Bedtime Story (Madonna song)
"Bedtime Story" | ||||
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Single by Madonna | ||||
from the album Bedtime Stories | ||||
B-side | "Survival" | |||
Released | February 13, 1995 | |||
Recorded | 1994 | |||
Studio | Chappell (Encino, California) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:53 | |||
Marius De Vries | ||||
Producer(s) |
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Madonna singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Bedtime Story" on YouTube |
"Bedtime Story" is a song by American singer
"Bedtime Story" received favorable reviews from
"Bedtime Story" was performed at the
Background and release
"I think at the time, yes, ['Let's Get Unconscious'] was what I wanted to hear from [Madonna's] mouth. But that's like six years ago, when everything about her seemed very controlled. I think she's a very intuitive person, and definitely her survival instinct are incredible. They're like, outrageous. At the time, the words I thought she'd say were, 'I'm not using words anymore, let's get unconscious honey. Fuck logic. Just to be intuitive. Be more free. Go with the flow.' Right now, she seems pretty much to be going with the flow."
—Björk talking about the creation of "Bedtime Story" in an interview with Nylon magazine in 2001.[2]
According to
Bjork wrote a song initially named "Let's Get Unconscious", with the opening lyrics "Today is the last day, that I'm using words"—the lines being born out of Björk's own criticism of Madonna's aesthetic.
"Bedtime Story" was eventually released as the third
Recording and composition
"Bedtime Story" is an electronic song, a notable departure from the other tracks on its parent album, which are more R&B and
According to Victor Amaro Vicente in his book The Aesthetics of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana Celal ed-Din Rumi, the song's music bears many resemblances to
Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, noted that the lyrics of "Bedtime Story" are a hymn to the joys of unconsciousness and a rejection of the supposed constraints of reason and language, hence the line "Words are useless, especially sentences, They don't stand for anything, How could they explain how I feel?"
Critical reception
"Bedtime Story" has received positive reviews from
In his weekly UK chart commentary,
Commercial performance
In the United States, the song debuted at number 72 on the US
In the United Kingdom, the song entered the UK Singles Chart 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.[38] In other European countries, the song also found some success. It peaked at number 38 in Belgium for one week only.[39] On the Dutch Single Top 100 chart, it 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.[40] "Bedtime Story" debuted at number nine in Finland, and peaked at number four the next week.[41][42] In Australia, the song 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.[43] In New Zealand, it 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.[44]
Music video
Background and development
The accompanying
Romanek contacted storyboard artist Grant Shaffer to create the storyboards for the video. He met with Romanek the next day, who played "Bedtime Story" for Shaffer and also showed him some photographs of Madonna, which were supposed to be used as the album cover. The surrealism inspired images portrayed a mystical looking Madonna, with white hair billowing behind her. Romanek wanted to have the music video capture the same look. Madonna called from Florida and together with Romanek they described to Shaffer every aspect of the video, including budget and their concepts. For the next few days, Shaffer sketched the storyboards and faxed them to Romanek for review. About 20 days later, Shaffer dropped the final sketches at Propaganda Films, who were producing the video.[47]
Production started from December 5, 1994, at Universal Studios.
Making the clip reportedly cost US$5 million (US$9.6 million in 2022 magazine, Madonna revealed the inspiration for the music video:
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.[51]
Release and synopsis
On March 10, 1995, the video was given a cinematic release at three different Odeon Cineplex film theaters; in Santa Monica, California at the Broadway Cinemas, in Manhattan, New York at the Chelsea Theater, and in Chicago, Illinois at the Biograph Theater. To promote the video, Madonna did a special known as Madonna's Pajama Party on March 18, 1995. where the singer could be seen reading a bedtime story in Webster Hall in New York City.[45][53] Unlike most of Madonna's videos which debuted on either MTV or VH1 television channels, "Bedtime Story" was first put into circulation on radio station Z100 following the singer's "pajama party" on March 18.[45] According to Maverick GM Abbey Konowitch, they first aligned with Odeon Cineplex so that they could assure that the music video would be viewed in an innovative way. However, Konowitch and his team were aware that such an event could not be organized for every release because it would cause problems with investments. Odeon VP Freeman Fisher explained that since it was a slow theatrical season, allowing the video's release enabled them to sell more tickets, "for four minutes the audience sees astounding cinematic images in a first class feature-like production. It's not just another artist lip-syncing to a track."[45]
