Ahhh back when Madonna was good.

Some of the songs off Bedtime Stories & Ray Of Light are great.

After that

The sequel to this song was great to

One of the best ballads of its time period and one of Madonna's best songs/videos.

Timmy84 said:

One of the best ballads of its time period and one of Madonna's best songs/videos.

Madonna was really something in the 90's.

I am not a fan of 80's Madonna or even most of 00's...

But from Like A Prayer on through Ray Of Light she had some great singles and some of the best made videos of the era.

The lighting they do in her videos is amazing like

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

One of the best ballads of its time period and one of Madonna's best songs/videos.

Madonna was really something in the 90's.

I am not a fan of 80's Madonna or even most of 00's...

But from Like A Prayer on through Ray Of Light she had some great singles and some of the best made videos of the era.

The lighting they do in her videos is amazing like

I love the '80s Madonna. But I have to agree, Madonna's '90s period was great. I had so many memories from it.

I have been in a Madonna mood lately, I was jamming to Deeper And Deeper earlier It seems Madonna was more creative in the 90's but the classics were in the 80's imo.

babybugz said:

I have been in a Madonna mood lately, I was jamming to Deeper And Deeper earlier It seems Madonna was more creative in the 90's but the classics were in the 80's imo.

Yeah some of her iconic moments were in the '80s. She was scoring hits like Elvis.

Timmy84 said:

One of the best ballads of its time period and one of Madonna's best songs/videos.

I'll take it one step further and say one of the great ballads period.

Babyface's most memorable melody/chord progression.

I forgot about the track "you'll see". That's a great song too!

This seems to be the go to Madonna song. More threads are made about this song than any other by her. I agree partially with Guns. I only like a few of her songs from her first 3 albums and the 90's were awesome. However, I love her 2-00's music too (except for Hard Candy and about 1/3 of MDNA). My favorite albums by her are LAP, Erotica, ROL, and Music. Bedimte Stories had some great songs, but it also had some really boring ones too. Her videos during the 90's made her THE video artist.

Timmy84 said:

babybugz said:

I have been in a Madonna mood lately, I was jamming to Deeper And Deeper earlier It seems Madonna was more creative in the 90's but the classics were in the 80's imo.

Yeah some of her iconic moments were in the '80s. She was scoring hits like Elvis.

i always wonder about when people say that

Sure she had a lot of hits in the 80's... but

According to the infamous sales records she had 18 top 40 hits in the 80's and 20 top 40 hits in the 90's.

But i am too lazy to count and see how legit that is

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

Yeah some of her iconic moments were in the '80s. She was scoring hits like Elvis.

i always wonder about when people say that

Sure she had a lot of hits in the 80's... but

According to the infamous sales records she had 18 top 40 hits in the 80's and 20 top 40 hits in the 90's.

But i am too lazy to count and see how legit that is

She released more singles during the 90's (mostly because several bombed). Also the hits she had during the 80's generally peaked higher than the 90's

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

Yeah some of her iconic moments were in the '80s. She was scoring hits like Elvis.

i always wonder about when people say that

Sure she had a lot of hits in the 80's... but

According to the infamous sales records she had 18 top 40 hits in the 80's and 20 top 40 hits in the 90's.

But i am too lazy to count and see how legit that is

She stayed on the charts more constant in the '80s though. In the '90s, she was always in danger of "fading away" from some made-up scandal ("Sex" book, "Justify My Love" video, the Letterman sailor incident, etc.). Then she did movies and stopped doing tours until 2000 but before then came out with Ray of Light, one of her best albums to date. She was real good in the '90s but she became an icon in the '80s through 1990.

aardvark15 said:

This seems to be the go to Madonna song. More threads are made about this song than any other by her. I agree partially with Guns. I only like a few of her songs from her first 3 albums and the 90's were awesome. However, I love her 2-00's music too (except for Hard Candy and about 1/3 of MDNA). My favorite albums by her are LAP, Erotica, ROL, and Music. Bedimte Stories had some great songs, but it also had some really boring ones too. Her videos during the 90's made her THE video artist.

i will give Bedtime Stories credit cause it has gems like Take A Bow, Secret, Bedtime Stories, Forbidden love & Human Nature.

