Bad Girl (song)

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"Bad Girl"

Single by Madonna
from the album Erotica
B-side(s)	"Fever" (North America) "Erotica" (William Orbit Edit) (Europe)
Released	February 2, 1993
Format	CD, 7", 12"
Recorded	1992
Genre	Pop / Ballad
Length	5:23
Label	Maverick Records Sire Records Warner Bros. Records WEA International
Writer(s)	Madonna Shep Pettibone
Producer(s)	Madonna Shep Pettibone
Chart positions
#5 (Canada) #10 (UK) #11 (Japan) #32 (Australia) #36 (US)
Madonna singles chronology
"Deeper and Deeper" (1992)	"Bad Girl" (1993)	"Fever" (1993)
Erotica track listing
"Where Life Begins" (5)	"Bad Girl" (6)	"Waiting" (7)

"Bad Girl" was the third single from Madonna's 1992 album Erotica. Originally it was planned as the second single with an X-rated video to match the Erotica single but it was changed due to the backlash of the SEX book.

1 Song information
2 Video
3 Chart performance
4 Versions
5 References

[edit] Song information

The single marked a shift in fortunes for Madonna, as it was her second single since 1984 not to chart in the top five in the US, stalling at thirty-six on the Billboard 100. In the UK, it just managed to reach number ten, but was out of the charts in less than three weeks. Despite a video directed by David Fincher and featuring actor Christopher Walken, "Bad Girl" is widely considered to be a flop; many fans, however, regard it as one of Madonna's best ballads. The B-side of the US 7" release was Madonna's cover of "Fever" while the B-side of the UK 7" release was a William Orbit dub of "Erotica".

Madonna performed "Bad Girl" live on Saturday Night Live in January 1993. At the end of the song she tore up a picture of Joey Buttafuoco, telling the audience to "fight the real enemy!" This was a spoof of Sinéad O'Connor's controversial SNL appearance a few months earlier in which she had done the same to a picture of Pope John Paul II.

[edit] Video

The video featured Madonna as Louise Oriole, a high-powered Manhattan female executive who has a penchant for one-night stands. Through her days, Louise gets distracted by cigarettes, cocktails, and random hook-ups, as lamented in the song's lyrics. Christopher Walken plays her guardian angel, who watches over her activities and delivers Louise with a "kiss of death" before her final encounter with a man who strangles her with her pantyhose.

One of Madonna's best narrative videos, it was directed by David Fincher and was released in early 1993. Madonna's look in the video is reminiscent of her character in the film Body of Evidence, which she had just finished filming.