The music video starts off with a blue monitor screen with an eye showing the inscription "Welcome".[54] The video progresses inside a blue space ship-style room with Madonna lying prostrate in what seems to be a scientific experiment. The imagery cast in this section of the video have drawn comparisons to hermeticism.[54] The video progresses into a sequence of dreams, containing varied surrealistic, mystic, new age, Sufi and Egyptian imagery and symbolism. Such include a scene in which Madonna lies on a rotating sunflower, and images of a woman with long hair, an alchemist-type man holding a cube with brunette-haired Madonna's face on each side as well as rotating Sufi dancers. The dream sequence progresses with unusual clips, including Madonna in a pool with half-visible skulls. A scene in which Madonna, dressed in a light dressing gown, gives birth to doves, can also be seen; the image has been compared to the work of René Magritte and Kahlo's 1932 painting My Birth.[52] Next shot shows her sleeping and laying on the lap of a skeleton with skull, who hugs her. Suddenly, she floats down a corridor in a white gown and her blonde hair trails behind her and appears in a black-and-white projection in a cinema-like room. She appears spotting brunette hair and commands something. As the music gets more dramatic, the dream grows intense, the singer can be seen wading through space with her blonde hair trailing behind her again, the images of skulls and scars appearing and the singer being scared. A scene in which Madonna's eyes are placed with mouths and her mouth with an eye precedes the ending, influenced by the work of Kahlo; the final shots show Madonna waking up and looking out.[52]
Reception and analysis
The music video for "Bedtime Story" has received generally positive reviews from critics ever since its release. It was exhibited and permanently kept in different art galleries and museums, including the
The music video has also drawn comparisons to
The music video for "Bedtime Story" was published on Madonna's official YouTube channel in October 2009. It has amassed more than 7.7 million views as of September 2021.[64]
Live performances and legacy
The
Madonna included the song on her 2004 Re-Invention World Tour, where elements of the Orbital remix were used as a video interlude.[67] As the video played, three acrobatic dancers dropped from the ceiling on swings in a Cirque du Soleil-like performance.[68][69] Madonna appeared in the video wearing a white costume while singing in front of a mirror and lying down on a big scanner. A white horse can be seen with her during the video riding on a white desert and running through white sheets. As the interlude ended, Madonna appeared on stage again to sing "Nothing Fails" (2003).[68] Glenn Gamboa of Newsday commented that the "athletic swinging" of the trapeze artists during the interlude "provides the song a grace that it never would have seen in a straight performance",[70] while Anthony J. Sanfilippo, editor of the Delaware County Daily Times, stated that "three trapeze artists who undulated in perfect synchronicity while dangerously flying out over the audience".[71]
Madonna later included "Bedtime Story" in the setlist for her 2023–24 The Celebration Tour.[72][73] The performance features the singer wearing a mirror ball body suit, on a giant cube that rises out of the stage.[73][74] The cube's screen show images of an anime-inspired Madonna in an animated world "accessing dreamlike meanders, full of creatures, rituals, possibilities that we can't explain", created by Brazilian artist Gabriel Massan.[75] It was named one of the best moments of the concert by Billboard's Joe Lynch, who wrote that she "sounded fabolous" during the number.[73] The BBC's Mark Savage included it as one of the "not so successful" moments, and stated that the performance "felt superfluous".[76]
"Bedtime Story" has been cited as one of the songs with the most unfulfilled potential in Madonna's career;
Track listings and formats
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Credits and personnel
Credits and personnel are adapted from the Bedtime Stories album liner notes.[87]
- Madonna – lead vocals, producer
- Björk – songwriter
- Marius De Vries– producer
- Nellee Hooper – songwriter, producer
- Frederick Jorio – mixing
- P. Dennis Mitchell – mixing
- Robert Kiss – assistant engineer
- Joey Moskowitz – programming
- Paolo Riversi – cover art, photographer, designer
- Michael Penn – designer
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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See also
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{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bedtime Story" (US Maxi-CD single liner notes). Madonna. Maverick Records. 1995. 9 41895-2.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bedtime Story" (US 12-inch single inlay). Madonna. Maverick Records. 1995. 9362 43505 0.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bedtime Story" (UK 12-inch single inlay). Madonna. Maverick Records. 1995. 9362 43505 0.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bedtime Story" (UK cassette single). Madonna. Maverick Records. 1995. 5439-17928-4.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bedtime Story" (UK limited edition CD single). Madonna. Maverick Records. 1995. WO285CDX.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Bedtime Story" (US 12-inch single inlay). Madonna. Maverick Records. 1995. 9362-41977-2.
{{cite AV media notes}}
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{{cite AV media notes}}
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External links
- "Bedtime Story" at Discogs (list of releases)