But the rest of the album...

Gunsnhalen said:

Although I've always liked this song since it's release, it was always overrated for Madonna...and for Babyface IMO and I found that those who didn't like Madonna liked this, and I never understood that cause her 80's stuff beats this, and the other singles released from Bedtime Stories are some of the best of her career video wise, but the rest of the album is overrated and not her best like some believe. She had good 90's songs, but they were scattered. I think she was more musically consistent in the 80's and 00's, but I'm not feeling MDNA though I liked the tour.

alphastreet said:

Although I've always liked this song since it's release, it was always overrated for Madonna...and for Babyface IMO and I found that those who didn't like Madonna liked this, and I never understood that cause her 80's stuff beats this, and the other singles released from Bedtime Stories are some of the best of her career video wise, but the rest of the album is overrated and not her best like some believe. She had good 90's songs, but they were scattered. I think she was more musically consistent in the 80's and 00's, but I'm not feeling MDNA though I liked the tour.

Vogue, Into the Groove, Holiday, Frozen and Take a bow are my main favorities from her, but I do enjoy her other songs too. I never knew Take a bow was overrated by people I rarely hear people mention it honestly.

babybugz said:

aardvark15 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

aardvark15 said:

This seems to be the go to Madonna song. More threads are made about this song than any other by her. I agree partially with Guns. I only like a few of her songs from her first 3 albums and the 90's were awesome. However, I love her 2-00's music too (except for Hard Candy and about 1/3 of MDNA). My favorite albums by her are LAP, Erotica, ROL, and Music. Bedimte Stories had some great songs, but it also had some really boring ones too. Her videos during the 90's made her THE video artist.

i will give Bedtime Stories credit cause it has gems like Take A Bow, Secret, Bedtime Stories, Forbidden love & Human Nature.

But the rest of the album...

This. Bjork wrote the title track BTW

Take a Bow is one of my all-time Favorite Madge-tracks. It's the PERFECT radio-friendly Hit. I was a kid when it dropped and I knew from the jump it was a BabyFace production because he LOVES adding that signature Booming-Bass in the background on ALL his work. That Bass haunts all of his produced tracks and you know it's Face... I Love it....

What sold people on Take a Bow was the video. Not over the top and the Director really took his time and listened to the words to figure out how to shoot the Story...

Everything came together for Madge & Face when they teamed up....I know they won American Music Awards and performed @ the Ceremony but I don't think they won GRAMMYs....

I love this song, too. And You'll See is great as well. How I miss those days with beautiful, magical Babyface melodies. What happened?

dag said:

I love this song, too. And You'll See is great as well. How I miss those days with beautiful, magical Babyface melodies. What happened?

What Happened?...LOL...The Late Whitney said when he handed her "Exhale (Shop,Shoop)" she asked him if he ran out of words to write...LOL...Face had the LAST laugh when Exhale went to #1 on the Pop & R&B Charts and WON him a Grammy for best R&B Song of the Year....

Face is still writing and producing for himself and others but he hasnt had another MAJOR Hit since his Mega-success with Eric Clapton....He's a Young Middle-age guy so he still has time to pull more great productions out of his Hat...

Always found it interesting that this was such a huge hit in the US whereas in the UK it was considered a flob because it 'only' reached number 15 in the singles chart.

Gorgeous video.

rlittler81 said:

Always found it interesting that this was such a huge hit in the US whereas in the UK it was considered a flob because it 'only' reached number 15 in the singles chart.

Gorgeous video.

The UK doesnt appreciate a Strong Love-Ballad...All they wanna do is dance, dance, dance...LOL..

Chancellor said:

rlittler81 said:

Always found it interesting that this was such a huge hit in the US whereas in the UK it was considered a flob because it 'only' reached number 15 in the singles chart.

Gorgeous video.

The UK doesnt appreciate a Strong Love-Ballad...All they wanna do is dance, dance, dance...LOL..

