Istanbul.

June 6: Billboard (6/10/95) At the Enterprise in Burbank, mixer Rob Chiarelli and producer DJ Battlecat remixed Madonna’s most recent single “Human Nature” for Maverick Records.

June 6: "Human Nature" single is released.

“Human Nature” is the second-most-added track at U.S. radio this week.

June 24: Human Nature" debuted at number 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100, for the week ending June 24, 1995, with 7,400 units sold. It reached its peak position three weeks later, at number 46. "Human Nature" became Madonna's second consecutive single not to enter the top 40 in the United States, following her previous single "Bedtime Story", which had reached a peak of number 42. Fred Bronson from Billboard reported that although the song had moved up the chart with a positive bullet point, the song being a risky choice for radio, it stalled progress and failed to become Madonna's 33rd top 40 hit. "Human Nature" was a success on the dance chart, peaking at number two on Hot Dance Club Play. It also peaked at number 35 on Hot 100 Singles Sales, number 58 on Hot 100 Airplay, and number 57 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. 

 In the United Kingdom, "Human Nature" entered the chart at its peak position of number eight, but rapidly descended down the charts, being present for a total of six weeks only. According to the Official Charts Company, it has sold a total of 80,685 copies as of August 2008. In Australia, the single peaked within the top 20, at number 17, on the ARIA Charts. On the Irish Singles Chart the song peaked just outside the top 20, at number 21. It was not as successful in New Zealand, peaking at number 37, making it Madonna's poorest performing single to stay on the chart for a sole week. The song reached the top 20 in Finland and Switzerland, peaking at number 11 and number 17 respectively, while in Germany it reached a peak of number 50

June 24: Madonna makes a surprise appearance to introduce a live performance by UNV at KISS-FM and Aquafina's 3rd annual KISS & Unite concert at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA.
 

June 27: Madonna reads the poem "If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda on The Postman (Il Postino) soundtrack CD.

July 10: In Canada, "Human Nature" debuted at number 90 on the RPM Singles Chart on July 10, 1995. It reached a peak of number 64 on the chart and was present for a total of seven weeks only.

 

July 18"Human Nature" hits US #46.

July 18: According to insiders, radio programmers want Madonna to release “Don’t Stop” as a single, however, Madonna has refused and is insisting they play the album’s official new release “Human Nature.” However, the people at Maverick have instructed programming directors to go ahead and play “Don’t Stop” instead of “Human Nature” if it fits their demographic better. Sources at Maverick also say that the “Human Nature” remixes were late for release because the original remixer had phoned Madonna and asked her to re-record her vocals on the track for a more dance-able version and she hung up on him. The record company then scrambled to find new DJs to remix the track.

It’s clear that Madonna and Warner Bros. (under new management since Mo Ostin left last year) have been clearly at odds over the marketing of the album since its release. Madonna had originally wanted “Bedtime Story” to be the lead single and video (hence the early production of the clip which began in August 1994), however WB flat-out refused and demanded that she release “Secret.” Radio has also been mixed in its support of the album. Many have complained that “Bedtime Story” and “Human Nature” are not good songs for radio and scored poorly in audience response call-out.

July 27MTV VMA Nominations: Madonna is nominated for several awards:

  • Best Female Video for “Take A Bow”
  • Best Dance Video for “Human Nature”
  • Best Choreography for “Human Nature”
  • Best Art Direction for “Take A Bow”



August 17: Madonna celebrates her 37th birthday party at The Delano Hotel, Miami, FL.
 

September 7: Madonna presents the Best Rap Video award to Dr. Dre for "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" and wins Best Female Video for "Take A Bow" at the 12th annual MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY.If I Were A President by Madonna : George (October / November 1995)

 

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1995-madonna-george.jpg

https://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-articles/president-madonna-george-octnov-1995

 

Madonna Interview : For Women (November 1995)

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1995-madonna-for-women.jpg

http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-for-women-november-1995

 

Madonna Interview : NME (December 02 1995)

http://allaboutmadonna.com/images/madonna-library/1995-madonna-nme.jpg

http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-nme-december-02-1995

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1996:

February 6: The cost to produce this album was reportedly $600,000. Approximately $4.5 million was spent on video production and an additional $3 million was spent to promote the record.

April 20: Shep Pettibone says that he did “months of production work” on this record before Madonna changed her mind and decided to take it in a more “urban” direction. It was originally meant to sound like dance pop, rather than R&B.

May (Billboard, May 4): Warner Bros. International reports that as of January 1996, Bedtime Stories had sold 3.9 million copies outside of the U.S., where (at that time) it was certified double-platinum for 2 million copies sold inside the U.S.

May 20: A source at WB confirmed that “Forbidden Love” was intended to be the fifth and final single from Bedtime Stories (with “Don’t Stop” as the B-side) and that a video was under consideration to be shot. The plan to release the song in late August 1995, was scratched when WB and Madonna decided to do the Something to Remember compilation instead.

September 16: Soundscan information:

Bedtime Stories 2,124,484

“Secret” 441,946

“Take A Bow” 604,054

“Bedtime Story” 99,485

“Human Nature” 173,697

“I’ll Remember” 538,769

October 12: Dr. Dre mentions in an interview that Madonna (during the making of Bedtime Stories) and Metallica have approached him to produce but he has declined, preferring to work with unproven talent.

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Unreleased

Excerpt from FROM GENESIS TO REVELATIONS by Bruce Baron

When Madonna began to record for her 1994 "Bedtime Stories" album,
   she at first continued with Shep Pettibone as her main
   collaborator. Several songs were recorded before she abandoned his
   productions for work with producer Dave Hall who offered a more
   R&B flavor. The Pettibone productions remain unreleased from these
   sessions. "Something's Coming Over Me" (was later re-titled
   "Secret"), "I Will Always Have You" (was later re-titled "Inside
   of Me"), and "Id Rather Be Your Lover" all have separate copyright
   registrations and demos different from the Madonna-Dave Hall
   productions at the Library Of Congress. Strangely, Pettibone is
   not credited as a co-author on these songs in the "Bedtime
   Stories" album credits (he only gets a "thank you for
   understanding"). He is credited as co-author for those three songs
   in the Warner-Chappell Publishing database.
   
   Also never released are "Love Wont Wait", and "Bring It". "Love
   Won't Wait" was eventually given to Gary Barlow to re-record for
   his 1997 Arista album "Open Road". These were Madonna's last
   collaborations with Shep Pettibone before he went on an industry
   hiatus. Pettibone is a favorite among Madonna fans and today
   sources tell me that Shep has been investing his millions in real
   estate, including a hotel in Oceanside, New Jersey. He has just
   recently returned to working on music.
   
