‘Bedtime Stories’: A Track-By-Track Guide To Every Song On Madonna’s Sultry Album

Secret

The first single from Bedtime Stories, Secret is a bold, folk-inspired R&B jam that took radio DJs by surprise – sensual and sultry, it stood in contrast to the out-there sexuality of Bedtime Stories’ predecessor, Erotica. This time, Dallas Austin both co-wrote and produced the track, and it was supported by a black-and-white Harlem-shot promo video directed by relative newcomer Melodie McDaniel.

Released in September 1994, just ahead of its parent album, Secret made No.3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No.5 in the UK after receiving rave reviews from music critics. Despite its popularity, it has rarely been performed live by Madonna – bar a handful of impromptu airings on the Rebel Heart Tour of 2015/2016. A Junior Vasquez remix helped the song top the US dance charts and was featured on Madonna’s 2022 compilation, Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones.

I’d Rather Be Your Lover

Meshell Ndegeocello guests on this steamy romp that showed sex hadn’t been entirely exorcised from Madonna’s creative canon this time around. Years later, a leaked demo revealed that rapper Tupac Shakur had originally contributed to the track (he and Madonna had dated around this period). Dave Hall, famous for his work with Mariah Carey and Mary J Blige, produced I’d Rather Be Your Lover, which features a sample of Lou Donaldson’s cover of The Isley Brothers’ It’s Your Thing.

Don’t Stop

Madonna’s pop DNA is more evident on this slinky 70s-style shuffler, co-written and produced with Dallas Austin. While certainly R&B, Don’t Stop indicates a more linear path from the platinum-blond era of 1986’s True Blue album. Session bassist player Colin Wolfe received a writing credit, and he also played on this reminder of Madonna’s more carefree, upbeat side.

Inside Of Me

Despite its title, there’s no suggestiveness in the delivery of this exploration of the trauma of lost love. Dave Hall co-wrote Inside Of Me, but it’s Nellee Hooper who produced this seductive jam that’s something of Trojan horse for the ballsy slice of backchat that’s up next…

Human Nature

This defiant, pointed and deeply personal statement is Madonna at her most explicit. Forget some of the imagery that suggests you’ve seen everything, Human Nature is the “Queen Of Pop” at, truly, her most revealing. The hip-hop beats and sleek electronica make the song a jarring intermission – “Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex… I must have been crazy” – that finds her talking directly to her audience. The fans lapped it up, and everyone else realised that, behind the superhuman resilience, Madonna had a vulnerable side she rarely let the public see.

The song’s Jean-Baptise Mondino-directed promo clip is among the best Madonna music videos of all time, and its look was revisited during a performance on the record-breaking Celebration Tour of 2023/2024. Human Nature was Bedtime Stories’ final single and it went Top 10 in the UK.

Forbidden Love

With a title Madonna would revisit on 2005’s Confessions On A Dance Floor album, this Forbidden Love is a smooth Babyface co-write given a sharp Nellee Hooper production, the pairing forming something edgier and more compelling than would perhaps have been expected. It loops along nicely and was later included on Madonna’s 1995 ballad collection, Something To Remember.

Love Tried To Welcome Me

Rich orchestration makes Love Tried To Welcome Me the dramatic hidden gem of Bedtime Stories, with a lyrical and musical link to the sort of material that would make up 1998’s Ray Of Light album. That record’s The Power Of Goodbye might be a perfect companion piece to this gorgeous production from Dave Hall, who also co-wrote the song. Terrific guitar flourishes even offer a hint of Latin charm – a musical seam Madonna often returns to.

Sanctuary

Icy and charismatic, Sanctuary offers further hints of Ray Of Light, but is this time rooted in trip-hop and a more ephemeral Nellee Hooper production. There’s a sample from Herbie Hancock’s classic 1962 Blue Note cut Watermelon Man, and the song includes a memorable spoken segment by Madonna. It all segues slickly into…

Bedtime Story

Written by Nellee Hooper, Icelandic superstar Björk and composer/producer Marius De Vries, who would later work extensively with Rufus Wainwright, Bedtime Story started life as a demo called Let’s Get Unconscious. It’s the most unusual of Madonna’s more than 90 singles to date, and is perhaps best described as trance-pop (if such a distinct record needs any sort of label). The “Queen Of Pop” busted the budget again on the Mark Romanek promo video, which is so impressive it’s now featured in New York City’s Museum Of Modern Art. Madonna performed the song with two male dancers at the 1996 BRIT Awards, and the single was another UK Top 10 hit for the star.

Take A Bow

Bedtime Stories’ curtain call – and its most OTT moment – this theatrical Babyface ballad became Madonna’s 11th US No.1, staying at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. There’s a lightly East Asian vibe to Babyface’s production (he also co-wrote the track with Madonna), and Take A Bow’s sweeping sentiment is the grandest gesture the “Queen Of Pop” has ever put to record. Oddly, despite its success, it has rarely been performed live – perhaps the iconic video, directed by Michael Haussman, shot in Spain and featuring a controversial bullfighting storyline, isn’t easily matched. The shoot came out so well that Madonna referenced it in her pitch to win the lead role in Alan Parker’s Evita, and Take A Bow’s story was continued in the video for 1995’s You’ll See.

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