Take A Bow: The Story Behind Madonna’s Biggest American Chart Hit

The pair’s songwriting chemistry is evident

“We were both pleasantly surprised at each other’s surroundings,” Babyface told Fred Bronson, author of The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits, when discussing the songwriting session that led to Take A Bow’s creation. “She didn’t have a whole gang of security, and I wasn’t travelling with a major posse either… She came over to my house – she’d drive herself. We went inside my writing room and just started going for it. We ended up writing two songs.”

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Although Bedtime Stories’ other Babyface collaboration, the delicate ballad Forbidden Love, was widely – and rightly – celebrated (and would appear on the 1995 ballads collection Something To Remember), it was clear that Take A Bow, the album’s theatrical closing track, was an out-of-the-park classic.

After the Dallas Austin co-write Secret made No.3 in the US and No.5 in the UK, Take A Bow was picked to be the album’s second single, issued on 6 December 1994. The song’s lyrics, penned by Madonna, speak of a poignant end to a love affair. There has been speculation that they referenced her widely publicised relationship with Warren Beatty around the time of filming for Dick Tracy, but Madonna has never confirmed this.

The single became a chart sensation in America

Pop radio got behind Take A Bow big-time in the US, and the song sprinted up the Billboard listings at speed – entering the chart at No.45 just before Christmas and leaping to No.18 the following week. The song began a seven-week reign at No.1 in February 1995 and topped Billboard’s adult contemporary chart as well. It also reached the top spot in Canada, and went Top 20 in the UK, where, issued in a CD set featuring postcards, it stayed on the charts for nine weeks.

Take A Bow’s controversial video did much to secure its status as a classic

Given Madonna’s track record for courting controversy, a universal pop ballad wasn’t the most obvious contender to cause outrage, but Take A Bow’s magnificent promo video raised eyebrows and kick up a bit of a fuss – only this time, not for its sexual content.

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Madonna worked with Michael Haussman on a lavish period piece that was filmed in Spain. The idea was to showcase the song’s grand theatrics by depicting Madonna’s character falling in love with a matador, played by real-life bullfighter Emilio Muñoz. The religious iconography – and some more intimate scenes – created a powerful visual backstory to the song, and the clip won Best Female Video at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Animal-rights protestors claimed that it celebrated bullfighting, but Madonna sidestepped the row, even though some TV channels decided to run the clip with a statement distancing themselves from the content. So successful was the video that Madonna revisited the narrative and rehired Muñoz for the following year’s You’ll See, a collaboration with celebrated producer David Foster.

Take A Bow has rarely been performed live

In the 90s, Madonna was too big a star to routinely undertake TV promotion for her records. She did join Babyface on a live performance of Take A Bow at the 1995 American Music Awards, which featured a live orchestra (Nelle Hooper, who worked on a number of tracks on Bedtime Stories, had conducted the orchestra on the studio recording). There was also a German TV appearance ahead of the Sanremo Music Festival, but that was it until a couple of surprise appearances towards the end of the Rebel Heart Tour, in 2016, when Take A Bow was added to shows in Taipei.

There were reports that the song had been rehearsed for Madonna’s Drowned World Tour in 2001, but it was dropped before opening night. On The Celebration Tour, it replaced Rain on some shows in the Americas. Take A Bow remains an elegant enigma in Madonna’s lengthy back catalogue. Like all rare beauties, perhaps it’s best kept for special occasions…

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