   The Dave Hall sessions for "Bedtime Stories" produced four other
   cuts that also never made the album. "Keep On" has a publishing
   record at Warner-Chappell and remains unreleased, but it could be
   an earlier version of the released "Don't Stop" which shares that
   lyric. "Freedom" was later used on the various artist charity
   release "Carnival". "Honesty" has a publishing record at
   Warner-Chapell Publishing that has never been released. And
   finally, "Let Down Your Guard" appeared on a UK picture disc
   b-side
   
   There is also an unreleased rap for "Id Rather Be Your Lover" by
   the late 2Pac Shakur which may later surface on a future 2Pac box
   set. The released version features a different rap by Me'Shell
   Ndegeocello. The 2Pac rap is currently only found on his bootleg
   album "East 2 West" which is readily available on the Internet
   featuring Madonna's lead vocal. The lyrics to his unreleased rap
   are:
   Hey, they minds diff'rent from what they lips say even when the
   media is gettin' greedy you make they hips sway hitin' with the
   bomb ambition. I caught you peepin', no more sleepin' I got you
   freakin' through the through whole weekend. Fakes speakin', is it
   mashin' or just they heat try to get me all up in your satan
   sheets. What they say, a blonde and a thug brotha the way you
   getting' paid, I wish I was yo lova 

 

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/madonnadotrefugees/full-list-of-unreleased-madonna-songs-t144.html

1993 COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET Rumoured failed collaboration with Michael Jackson which later became "In The Closet" 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1993 THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING IN - Madonna had planned to release a cover version for this 60s Nancy Sinatra hit, but Billy Ray Cyrus got there first and recorded himself. Apparently Madonna screamed to her staff "he screwed up my plans!!! Of course, I would love to sleep with him, but I'd have to slap him around afterwards..." (see 'For Women' Vol.1 No.4). Apparently Madonna has recorded the song. However, according to Mathew Russo <
matheweme@aol.com>, she never did that song, and it is only a rumor. As there are MANY about "undone" songs she did. There are only about 4 songs in the "vaults" that have never seen light of day...and they are poor songs, and only end up as b sides... "Let down your guard" is an example....only that one did finally come out (as a b side). The artist that sounds a LOT like madonna (at the time) that DID do "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" was a actually a group (but it sounds like one peson on vocals) called BOOMERANG. They are a group of 3 women that mimicked themselves after Bananarama at that time, but sounded like Madonna....talk about marketing strategies... 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1993 JUST A DREAM Madonna demo written with Patrick Leonard given to Donna DeLory to record for her MCA debut album. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 BRING IT Registered at Library Of Congress, demo cassette on file PAU-1-889-252 Written by Madonna, Pettibone. Bruce Baron recently listened to this track at the Washington DC Library Of Congress, and he writes: This is a completely unreleased song from the discarded Shep Pettibone productions for what became the "Bedtime Stories" album. It was submitted on the same tape as "Love Won't Wait", "Somethings Coming Over Me", and "I Will Always Have You" This song did not evolve into anything found on the released album. It's NOT very catchy, and needs more development. The lyrics are strings of cliche phrases about an obsessed person. A main lyric reads; "I know you're love is bad for me, but I won't give up until you bring it to me" The musical arrangement sounds very similar to what was done on "Bye Bye Baby" a few years before on "Erotica". There are also some breathing noises. The recording of this song on file at the copyright office has some damage on this track. I don't know if it's on the copy itself or the original master from which it came. We could easily live without it, since it is not very good. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 I WILL AWAYS HAVE YOU Early Madonna and Shep Pettibone production of what later became "Inside Of Me". Registered at Library Of Congress cassette on file PAU-1-889-251. This is probably the best of the abandoned Shep Pettibone co-productions from the "Bedtime Stories" album. This song later evolved into "Inside Of Me" which was used on the album. Once again Shep does not get credit on the album, but he does in the Warner-Chappell Publishing Co database. This early version is rather different from the version that we know of as "Inside Of Me". In the released version Madonna sings against a R&B downbeat in a soft, quiet lullaby type voice that gives the song a tender quality. On the demo the song is performed like a mid-tempo power ballad in the style of "Crazy For You", and "You'll See" using a strong clear vocal. I think that it is better than "I'll Remember" done with Pat Leonard a few years before. With a little polishing "I Will Always Have You" could have easily been an American top 5 hit single. The melody line is substantially different from "Inside Of Me", but there are often similarities. Many of the same lyrics are switched around. The words "inside of me" are hardly used, and Madonna adds "like an angel" after the part where she sings "standing over me" in a verse found in the released version. The released song's theme is all about Madonna cherishing the memory of a loved one, but in this demo she also wants the object of the song to "remember me". 

During my listen at the LOC copyright office I observed a sound during the middle break that I don't think that I have heard in any Madonna song - a flute-like instrument solo. 
There is also a finger snap-like sound used throughout the mid-tempo ballad similar to the one used in "Rescue Me", but more subtle. I also need to stress the difference in the melody and arrangement of the chorus. The words "inside of me" are not really a part of it. The main frame is designed around "I Will Always Have You" and is definitely a proper song title for this original demo. The verse lyrics of "I Will Always Have You" are more similar to the released version of "Inside Of Me." I do recall the lyric about being in "the public eye" in both versions. Lets now bow our heads and pray for it's use as a maxi-single bonus track at some point in the future. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 I'D RATHA B YA LOVA Confirmed outtake of "Id Rather Be Your Lover" featuring never released rap by 2Pac Shakur. Song also called "Ratha Be Yo Luva" or "Couldn't Be Your Lover". Found on 2Pac bootleg release "East 2 West" aka "East N West" aka "East Meets West". 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 I'D RATHER BE YOUR LOVER Early demo produced with Shep Pettibone, later completed with Dave Hall 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 HONESTY produced by Dave Hall, recorded during the "Bedtime Stories" sessions 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 KEEP ON Published seperately at Warner-Chappell from "Don't Stop". Same songwriters (written by Madonna, Colin Wolfe, and Dallas Austin). This song is confirmed as a separate title from the released song "Don't Stop" (Bedtime Stories era). "Keep On" is also listed as a separate entry in the Warner-Chappell database. EMI also shows another entry by the same writers separate from what might be a variation of "Freedom" called "Your Honesty" (Warner Chappell shows this entry only as "Honesty"). 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 LOVE WON'T WAIT Madonna demo written with Shep Pettibone given to Gary Barlow to record for his 1997 album "Open Road". Madonna demo cassette on file Library Of Congress PAU-1-889-250 (mp3 file of this demo is floating around on the internet, but please don't ask me for it). Bruce Baron notes that there is no trace of Gary Barlow on the original, high-quality Madonna vocal demo. All of the vocal arrangements are developed and complete. The lyrics are exactly the same. All Gary had to do was copy everything, and that's exactly what he did for his UK number one release. Madonna's vocal is clear and strong. I think it's in a higher key than Gary's version and her voice sounds a little like the way it sounds in the released version of "Deeper And Deeper" that we are familiar with. The instrumental music on this demo is not as developed. It's typical Shep Pettibone dance style, but it needs more work. It has some cheesy keys that make it sound like soft bubble gum, missing the edge that would be a more typical Madonna signature. Should this song ever turn up on a vault collection this version could easily be striped of the demo music and restructured with modern dance instrumentation using Madonna strong vocal. It's easier to understand the words on her performance compared to Barlow's version. This "demo" is also longer than the finished Gary Barlow version (the demo is 5:10 and Gary's version is only about 4:20). I read in several sources that a series of producers was used to work on the Barlow version (including Trevor Horn) before the final mix was decided. I think the phrase was "everyone had their hands in it". It strikes me odd that it was so difficult to record because they had a strong framework to start from. This song was registered at the LOC Copyright office on August 5, 1994 using one Maxell MS60 studio quality cassette along with three other songs on the same tape. They are all from the abandoned Pettibone productions for the "Bedtime Stories" album. We will discuss the other songs soon. Also see "Love Won't Wait" (Remix) from 1997, listed below. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 SOMETHINGS COMING OVER ME Early version of "Secret" started with Shep Pettibone, later finshed with Dave Hall. Confirmed by Library Of Congress. Cassette on file PAU-1-889-253. Bruce Baron notes that this is not a typo of a song title !! This is the original version of what we now call "Secret". It is the original Madonna/Pettibone demo before she dumped him from the "Bedtime Stories" album. Forget the strum guitar, the semi-R&B arrangement and Madonna humming the hook, and the lyric "my baby's got a secret". They do not exist in this early version. This is a Pettibone co-production and it features a driving drum and bassline, but it is rather generic and typical like a Cathy Dennis track. The released version of "Secret" seems slow and boring compared this early demo of which I enjoyed a great deal. Shep would be justified for being a little pissed of for not being in the album credits for this song. It's about a 50% re-write of the released version (it's actually the other way around). Parts of the verse lyrics and verse melody are the same or similar. The chorus melody and arrangement are totally different: "Somethings Coming Over Me(Over Me)(Over Me)(Over Me)" The bridge is the part that doesn't really work. It's a continuation of the "Erotica" theme. The music breaks and Madonna wails into sexual moaning like Donna Sommer's "Love To Love You Baby". Then Madonna speaks "I see your love coming down, let it wash all over me" Obviously we know what she is talking about? Then the music starts back up into the main hook as the climax. Her vocal is clear and strong. It could easily be used on a vault collection as an item of interest with it's original demo music intact if the parties involved could agree in the future. According to the Warner Chappell database, Shep does get money as a co-author for the released version of "Secret". He just does not appear in the album credits other than the "Thank you for understanding". 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --
1994 UNCONFIRMED TITLE Madonna background song used in her Japanese Takara sake commercial. Might be titled "Legend". In the recording Madonna sings in the background as a Japanese man talks over her. This makes hearing the few words a little difficult to hear especially on the low quality copies circulating in the collectors market. These are some of the words: "How can I be pure; all the strength I have is breaking me, How can I be sure; where's this (unintelligable) taking me." Later she speaks "I am pure, June Legend." Madonna may not have written this song fragment since it is not listed in the Warner-Chappell database as part of her compositions. They would have documented this since there would have been revenue generated from it's inclusion in the commercial which aired on TV in Japan. Curiously Warner-Chappell also does not list the "Wonderland" theme as a Madonna composition which aired more recently in the United States. This beautiful one minute clip is supposedly a William Orbit collaboration. It features Madonna humming. Melody line is part of songwritting credit in addition to lyrics. Madonna should be listed as a co-author at 
http://www.warnerchappell.com if she had any hand in writting either of these two short songs. 

