| "Take a Bow" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Madonna | ||||
| from the album Bedtime Stories | ||||
| B-side | "Take a Bow" (InDaSoul Mix) | |||
| Released | December 6, 1994 | |||
| Format | CD single, CD maxi single | |||
| Recorded | 1994 | |||
| Genre | Pop, pop ballad | |||
| Length | 5:21 | |||
| Label | Maverick, Sire, Warner Bros. | |||
| Writer(s) | Madonna, Babyface | |||
| Producer | Madonna, Babyface | |||
| Certification | Gold (RIAA) | |||
| Madonna singles chronology | ||||
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"Take a Bow" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her 1994 studio album Bedtime Stories. It has since also appeared on her compilation albums Something to Remember (1995), GHV2 (2001) and Celebration (2009). Released as a single in December 1994, it became her longest-running number-one hit in the United States. Madonna performed "Take a Bow" with Babyface at the 1995 American Music Awards. It was her first single to reach number-one in the United States after 1992's "This Used to Be My Playground" and it was her last number-one song in the United States in the 1990s.
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"Take a Bow", the second single from the Bedtime Stories album, became Madonna's eleventh number-one single in America, remaining at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a seven-week run, the longest of her career thus far. Co-written by Babyface (who also provides backing vocals), the ballad became the singer's first United States number one in almost three years. Despite its success on the charts, Madonna has never played the song on any tour.
"Take a Bow" was featured in the final episode of the first season of Friends, "The One Where Rachel Finds Out", when Rachel goes to the airport to tell Ross that she knows he is in love with her. "Take a Bow" was also used for promos for the final season of Beverly Hills, 90210.
The song contains oriental pentatonics and strings, giving the impression of Chinese or Japanese nights and their opera.[1] Madonna sings the song in the sleepy languid mood that characterises the songs from Bedtime Stories.[1] The chorus expresses the theme of saying goodbye to a lover who had taken her for granted. The title plays upon the verse in the song "all the world is a stage and everyone plays their part," a reference to the line by William Shakespeare in his play As You Like It, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women mere players".[1]
"Take a Bow" was a huge success for Madonna on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It topped the chart for seven weeks and is her longest-running number-one single on this chart. "Take a Bow" became Madonna's fifth number-one single on the Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S., following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", "Cherish", and "I'll Remember". The song is also notable as Madonna's last single (to date) to make the top forty of the U.S. R&B chart. The single received the remix treatment from prominent DJ and record producer Steve Hurley. On February 27, 1995, the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping 500,000 copies.[2]
Although the single was a major hit in the United States, garnering gold accreditation, it became one of only a handful of her releases not to reach the UK top ten and ended a ten-year run of thirty-five consecutive top ten hits. According to The Official Charts Company, "Take a Bow" has sold 102,739 copies in the United Kingdom, as of August 2008.[3] In Canada the song topped the charts, becoming her twelfth number-one single in that country.
The music video (directed by Michael Haussman) was a lavish period-style piece filmed from November 3–8, 1994 in Ronda and in the bullring of Antequera, Spain[4]. The plot sees Madonna as a bullfighter's (played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz) neglected lover, yearning for his presence. Others, however, see it as a statement on classism, as the bullfighter arguably feels threatened and angered by the aristocrat's station, resulting in his physically abusing and then coldly abandoning her. Madonna's 1995 single "You'll See" is considered a follow up to "Take a Bow" as the singer and Emilio Muñoz reprise their roles in the music video. Madonna requested that Haussman give the video a Spanish theme because, at the time, she was lobbying for the role of Eva Perón in the film version of Evita. She subsequently sent a copy of the video to director Alan Parker as a way of "auditioning" for the role. Madonna won Best Female Video honors at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.
This video was ranked number twenty-seven on VH1's 50 Sexiest Video Moments.
The video generated some controversy with animal rights activists who accused the singer of glorifying bullfighting. In Australia, music video program Video Hits ran a ticker along the bottom of the screen when the video was playing, stating that the producers of the program did not endorse the glorification of the sport portrayed in the video, while ABC TV video program rage simply refused to play the video at all during their G-rated Top 50 program.
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Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
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| Preceded by "Creep" by TLC |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one single February 25, 1995 – April 8, 1995 |
Succeeded by "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan |
| Preceded by "Love Will Keep Us Alive" by The Eagles |
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one single February 18, 1995 – April 15, 1995 |
Succeeded by "In the House of Stone and Light" by Martin Page |
| Preceded by "Bang and Blame" by R.E.M. |
Canadian RPM Singles Chart number-one single March 6, 1995 – March 13, 1995 |
Succeeded by "Strong Enough" by Sheryl Crow |
|title= specified when using {{Cite web}}". http://swisscharts.com/year.asp?key=1995. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
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