At the time, the US was big on Babyface produced r&b ballads.

babybugz said:

I have been in a Madonna mood lately, I was jamming to Deeper And Deeper earlier It seems Madonna was more creative in the 90's but the classics were in the 80's imo.

love that one, I have the live Girlie Show version that I listen to a lot

Gunsnhalen said:

Timmy84 said:

One of the best ballads of its time period and one of Madonna's best songs/videos.

Madonna was really something in the 90's.

I am not a fan of 80's Madonna or even most of 00's...

But from Like A Prayer on through Ray Of Light she had some great singles and some of the best made videos of the era.

The lighting they do in her videos is amazing like

in the 1990's this is when Madonna and pop culture really blended

1989-1995/96 culturally was very revolutionary and lots of social battles about sex gender issues hiv things being challenged and questioned

She did a good job in this period with her entertainment and expressing things happening in the world

Timmy84 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

i always wonder about when people say that

Sure she had a lot of hits in the 80's... but

According to the infamous sales records she had 18 top 40 hits in the 80's and 20 top 40 hits in the 90's.

But i am too lazy to count and see how legit that is

She stayed on the charts more constant in the '80s though. In the '90s, she was always in danger of "fading away" from some made-up scandal ("Sex" book, "Justify My Love" video, the Letterman sailor incident, etc.). Then she did movies and stopped doing tours until 2000 but before then came out with Ray of Light, one of her best albums to date. She was real good in the '90s but she became an icon in the '80s through 1990.

I don't think she was in danger of fading, even though I know what you mean,

She was too entangled in pop culture at the time, You know it's like people said the SEX book would ruin her and was a failure, but it sold out at $49.95 a copy, -doesn't sound like a failure to me. I think that period was what took her to her 2nd wave of superstardom

Oh yes, this was the song and video, absolutely stunning. Her videos are fantastic, with the exception of a few from MDNA. I use to always just stare at how the director captures Madonna's eyes. Like someone stated earlier the lighting is very noticable. I actually have several shots of her in a scrap book with some of her most beautiful eye shots. This song was even played on KISS FM 98.7 and all of my friends was like damn Madonna IS the shit huh.

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, the night is over
This masquerade is getting older
Light are low, the curtains down
There's no one here
(There's no one here, there's no one in the crowd)
Say your lines but do you feel them
Do you mean what you say when there's no one around (no one around)
Watching you, watching me, one lonely star
(One lonely star you don't know who you are)

[Chorus:]

I've always been in love with you (always with you)
I guess you've always known it's true (you know it's true)
You took my love for granted, why oh why
The show is over, say good-bye

Say good-bye (bye bye), say good-bye

Make them laugh, it comes so easy
When you get to the part
Where you're breaking my heart (breaking my heart)
Hide behind your smile, all the world loves a clown
(Just make 'em smile the whole world loves a clown)
Wish you well, I cannot stay
You deserve an award for the role that you played (role that you played)
No more masquerade, you're one lonely star
(One lonely star and you don't know who you are)

[chorus, repeat]

Say good-bye (bye bye), say good-bye

All the world is a stage (world is a stage)
And everyone has their part (has their part)
But how was I to know which way the story'd go
How was I to know you'd break
(You'd break, you'd break, you'd break)
You'd break my heart

I've always been in love with you
(I've always been in love with you)
Guess you've always known
You took my love for granted, why oh why
The show is over, say good-bye

Say good-bye (bye bye), say good-bye
Say good-bye

the Making of Take a Bow

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. The plot depticts Madonna as a neglected lover of a bullfighter , played by real-life Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz. Madonna's character yearns for the bullfighter's presence, with erotic anguish. However, others undertand the video as a statement on classism, suppsing the bullfighter feels threatened and angered by the aristocrat's station, resulting in his physically abusing and then coldly abandoning her. 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 eventually won the role of Perón.

Madonna's 1995 single "You'll See" is considered a follow up to "Take a Bow", as Madonna and Emilio Muñoz reprise their roles in the music video.