 

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http://www.madonnatribe.com/decade/2013/bedtime-stories-velvet/

 

In early 1995, after a few months the Bedtime Stories album was already released in stores,

Warner Music US started distributing to media, radio and lucky friends (who promptly dumped them to online cd stores) a free promo limited edition

version of the album presented in an elegant pale blue velvet digipak with the album logo embossed on it.

ic_515.jpg

When you open this amazing digipak case, you find the 11 track standard US album and its lyric booklet

housed in a pocket on the left side.

Legend says this was actually going to be produced as commercial limited edition, the fact the cd inside

bears no promo writings may confirm that. For some reason the release in stores wasn’t green lighted and

the very

limited stock already produced as test was eventually distributed around as a promotional freebie.

ic_516.jpg

Nonetheless that “test” proved to be a success as the very first official limited edition version of a Madonna

studio album in the same vein came soon after this one with the lenticular digipak edition of Ray Of Light in 1998.

This Bedtime Stories cd is quite rare now and is usually sold between 100$/200$ each time it appears on Ebay according to its condition.

ic_517.jpg

 

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Once again@groovyguyI have to thank you for this amazing work. All united, these web pages are like the M-Bible, a daily reconstruction of facts, rumours, videos, statements, shoots, reviews... really impeccable.

And once again, let me say that the demos of "I will always have you" and "Something's coming over me", with some of her Ray of Light still unreleased tracks, are my most wanted items ever. Deeply hoping we could have the chance to hear them sooner or later, in an official release (wich I would really think to gather at this point) or not.

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Madonna's 'Bedtime Stories' Turns 20: Babyface & Donna De Lory Look Back

10/6/2014 by Joe Lynch

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6274138/madonna-bedtime-stories-20-babyface-donna-de-lory-retrospective

Twenty years ago this month, Madonnareleased her sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories, a classic that came out at a strange crossroads in her career.

While Madonna certainly didn't lack for fame in 1994, the button-pushing Erotica album had soured many critics and fans. For the first time in a decade of superstardom, people weren't shocked by her antics anymore -- even worse, they often seemed exhausted by her.

Artistically speaking, she'd spent the last four years challenging and subverting America's sexual puritanism. But after releasing an entire book called Sexfeaturing nude pictures of herself and other celebrities, there didn't seem to be anywhere else to go in that realm. 

It didn't help that she'd detonated 14 F-bombs on a March 1994 episode of The Late Show With David Letterman, an infamous appearance that racked up FCC complaints and distanced her from Middle America. Evita was two years away and the overt sexuality of Eroticawas growing stale -- so when Bedtime Stories hit, Madonna's career was at a strange point.

To that end, Bedtime Stories is lyrically and musically a much warmer album. She sacrifices some bawdy entendres (compare Erotica's "Where Life Begins" to Bedtime's "Inside of Me") and focuses on autobiographical matter.

Instead of Erotica's chilly, pounding dance pop, Bedtime puts Madonna in softer sonic territory. There's the singer-songwriter-y "Secret," the avant pop of "Bedtime Story" (co-written by Bjork), the new jack swing jam "I'd Rather Be Your Lover" (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello rapping), the Herbie Hancock-sampling ballad "Sanctuary" and the lush, orchestral R&B of "Take a Bow."

But softer sounds didn't necessarily mean muted lyrics. "Human Nature" finds Madonna taking on her critics more directly than ever with a logical, defiant attack on slut-shaming. And while album opener "Survival" is a cozy R&B-pop song, it was similarly unrepentant in attitude.

The inviting R&B sound of Bedtime Stories is due in part to co-producer Dallas Austin, who longtime Madonna backup singer Donna de Lory describes as "part of her tribe at that time." Also on board were co-producers Nellee HooperDave "Jam" Hall (hot off Mary J. Blige's debut, What's the 411?) and, of course, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. 

While Edmonds had recently worked with TLC and Toni Braxton, he tells Billboard it was one of his own hits that brought him to Madonna's attention.

"Madonna was a fan of a song I did, 'When Can I See You.' Because of that, she was interested in working with me," Edmonds recalls. "She came to me for lush ballads, so that's where we went."

 

Babyface would collaborate with Madonna on three songs -- two of which, "Forbidden Love" and "Take a Bow," ended up on the album. Although the latter became Madonna's long-running No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Edmonds says he wasn't gunning for chart-toppers when they met.

