On October 24,1994,Madonna released her 'Bedtime Stories' CD.It's a superb album of warm,melodic songs that took her in a more soulful direction than almost anything she had done previously.I always describe this album as "warm and inviting",with beautiful,memorable melodies.Songs like "Secret","Inside Of Me" and "Love Tried To Welcome Me" are top-notch songs,well-written and with beautiful arrangements.The final track "Take A Bow" is a lush collaboration with Babyface that just sizzles.The Bjork-written title track can be seen as a precursor to the electronic/techno phase that Madonna would soon enter.

With this album,it's obvious that Madonna tried to do something radically different from the previous album 'Erotica'.That album is edgy and pulsing,with an intentionally cold,robotic feel to certain tracks.That album makes me feel as if I'm at some hot,sweaty,underground New York nightclub...lol...on 'Bedtime Stories',there seems to be more emphasis on melody and solid songwriting.There's still plenty of dance-oriented material,but it seems slower and more subdued.It's a very sensual album (as opposed to "sexual").I would love for this album to be remastered with several bonus tracks and outtakes...


Madonna BEDTIME STORIES---Deluxe Edition

Survival
Secret
I'd Rather Be Your Lover
Don't Stop
Inside Of Me
Human Nature
Forbidden Love
Love Tried To Welcome Me
Sanctuary
Bedtime Story
Take A Bow

Bonus tracks---

"Love Won't Wait" (outtake)
"Bring It" (outtake)
"Your Honesty" (appears on the 'Remixed and Revisted' EP)
"Right On Time" (outtake)
"I'd Ratha Be Yo Lover" (early version of "Id Rather Be Your Lover".This version features a rap by Tupac)
"I Will Always Have You" (early version of "Inside Of Me".It's a power ballad not unlike "Crazy For You" or "You'll See")
"Something's Coming Over Me" (early version of "Secret".It's a faster,uptempo track in the same vein of "Vogue")
"Goodtime" (outtake)
"TongueTied" (outtake)

I love this album! The minute i started listening to "Survival" i just got hooked.
And when i first heard Secret, i couldn't get the damn thing out of my head.
It's filled with many underated ballads, my favorite being "Inside of Me."
And let's not forget her most successful single, "take a bow."

I dont get something though.

I think there's 2 covers to this album, one appares right side up and the other upside down, WTF?

it's decent enough, if a bit subdued. it's one of those in-between-statements, no-brainers, for me. slick, palatable pop without a lot to say. which is what she needed after Erotica. and before Ray Of Light...


favorites:

the four singles, plus Don't Stop, Survival, and I'd Rather Be Your Lover
[Edited 10/20/04 3:32am]

Good pop album. I'd give it

Fave songs:

Secret
Human Nature
Sanctuary
Take A Bow

GrayKing said:

What I like about this album is that there's no "great big statement" she's trying to make.It's just a solid pop/R&B album....no big concept or message.It's the type of record she needed to make after the whole 'Erotica/Sex' era.And notably,this album was released without any distracting controveries standing in it's way...no steamy,outrageous video that was banned from MTV...no silly publicity stunts...it's as if Madonna wanted to put the focus entirely on the music and I think she succeeded.

Additionally,the promotional campaign for this album was sheer genuis.They tried to downplay Madonna's sexual image by using clever print ads that read: Madonna wants to tuck you in with her new album.That's "tuck" with a "t".


[Edited 10/20/04 3:59am]

jayaredee said:

It wouldn't be crazy to say that "Secret" is her best single of the 90s

jayaredee said:

the one where her face appears upside down is actually the correct version. in the original printing, many (maybe all?) of the covers were printed with the image upside down. it's a photo of her from above, reclining on a bed. it was "fixed" in subsequent pressings, but the corrected version has always seemed odd to me.

has it been 10 years already?

sheesh.

Love the album, hate the cover. Ugly and unsophisticated for what it could have been.

Interestingly,when Madonna started working on a follow-up to 'Erotica',she was working with Shep Pettibone again.But after they recorded several tracks,she decided that she wanted to go in another direction.She didn't want to make 'Erotica Part 2' so she ditched Pettibone and brought in some different producers.She kept a few of the songs from the Pettibone sessions ("Secret","Inside Of Me") but re-worked them with the new producers.If you read the liner notes,she has a message to Shep that says "Thanks for understanding".