"I wasn't so much thinking about the charts," Edmonds recalls. "I think I was more in awe of the fact that I was working with Madonna. It was initially surreal, but then you get to know the person a little bit, and you calm down and then it's just work. And work is fun."

When Edmonds played Madonna the bare bones of a song that would become "Take a Bow," she immediately took to it. "It was just a beat and the chords. From there we collaborated and built it up," he says. "I was living in Beverly Hills and I created a little studio in my house, so she came over there to write."

 

As for "Forbidden Love," Edmonds recalls that track came together with similar speed. "She heard the basic track and it all started coming out, melodies and everything... It was a much easier process than I thought it would be."

Donna De Lory, however, wasn't surprised at how easily Bedtime Storiescame together when she and fellow backup vocalist Niki Haris were called in to provide harmonies on "Survival," co-written by Austin. At that point, she'd been performing with Madonna for seven years.

"The minute you walked in [the studio], she was giving you the lyric sheet," De Lory tells Billboard. "That was the atmosphere -- we're not here to just hang out. It's fun, but we're here to work and get this done."

And what Madonna sets out to do, Madonna invariably succeeds at. De Lory recalls the sessions for "Survival" took just a "couple of hours" and there were no retakes.

Similar to Babyface, De Lory describes working with Madonna as a creative partnership, even if she was the one setting the tone. "Once she got her ideas out, she was open to your ideas. You didn't want to go in with her and right off the bat say, 'Well, I hear this,' because she was so specific and articulate. She already had the sound in her head. But after she'd spoken, we'd put our two cents in. We always had ideas, like, 'Can we answer this line with an extra "survival" [in the background]?'"

The result of that session is the perfect opener to the album -- a lush, beguiling anthem to resilience and statement of purpose. "I'll never be an angel, I'll never be a saint it's true/ I'm too busy surviving, whether it's heaven or hell/ I'm gonna be living to tell," Madonna sings, nodding to her critics while simultaneously brushing them off.

 

Speaking of critics, Bedtime Storiesreceived very positive reviews, especially compared to her two previous albums, the divisive Erotica and her Dick Tracy companion I'm Breathless.

It was similarly successful on the charts, debuting at a respectable No. 3 slot on the Billboard 200. The first single, "Secret," also peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. (FYI, Madonna teased "Secret" in an audio message available exclusively online prior to its release -- a prescient publicity move for an era where less than 15 percent of adults had Internet access.)

But it was the second single from Bedtime, the Babyface-produced "Take a Bow," that became its biggest hit. Topping the Hot 100 for seven weeks, it became Madonna's 11th No. 1 hit and is still her longest-running No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Despite the unqualified success of "Take a Bow," Bedtime's next two singles -- the Bjork-penned "Bedtime Story" and "Human Nature" -- stalled, becoming her first singles in a decade to not crack the Hot 100's top 40. While De Lory recalls that Madonna was directing her energy back toward acting at that point anyway, the tepid performance of those singles could partly explain why Madonna didn't tour behind the album.

She did, however, perform "Take a Bow" with Babyface at the American Music Awards in 1995, an experience he recalls as terrifying. "I was nervous as hell. But you couldn't actually see my legs shaking under the suit," Edmonds says. "When we finished, she told me she had never been that nervous before. That was crazy to me -- I was thinking, 'You're Madonna, you're on stage all the time!'"

 

These days, Madonna is readying a new album for a presumed 2015 release and Edmonds is hot off producing an album for another unstoppable icon: Barbra Streisand. Looking back on Bedtime Stories 20 years later, he says the whole experience seems surreal. "Today when I think about it, it's hard to believe I even did that with Madonna," Edmonds says. "It's always nice to be part of an album that's a classic -- but you never know when you're a part of it at the time. Only time can tell."

As for De Lory, she stopped performing with Madonna in 2007. Today, she's following her own muse, performing and crafting world-music-influenced electronic pop on albums like her most recent, The Unchanging.

Recalling her time with Madonna, she's still in awe of the pop icon's total immersion in the recording process. "I was constantly amazed at her ability to focus in on the intonation and rhythm of our vocal parts," De Lory says. "When you worked with her, you had to be so on. She was very present in the moment -- she knew what she wanted, she got what she wanted, and then she was moving on."

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Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories” Turns 20: Backtracking

 
Bianca Gracie @BiancaEnRogue | October 24, 2014 6:00 am
Backtracking is our recurring look back at the pop music that shaped our lives. Our friends may come and go, but we’ll be spinning our favorite albums forever.
 

Throughout her extensive career, Madonna (a.k.a. The Queen of Pop) has worn many, quite controversial hats. Whether it be a girly-girl for 1986’s True Blue, a political rebel for 2003’s American Life or a disco goddess for 2005’s Confession On A Dancefloor, the entertainer always knows how to switch up her persona to keep her fans interested and the world guessing what her next move will be. (Well, maybe not with MDNA. I’d like to forget that album.)

But one of the singer’s greatest musical eras was arguably her most subtle. On October 25, 1994, her sixth studio LP Bedtime Stories released worldwide. The album found Madonna easing up on her naughty persona and going for a softer vibe, and today (October 24) we celebrate its timeless sound.

Madonna’s much talked about album, Erotica (released in 1992), did not go over well with critics or some of the entertainer’s fans. The backlash she received from it stemmed from its explicitly sexual nature (which included the infamous Sex book). Two years later, Bedtime Stories acted as the tamer, more mellow sister that tried to gloss over the singer’s panned image. While it was obviously a cleaned-up and more accessible album, it still signified another era of change for Madonna. Sure, she makes incredible dance-pop classics, but Bedtime Stories displayed the evolution of a soulful singer, and it helped lead to albums like the adventurous Ray of Light (1998) and possibly even the “B-girl” edge of 2008’s Hard Candy (as crazy as that sounds).

The album kicks off with “Survival,” and its first line is “I’ll never be an angel.” It immediately reminds you of why this record came about in the first place. Madonna was fully aware of the critique she was facing at the time, and “Survival” acknowledges it while simultaneously letting the hate roll off her shoulders. The song has a distinctly cool nature to it, which most likely came from co-writer and co-producer Dallas Austin, who is famous for working with TLC — which would explain the track’s acoustic R&B production.

Following is the album’s lead single “Secret.” I would refer to it as the defining moment of the Bedtime Stories era. This smooth mid-tempo was such a departure from Madonna’s previous work, which was riddled with club-ready dance tracks, and it showed the general public that she was still capable of creating approachable music. But don’t let all of that fool you! “Secret” is still a sultry tune, but instead of her being blatant with the lyrical imagery, the singer chose to use her vocal tone to evoke its theme of mystery. From the slightly melancholic nature of the verses to the rumbling “mhmmm” harmonies, Madonna sounds like she’s about to whisper a secret in the listener’s ear. Yet once the song is over, she never reveals what that secret is. The overall affect is gorgeously intriguing — and many fans agreed! “Secret” peaked at the #3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed on the chart for 22 weeks.

Songs on the album like “Don’t Stop” and “I’d Rather Be Your Lover” have a new jack swing undertone, thus extending her exploration of the hip-hop sounds she dabbled with on Erotica. Even the cheeky “Inside of Me” samples Aaliyah‘s debut smash of the same year, “Back & Forth.” Bedtime Stories‘ “I Could Be Your Lover” is a funky bop — complete with rhythmic production, smooth-as-velvet vocals and a rap feature from Meshell Ndegeocello.

The second single off Bedtime Stories is arguably her most beautiful ones of all. “Take A Bow” showed a more vulnerable side to Madonna, as she sunk deeper into her lower vocal register to evoke a tender compassion. R&B songwriting legend Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds co-wrote and co-produced it with the singer, and his delicate fingerprints are evident throughout the entire track. It’s swaying strings and lush harmonies made it one of the standout songs from the LP. It kept its #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks straight, and is also her longest-running single at that spot.

A vast majority of the singer’s music videos are epic mini-films, and the visual for “Take A Bow” is no different. It tugs at your heartstrings with its tragic love story of a woman who is being neglected by her Spanish lover, who works as a bullfighter. It’s also important to note that the video helped Madonna land the role of Eva Peron in 1996’s Evita (which won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy). 

Babyface also helped with creating “Forbidden Love,” a bedroom romp with a steamy aesthetic that courses through your veins as soon as the brass and percussion beat kicks in. Madonna sounds incredibly enticing on this tune, as she croons: “I know that you’re no good for me/That’s why I feel I must confess/What’s wrong is why it feels so right/I want to feel your sweet caress.”Babyface’s plush harmonies help to elevate the song’s sensory vibe, making it one of Madonna’s underrated gems that should be on everyone’s “sexy time” playlist.

“Sanctuary” is another track off Bedtime Stories that finds Madonna going the subtly hedonistic route instead of being too in your face with explicit sex talk. The singer coos all throughout the song, as she confesses to her lover how much he comforts her. The poetic lyrics (“Who needs the sun, when the rain’s so full of life/Who needs the sky/It’s here in your arms I want to be buried”) are anchored by a steady, R&B-influenced bassline with a sound effect that is reminiscent of a creaky bed (so naughty!).

The ending of “Sanctuary” blends seamlessly into what may be the highlight of the album — “Bedtime Story.” Many of the tracks have a clear R&B theme, but “Bedtime Story” definitely go against the grain. Doused in electronica, the LP’s third single has a trippy vibe that separates itself from the rest of the album. The song was written by Björk, Nellee Hooper and Marius de Vries; Madonna co-produced it with Hooper as well. It sucks you in with its quivering drum patterns taken directly from trance music, which creates an ethereal ambiance. 

The chanteuse’s vocal performance takes the song to the next level, as she repeatedly sings in a low whisper: “Let’s get unconscious honey/Let’s get unconscious.” The combination of UK dance influence from the writers with Madonna’s provocative voice made for an album cut that is truly hypnotizing. I can’t help but think “Bedtime Story” helped to inspire Britney Spears‘ “Breathe On Me” — both tracks share breathy vocals, icy electronic production and sensual undertones.

 

 

Despite using Bedtime Stories as a way to win back her audience, Madonna was not going to be a slave to the media! “Human Nature,” the last single to be released from the album, was shamelessly unapologetic way before Unapologetic. The singer co-wrote and co-produced it with Dave Hall (the man behind Mary J. Blige‘s “You Remind Me” and Mariah Carey‘s “Dreamlover”), which explains the track’s rugged R&B influence.

Hall helped Madonna find her R&B/Hip-Hop groove, making the song different from anything she’d ever done in the past. “Human Nature” can be looked at as an unintentional sequel to 1989’s “Express Yourself,” due to its liberating theme. The song was a sneak diss, as Madonna asked why she was being so heavily critiqued for expressing herself as an artist. She exclaims, “You punished me for telling you my fantasies/I’m breaking all the rules I didn’t make.” With its straightforward statements that are dripping with sarcasm (Did I say something wrong?/Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex), “Human Nature” became a feminist anthem of sorts. It’s safe to say it has influenced various female artists who have looked to Madonna’s legacy, with songs from the past decade like Christina Aguilera‘s “Can’t Hold Us Down,” Britney Spears‘ “Piece Of Me” and Beyonce‘s “***Flawless.”

Instead of denouncing sex like her critics would have wanted, in “Human Nature” Madonna chose to play up the societal taboo which surrounds the topic. Even the music video (directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, the man behind “Open Up Your Heart, “Justify My Love and “Don’t Tell Me”) has a message. With her sexually explicit visuals in the past, Madonna used bondage as a form of erotica. But with “Human Nature,” the S&M-inspired outfits are more constrictive. It is a direct reflection of the media encapsulating her sexual freedom.

 

Madonna’s sixth studio album was more successful than Erotica, its predecessor. Bedtime Stories debuted at the #3 on the Billboard 200, but its sales didn’t truly kick in until the second single “Take A Bow” was released. The LP was eventually certified triple-Platinum in the United States. It was also nominated in the Best Pop Album category at the 38th annual Grammy Awards.

Bedtime Stories proved that Madonna never lost her edge; she just decided to soften it so that her image could regroup. When listening to the sultry undertones and R&B influences threaded throughout it, you come to realize how flawlessly the singer could change up her persona while still sounding genuine. Like many of her albums, Bedtime Stories had a impact on many artists of today. But the LP speaks to the rising generation who prefer chilled electronica and R&B instead of bubbly synths. People like Banks, Tinashe,Jhene Aiko and Rihannaall have a sound that mixes icy vocals with warm, soulful production. For that, we have to thank Madonna for whispering sweet stories to us in the comfort of her musical bedroom.

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https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/2016/05/06/today-in-madonna-history-may-6-1995/?share=facebook&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1

On May 6 1995, the first of a two-day shoot for the music video for Human Nature took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California.

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The video was directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino while the work of S&M comic artist Eric Stanton provided inspiration.

Mondino found this book by this illustrator named Stanton who did kinda S&M drawings and stuff, but we didn’t want to go with the straight S&M; we wanted to have it be more about making fun of it.” – Madonna

 

All I know is…my main problem is I don’t like videos when somebody’s dancing, that the camera is moving a lot. I’m more like an old-time, classic guy, because I remember most of the video you had shot with the crane, some Steadicam, plus some panning. So you have about five different cameras shooting a performance, and after they edit like crazy. It gives you a lot of freedom, but I feel very frustrated because I like to see somebody dancing. I hate when there’s too much editing. I like the steadiness of the performance because then you can really enjoy the movement of the body. You see the skill. I like to shrink — as much as I can — the stage because I can grab her. If not, everyone is running around and I’m not good with this. So I came up with the boxes [laughs] and I knew that with the boxes I had to do with something quite un-expect-able because there’s not too much stage to dance in. So there’s something beautiful about it and they looked like bees or something. And the rest of it was how to create some kind of choreography and some graphic imagery with the S&M outfits, but with humor. So she has a little dog and she has some funny moments where she drops down, there’s some Charlie Chaplin-esque moments into in it. Because S&M is a game, you know? It’s dark, it looks dark, but I think people have fun. When you wear rubber like this, you better have fun. If not, you stop using it for sex and you become a diver, you know?” – Jean-Baptiste Mondino

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https://todayinmadonnahistory.com/2016/03/10/today-in-madonna-history-march-10-1995/?share=facebook&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1&nb=1

bedtime_story_video-advert_chicago.jpg

On March 10 1995, Madonna’s luscious Bedtime Story music video was given a cinematic release at three different Odeon Cineplex film theatres:

  • Santa Monica, California (Broadway Cinemas)
  • Manhattan, New York (Chelsea Theater)
  • Chicago, Illinois (Biograph Threater)

The one week engagement allowed attendees to enjoy the Mark Romanek directed masterpiece on the big screen for a week before the video was released on MTV.