Likewise,in 1997,when she began recording a follow-up to 'Bedtime Stories',she was working with some of the same producers from that album,including Babyface.But after a few songs had been recorded,she decided to (once again) go in another whole new direction.She called up William Orbit and the result was 'Ray Of Light'.
[Edited 10/20/04 5:28am]

I love this album (10 years ago though ... whoah!).
I think it is possibly one of her most underrated.

'Inside of me' is just beautiful and 'Love Tried To
Welcome' me is possibly one of the best songs she has
ever released (IMO).

It's strange how I often prefer Madonna albums that
the critics slate. I think that 'American Life' is
an excellent piece of work both lyrically and musically
, but many seem to have dismissed it. However, 'Music'
left me cold.

Peace
Mr7
[Edited 10/20/04 5:29am]

bedtime story was my fav.

VoicesCarry said:

I think they should have used that first photo that I posted (above) as the cover.Madonna looks sexy as hell in that shot!

DavidEye said:

It should have been one of the B&W shots from the Secret sessions. Whoever photographed her in technicolor during this era should have realized that blood-red hooker lipstick and bleached-to-death hair would make her look like some sort of demented clown. The nose ring doesn't help.

VoicesCarry said:

You mean a photo like this?

DavidEye said:

Mmmm hmm. I loved the photography in the Secret video. Or one of the photos from the single cover session, where she looked her most Harlow-esque.

I love this photo right here,which is similar to the photo that appears on an import "Secret" single that I have.But the photo on the single is in black and white.

DavidEye said:

See, now that would have been a much better cover.

i like this album very much.

secret, don't stop, forbidden love, human nature, bedtime stories & take a bow are all first rate songs.

in fact, i remember going to the record store to pick up the CD on the day it came out. Don't think i've ever done that with any other Madonna release (it's not my favourite by a long shot, but it's still a fine disc).

VoicesCarry said:

Madonna looks yummy!

DavidEye said:

Madonna and yummy in the same sentence and based on THAT photo its like ok but far from yummy!!! please. Madonna trying and I emphasize trying to adopt a black/rnb sound..Give me a break. I guess BabyFace said what the hell, money is money....

gman1966 said:

Interestingly (and somewhat off-topic,lol)Babyface actually paid tribute to Madonna several years earlier.When he was a member of the Deele,he wrote a song called "Hip Chick" which appears on their 1987 album 'Eyes Of A Stranger'.The song calls out several female stars,inclding Vanity and...you guessed it....Madonna,the hippest chick of all.

But back to your point...Madonna has ALWAYS done R&B music and she's always been influenced by it.She's from Michigan,for Christ's sake! LOL.Her first album is mostly R&B.She doesn't have to "adopt" a style of music that is already a part of her.

gman1966 said:

Wondered how long it would be until you showed up. The Madonna-Obsessed Brigade is here!

VoicesCarry said:

It's easy to get Gman to show up.All you gotta do is start a Madonna thread

Notice that he rarely posts anywhere else on this site.

DavidEye said:

What rnb!!! Only song that was close was Holiday. But of course this is what you constitute as Madonna doing rnb..Right. "Already a part of her" The Brigade I tell you...

gman1966 said:

In 1983,our local R&B station (KSOL for those of you who lived in the Bay Area around that time) was playing songs like "Holiday","Lucky Star" and "Everybody" LONG before the pop stations even knew who Madonna was.The majority of the songs on her first album were produced by Reggie Lucas,a black R&B music producer.If these same songs had been given to,say,Stephanie Mills,would you still insist that they are not R&B songs?

DavidEye said:

I don't know about the Bay area, in Houston it was primarily Holiday. You said it exactly the songs were given to her. Madonna and rnb is like Prince and Country music!!!

gman1966 said:

Once again,I ask...if the same songs had been given to Stephanie Mills (an artist that Reggie also worked with),would you still be sitting here insisting that they're not R&B tunes?

for some reason i've never been able to really get into this record. over the years i've developed a little more of an affinity for it but it still remains one of my least favorite madonna records. don't stop, survival, love tried to welcome me and inside of me just don't click with me...and that's practically half of the record. i'd rather be your lover is another one that is ok but there's just something that's missing for me.

that said, some of the songs on that record are instant classics and a few of my favorites are on the cd. secret, bedtime story, sanctaury, forbidden love...those songs are so great! thats my problem with bedtime stories as a whole; so many classics get interrupted by what (in my opinion) is filler.

DavidEye said:

Those songs as they were done with Madonna were not exactly rnb tunes they were more like pop songs with a rnb influence that gave it crossover appeal. If Stephanie Mills were to perform those songs they would been altered to better suit her vocal style. If they were performed as is with Stephanie it would not have worked.