Madonna later celebrated the premiere of Bedtime Story video by throwing a Pajama Party at Webster Hall in New York, on March 18, 1995.

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Why Madonna's Unapologetic 'Bedtime Stories' Is Her Most Important Album

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/69eyz6/madonna-bedtime-stories-20th-anniversary-sex-sexuality-feminism

When Madonna found herself in the middle of a scandal 20 years ago, she apologized by saying she wasn't sorry with 'Bedtime Stories.'

For as long as Madonna has made music, she has endured relentless criticism for her sexuality. She’s been perhaps the most consistent target in the music industry, drawing critiques for more than three decades, and reviews of her work have served as a roadmap for how we scrutinize women at each stage in their music career. Whether it was public speculation on why she isn’t “like a virgin”or it was chastising her middle-aged body in a leotard, the shaming has had many iterations despite its one unwavering resolution: She goes too far.

That’s why her album Bedtime Stories, even as it celebrates its 20th anniversary, is still her most important work. For months leading up to its release, it was marketed as an apology for her sexual behavior, and critics hoped it would be her return to innocence. Instead, she offered a lyrical #sorrynotsorry and a response to the problem of female musicians being scrutinized for their sexuality rather than their music. As a result of the public’s moral concerns, it has become Madonna's most quietly important album, setting the tone for how artists deal with critiques of their sex life.

In 1992, Madonna released Erotica, a techno concept album and ode to bondage, alongside the coffee table book Sex, a softcore pornographic photo catalog of her and her pals. The concurrent releases created enormous and long-running backlash, resulting in multiple countries banning the album from radio airplay and the Vatican banning Madonna from entering. Madonna was already well established as an icon, but her frank lyrics on S&M and published photographs of analingus incited the harshest public outrage in her career. Bedtime Stories was slated to be her one last chance at redemption, and Warner Brothers agreed to produce it under the auspices of a less provocative image.

Both the label and her publicist Liz Rosenberg did everything they could to reverse the damage from Madonna's last projects. They had her release the soundtrack single “I’ll Remember” to bring her a family-friendly hit and further increase speculation that Bedtime Stories would convey her apology. The album’s promo video promises that there will be “no sexual references on the album” and even panders with Madonna saying “it’s a whole new me! I’m going to be a good girl, I swear.”

Madonna-shaming was a two-part construct: First she was scorned for her sexuality, and then she was eclipsed by it. Since it cited her sex appeal as her sole commodity, the promo video had everyone wondering what she was going to sing about if the topic wasn’t sex. Speculation leading up to Bedtime Stories focused on her exit plan for becoming irrelevant, whether she planned on future facelifts, and what she would offer as a middle-aged version of herself.

“When you’re a celebrity, you’re allowed to have one personality trait. Which is ridiculous,” Madonna told the Detroit News in 1993. When Bedtime Stories was finally released on October 25, she addressed both aspects of the shaming process. Despite the promises in her promo, she continued to acknowledge her sexual desires, although she also experimented with the sound and subject matter. Beginning with “Survival,” a song she co-wrote with Dallas Austin, Madonna doesn’t hesitate to address the backlash and sings “I’ll never be an angel / I’ll never be a saint it’s true / I’m too busy surviving.” The lyrics continue to convey a loosely drawn narrative of the punishment she endured from the media and her feelings leading up to the release, and the songs are carried mostly by R&B melodies produced by Austin, Nellee Hooper, and Babyface.
 

The definitive single on the album is an explicit rebuke of the backlash. In “Human Nature,” she confirms that she wasn’t sorry and that she’s not anyone’s bitch, and she paired the song perfectly with a video that toys with bondage like an Erotica throwback. Right when she is about to drop the mic she whispers, “would it sound better if I were a man?”

Madonna asserted her lack of apology on the grounds that she had not said or did anything unusual; it was simply unusual for a woman to say it. In an interview with the LA Times, she defended Bedtime Stories by saying “I’m being punished for being a single female, for having power and being rich and saying the things I say, being a sexual creature—actually, not being any different from anyone else, but just talking about it. If I were a man, I wouldn't have had any of these problems. Nobody talks about Prince's sex life.”

Beyond offering Madonna’s final word on the scandal of her sexuality, the album pivots to address the misconception that her sexual persona limited her versatility as an artist. The narrative in Bedtime Stories immediately turns introspective, relating “I know how to laugh / but I don't know happiness.” While the album borrows mostly from R&B and new jack swing, it becomes more experimental with the Bjork-penned title track, accompanied with a video that could not have explored the collective unconscious better if Carl Jung directed it. The video for "Bedtime Story" is the first instance of what would become Madonna’s long history of culture-plucking spiritual inquiry, and to this day is stored in a collection at the Museum of Modern Art. As a pair, “Human Nature” and “Bedtime Story” prove that Madonna owned her sexuality and would not be eclipsed by it. While the former fully embraces the decisions she made with previous albums, the latter dismantles the “slut” narrative that her overt sexuality discredits her depth as a performer. Surely people would see this as a feminist masterpiece, no?

Still, critics didn’t get it. The New York Times’ Jon Pareles waxed nostalgic for when “Madonna thrived in the 1980s on being sensational and suggestive against a tame mainstream backdrop,” calling her more recent work “vulgar instead of shocking.” Critical reception continued to focus on the scandal of her attitude rather than the actual record. “Madonna's career has never really been about music; it's been about titillation, about image, about publicity,” began one TIME review, which wasn’t unique in its premise. Any mention of the album’s experimental sound or numerous collaborations were overshadowed by her promiscuous image and once again left cheapened. Bedtime Stories as an album was not the clear apology the public demanded, and its emotional depth was largely ignored. At best, it was thought of as Madonna’s return to a safer expression of sexuality.

The record found commercial success with the release of “Secret,” and “Take a Bow,” but the two most important songs never broke into the Top 40, a problem Madonna hadn’t faced in nearly ten years. Today, Bedtime Stories is not the first album that comes to mind in Madonna’s legacy. It is, however, the most relevant to many of the cultural conversations that are still happening. Had she acquiesced to the public’s call for apology, it could have set a dangerous standard for how the public can decree an artist’s silence, and it would have allowed the categories for female singers to remain in place. Critical anticipation of the album predicted either a penitent pop star or a one-dimensional sexpot. She defeated both categories, and left the critics to ponder if sexuality and solidity are as mutually exclusive as they had hoped.

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  • 1 year later...
On 3/19/2018 at 9:26 AM, groovyguy said:

1994 Jan-April

During 1994, Madonna started recording her sixth studio album. She collaborated with R&B producers such as Dallas AustinDave "Jam" Hall, and Babyface, and also enlisted British producer Nellee Hooper to the project. It became one of the very few occasions where she collaborated with well-known producers, the first since Nile Rodgers on Like a Virgin(1984). When asked about the record, Madonna said she wanted people to concentrate on the musical aspects of it, and would like the songs to speak for themselves. She also commented that it was because she was not interested in giving many interviews and being on the cover of magazines. She described the album as "a combination of pop, R&B, hip-hop and a Madonna record. It's very, very romantic". In an interview with The Face magazine, Madonna explained her inspirations behind Bedtime Stories as well as the reason for teaming up with R&B song producers.

I've been in a reflective state of mind. I've done lot of soul searching and I just felt in a romantic mood when I was writing for [the album] so that's what I wrote about... I decided that I wanted to work with a whole bunch of different producers. [Icelandic singer-songwriter] Björk's album was one of my favorite for years—it's brilliantly produced. And I also wanted to work with Massive Attack. So obviously, he was on the list. Nellee was the last person I worked with, and it wasn't until then that I got a grip of what the sound of the whole record was, so I had to go back and redo a lot.

January 23: Bye Bye Baby re-entered the New Zealand singles chart, ultimately peaking at #43. The track had initially charted in the country for a single week in late November of 1993.

January 28: It is officially announced that Madonna’s new single, “I’ll Remember” will be released on the soundtrack to the Alek Keshishian film, With Honors, on March 1.

Jan. – Feb: SPECULATION: Madonna probably did most of her writing and recording with Shep Pettibone at this time. She also wrote and recorded “I’ll Remember” with Patrick Leonard and Richard Page.

LATER: During a press conference for the album in West Hollywood, Madonna tells Cleo magazine:

"I started writing this album with Shep," she explains, "but I felt like I was writing the same kind of music over and over again. I was more interested in going back to the music that I originally started with which is R & B."

To that end Madonna brought in a crack team of today's hottest R & B producers. Dave Hall, who's turned out hits for Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, was brought in for several tracks, as was Nellee Hooper, who's along with co-writer Bjork contributes the collection's most radical departure in Bedtime Story. Madonna calls Babyface, whom she worked with on Forbidden Love and the exquisite Take a Bow, an "amazing songwriter and a poet" and says that writing with him is like "playing a great game of tennis with another great tennis player." She then goes on to boast that the two wrote both songs in one afternoon, roughly the time it takes me to do my laundry.

A fourth collaborator, Dallas Austin, who's best known for his work with TLC and Boys II Men, was chosen for his "great minimalist approach and youthfulness," two qualities that come through on the album's first single, Secret.

"The song is about hope and discovering the secret," Madonna says then explains why she chose 1960's Harlem as the milieu for the song's video. "Most people have a preconceived notion that there's only despair and sadness there, but there's a lot of beauty. When I lived in Harlem I saw so many incredible things and the song is about a secret, something so simple, something that's right in front of you, that you don't even appreciate or recognize it."

February 24Madonna attends a performance of jazz singer Jimmy Scott today at Tavern on the Green in NYC, and told photographer Andreas Johnsen that “Scott is the only singer who’d ever really made me cry.” In a photo op with Scott, she has her “I’ll Remember” video hair.

February 25: Madonna attends the second Jimmy Scott performance at Tavern on the Green. She later gives him a cameo spot in her “Secret” video.

 

March 1: "Madonna is seriously brunette once again. And she's also seriously at work on a new album. After the somewhat disappointing Erotica (it only went triple platinum - like this is so bad?), Madonna is determined to just kill 'em with this new offering. Everybody close to the Big M is happy she's concentrating so intensely on her music." (Austin American-Statesman)

NOTE: No idea why this newspaper claimed Erotica went triple platinum.


March 12: Madonna makes a surprise unannounced appearance at the AIDS Dance-A-Thon benefit in San Francisco, CA.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/madonna-dance-a-thon.jpg


March 15: "I'll Remember" was released by Warner Bros. Records as the soundtrack single of the film With Honors. It was a radical change in image and style for Madonna, who had received some negative critical and commercial feedback over the prior two years due to the release of her book Sex, the studio album Erotica and the film Body of Evidence. Warner Bros. had Madonna sing the song after noting most of her previous soundtrack singles had achieved commercial success

Contemporary critics praised the song, hailing it as one of her best works. It was nominated for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television at the 37th Grammy Awards and Best Original Song at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards. "I'll Remember" was also a commercial success, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming her fourth number-one hit on the Adult Contemporary chart. It also topped the singles charts in Canada and Italy.

The ballad was initially composed by musician Richard Page before being reworked by Madonna and Patrick Leonard. According to Page, "Madonna was brought in... she changed all my lyrics for the better. She really did a great job." Regarding her feelings for the song, Madonna commented,

"I think most of the time when my records come out, people are so much distracted by so much fanfare and controversy that nobody pays attention to the music. [...] I can't tell you how painful the idea of singing 'Like a Virgin' or 'Material Girl' (1984) is to me now. I didn't write either of those songs, and wasn't digging very deep then. I also feel more connected emotionally to the music I'm writing now, so it's more of a pleasure to do it.”

The song starts with a C major chord sequence and is used on the flattened seventh key of the sequence. But the actual key of the song is D major. It is set in a time signature of common time with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. Madonna's voice spans from F3 to G4. A much stronger arrangement of drums are used in the second verse. The chorus uses the chord sequence of D–G–Bm–A while the first two lines of each verse uses the chord progression of C–D–C–D7–C–D–Bm–A. During the intermediate line "I learned to let go of the illusion that we can possess", the structure changes to D/F–Bm–G–D–A–G–A.[6] Backing vocals are used on the later choruses for support with the strings, cascading down to a minor arrangement before the third one.

March 15: Madonna attends the 8th annual Soul Train Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA. with Rosie Perez. Madonna is sporting a new nose piercing.

LATER: In an interview, Babyface said she sought him out to work with after hearing Toni Braxton’s “Breathe Again” – a song which wins Best R&B/Soul Single at the awards tonight and her debut album wins Best R&B/Soul Album - Female. Babyface wins Best R&B/Soul Album – Male. Toni Braxton also performs this evening, as does Babyface.

At some point around this time, Madonna decided she wanted to do an R&B record and therefore she chose the best producers in R&B.

LATER: When they wrote together (M + Babyface), she visited Babyface’s studio in his Beverly Hills home. (Boston Globe 12/16/94)

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/soul-train-94-awards-5.jpg

March 17: The music video for I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors)premiered on BBC1-TV’s Top Of The Pops in the UK.

I’ll Remember began as a collaboration between Richard Page (of 80’s band Mister Mister) and Patrick Leonard. Leonard had been asked by Madonna to score Alek Keshishian’s film With Honors, and had also been collaborating with Page on an upcoming Toy Matinee album. When Leonard played an early demo of I’ll Rememberfor Madonna, she loved it and decided to record it with new lyrics she had written. The song was produced by Madonna & Patrick Leonard, with Page providing additional backing vocals.

Madonna had previously crossed paths with Richard Page when he presented her with a trophy at the 1987 American Music Awards 

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/ama-1987-richard-page.jpg


March 20: Madonna wins a Razzie Award for Worst Actress in Body Of Evidence at the 14th annual Golden Raspberry Awards at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Academy Room, Los Angeles, CA.
 

March 21: Madonna’s I’ll Remember (Theme From With Honors) music video premiered on MTV.

The video was directed by Alek Keshishian. The androgynous portrayal of Madonna in the video, was appreciated critically for breaking gender barriers.

March 22Madonna is currently gathering ideas for songs – a new album is being planned and could be out by year’s end. (ICON Fanzine)

LATER: Shep Pettibone stated that he did “months of pre-production” for this album which included some demos. As pertains to the Shep collaborations, Pettibone revealed in an interview (which needs to be sourced) that the material was inspired by The Spinners (whose Philly soul work with Thom Bell was anthologised by Atlantic Records in 1992). Philly soul and Salsoul later received a major revival in the mid 1990's.

Pettibone Sessions:

1. “Love Won’t Wait” – written and recorded but later shelved. Pettibone would later give the songs to U.K. boy-band star Gary Barlow to record and he will later take the song to No. 1 in the UK in 1997. The demo which is described as “quite strong” has a pop-music angle to it with some cheesy keyboard effects.

2. “I Will Always Have You” – the original recorded and unreleased version of “Inside of Me.” The original is more of a quality power ballad along the lines of “Crazy for You” and “You’ll See” than the released version.

3. “Bring It” – written and produced but never released. This song is reportedly of far lesser quality than the other tracks Pettibone and Madonna produced for this album.

4. “Something’s Coming Over Me” – the original recorded and unreleased version of “Secret” that was abandoned. The original track was more in the style of “Vogue” with an erotic “Donna Summer Love to Love You Baby” disco theme.

POSSIBLY: “Goodtime” & “Tongue Tied” – songs listed in the Warner Chappell copyright database written by Madonna and Shep. These could be from a different time period but remain unreleased with little known of their nature.

March 24: Madonna is seen with Tupac Skakur in NYC at the broadcast of S.N.L. – she also (reportedly) smokes pot with Snoop Dogg (the musical guest that night) in his dressing room. 2Pac and Madonna (around this time) record a demo for “I’d Ratha Be Ya Lova.”

March 29: "MADONNA ALERT: Yes, that was the Material Girl in town last week [Atlanta]. Our music writers told us that Madonna has a possible recording deal in the works with a local producer, but details are still being hammered out and final word is expected next week." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

March 30: While recording new material for her upcoming album in New York, Madonna attends several NY Knicks games at Madison Square Garden.

Madonna Interview : Late Show with David Letterman (March 31 1994)

http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-late-show-with-david-letterman-march-31-1994
 

March 31: Madonna guested on CBS-TV’s Late Show With David Letterman: during the 20-minute interview, she said the word “fuck” 13 times, made obscene remarks and wisecracks, refused to leave the set and was rude to her host; her lewd and vulgar behavior caused a public and media controversy and Letterman also expressed his displeasure by her appearance on his show.

https://youtu.be/wtyxIfwoEns

https://youtu.be/u_-PXJMHFgw

April 2: Early reports say that Madonna’s next album will be a return to her Like A Virgin days of pure dance-pop.

April 2: In the United States, I’ll Remember  debuted at number 35 on the Hot 100 chart for the Billboard issue dated April 2, 1994. After eight weeks, the song reached a peak of number two on the chart. It stayed there for four weeks, being blocked from the top spot by All-4-One's "I Swear". The song became the fifth single by Madonna to peak at the number two position and tied her with Elvis Presley for the most number two songs on the Hot 100. However, this record was broken by Madonna in 1998, when her single "Frozen" peaked at two. The song also topped the Adult Contemporary chart for four consecutive weeks, becoming Madonna's fourth number-one for this chart following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", and "Cherish".

In the United Kingdom it debuted at ten on the chart and reached seven the next week. It was present for a total of eight weeks on the chart. According to the Official Charts Company, "I'll Remember" has sold 100,090 copies in the United Kingdom, as of August 2008. Across Europe, the song became a top 40 hit in Belgium, France, Netherlands and Switzerland. The song reached the top-ten in Australia, Ireland and Sweden and peaked the chart in Italy. It peaked just outside the top 40 in Germany.

April 8: The album is expected in the fall of ’94.

April 12: Madonna sent a handwritten note to David Letterman wishing him a Happy Fucking Birthday.

The letter – sent less than two weeks after her infamous profanity-laced appearance on the Late Show – teasingly takes Letterman to task for having used the controversy to his advantage.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/madonna_to_letterman_1994.png

 

April 12: "Madonna and Atlanta-based producer Dallas Austin danced the night away Sunday (April 10) at Velvet's Disco Hell after sealing a deal to work together. "Dallas is going to be working on Madonna's upcoming project," confirmed Claude Austin, the producer's brother and vice president of D.A.R.P. Inc. (Dallas Austin Recording Projects). "She came down a couple of weeks ago and listened to some tracks he put together for her liked them. Now they are in the process of writing." Dallas Austin, known for his cutting-edge work with such platinum-selling acts as TLC, Boyz II Men and Another Bad Creation, has three record labels here (Rowdy, R & Beats and Limp), whose rosters include the Billboard award-winning duo Illegal and Atlanta newcomer Joi." (Atlanta Journal Constitution).

April 13-20: Madonna is currently in Atlanta writing and recording material with Dallas Austin. He was recommended by Babyface with whom she has already written several songs with for the album. Babyface says in a USA Today article (published later on) that she sought his services after hearing Toni Braxton’s “Breathe Again” which was a No. 3 hit in November 1993.

LATER: Dallas Austin and Madonna will have written several other songs for this record.

Austin Sessions:

1. “Keep On” – written by Madonna, Dallas Austin, and Colin Wolfe. This quite possibly an early version of “Don’t Stop.”

2. “Right On Time” – written by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

3. “Honesty” or “Your Honesty” – written, recorded and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

4. “Freedom” – written, recorded and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

5. “Let Down Your Guard” – written, recorded and produced by Madonna and Dallas Austin.

LATER: Madonna will later say in an interview that she wanted to work with Dallas Austin because she “just loved” the work he did with Joi Cardwell on The Pendulum Vibe. In the same interview, she also said she didn't really want to work with Dave Hall, but her record company made her. She said after she got together with him, she liked him alot.

April 16-17: Liz Rosenberg confirms that Madonna is in Atlanta this weekend working on her new album. Dennis Rodman is with her.

April 19: MTV News reports Madonna has already written material with Babyface and Dallas Austin for her next release.

April 24Madonna is back in Los Angeles working on her album.

April 26: The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was released by Warner-Reprise Video on VHS and laserdisc.

The concert – recorded on November 19, 1993 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia – was a re-edited version of the concert special that had aired live on HBO. It was directed by Mark “Aldo” Miceli, who directed the live screens on Madonna’s 1990 and 1993 tours, as well as the Blond Ambition Japan Tour 90 VHS/laserdisc release. The Girlie Show – Live Down Under was nominated for a Grammy in 1995 for Best Long Form Music Video and was also one of the first concerts to be commercially issued on DVD in 1998.

 

Madonna attended the Los Angeles premiere of the Alek Keshishian film, With Honors.

Madonna contributed I’ll Remember (the theme song) to the soundtrack which was distributed by Maverick Records.

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-1.jpg

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-2.jpg?w=550&h=492

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-3.jpg

https://todayinmadonnahistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/with-honors-premiere-4.jpg

Thanks for referencing Today In Madonna History :) Justin and I appreciate it :)

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