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Bad Girl (Madonna song)

"Bad Girl" is a song by American singer and songwriter Madonna from her fifth studio album, Erotica (1992). It was written and produced by both Madonna and Shep Pettibone, with additional writing from Anthony Shimkin, and released by Maverick, Sire and Warner. In Australia and most European countries, the song was released as the album's third single on February 2, 1993; in the United States, a release was issued on March 11. "Bad Girl" is a pop and R&B ballad with lyrics that describe a woman trying to escape her reality through self-destructive behaviors, such as drinking and chain smoking.

"Bad Girl"
Single by Madonna
from the album Erotica
B-side"Fever"
ReleasedFebruary 2, 1993 (1993-02-02)
Recorded1992
StudioSoundworks (New York)
Genre
Length5:23
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Madonna
  • Shep Pettibone
Madonna singles chronology
"Deeper and Deeper"
(1992)
"Bad Girl"
(1993)
"Fever"
(1993)
Music video
"Bad Girl" on YouTube

Upon release, "Bad Girl" received positive reviews from music critics, with some noting a departure from Madonna's highly sexual image of the time; in retrospective reviews, it is now considered one of her best and most underrated singles. Commercially, "Bad Girl" saw a lukewarm reception. In the United States, it reached number 36, becoming Madonna's first single to not reach the top 30 or top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, breaking a streak of 27 consecutive top 20 singles that began with "Holiday" (1983) and ended with "Deeper and Deeper" (1992). "Bad Girl" fared better in the United Kingdom, where it reached the top-ten, and in Ecuador, Iceland and Italy, where it reached the charts' top-three spots.

The accompanying music video for "Bad Girl" marked Madonna's final collaboration with director David Fincher; the singer plays Louise Oriole, a successful but promiscuous Manhattan businesswoman who engages in one-night stands with multiple men, until one of them murders her. Christopher Walken played the role of her guardian angel. The visual was lauded by critics, who deemed it one of Madonna's best, and noted tropes and references Fincher would go on to use in his future works. Madonna performed "Bad Girl" during a visit to Saturday Night Live in January 1993, and thirty years later on the Celebration Tour.

Background and recording edit

In 1992, Madonna founded her own multi-media entertainment company Maverick, consisting of a record company (Maverick Records), a film production company (Maverick Films), and associated music publishing, television broadcasting, book publishing, and merchandising divisions.[1] The first two projects from the venture were her fifth studio album Erotica and a coffee table book of photographs featuring Madonna, entitled Sex.[1][2] For Erotica, Madonna primarily collaborated with American producer Shep Pettibone; Pettibone first began working with the singer during the 1980s, providing remixes for several of her singles.[3][4] Pettibone would build the base music of the songs in a style similar to his remixes, while Madonna wrote the melodies and lyrics.[5] According to the producer in an article titled "Erotica Diaries", published on Madonna's Icon magazine, he created a tape of three tracks for Madonna to listen to; he traveled to Chicago, where she was filming A League of Their Own (1992), played the songs for her and she liked all of them.[4] In October 1991, Madonna met with Pettibone in New York City to start working on demos.[4] According to Mark Bego, the first batch of songs they worked on were "Erotica", "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl", "Thief of Hearts", and "Rain".[6] Anthony Shimkin, who also worked on the album, recalled that Madonna had with her a "book full of lyrics and melody ideas".[7] Recording took place at Astoria's Sound Work Studios from November 1991 to October 1992.[4] For the singer's vocals, an older style SM57 microphone was used; Pettibone believed that "sometimes, older is better".[8]

The producer recalled how, as the recording sessions progressed, the melodies became more melancholic; he noted that Madonna's stories made the songs "a lot more serious and intense", leading them into a "deeply personal territory".[4] Similarly, Shimkin said that "Bad Girl", along with fellow album track "In This Life", was a song that the singer had a "really deep personal attachment" to, but didn't notice this until the album was completed.[7][9] He added: "['Bad Girl' is] one of those songs, like 'Oh Father' or 'Papa Don't Preach', where she really calls on her own emotions and experiences. She's never afraid to expose herself emotionally."[9] Pettibone, however, said that he never thought of "Bad Girl" as autobiographical, but as a song people could relate to.[7]

Composition and lyrics edit

"Bad Girl" was written and produced by both Madonna and Pettibone, with additional lyrics by Anthony Shimkin. Personnel working on the song included Pettibone on the sequencing, keyboard arrangement, and programming, alongside Shimkin; Dennis Mitchell and Robin Hancock were the song's recording engineers, while Goh Hotada was in charge of mixing, and Ted Jensen of mastering.[11]

Musicallly, "Bad Girl" is a melancholic,[12] "somber, guilt-ridden"[13] ballad that talks about a woman experiencing extreme sadness due to a failed relationship.[14] Madonna's vocal range spans from F♯3 to C♯5.[14] According to Carol Benson and Allan Metz, authors of The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary, the song highlights the main theme explored throughout Erotica of "the pain and torment of the heart and the perils of romance".[14]

Speaking to the BBC, Madonna herself explained that the lyrics talk about a woman in a toxic relationship, trying to "distract herself from reality" through behaviors such as drinking and chain smoking; "she really cares for this person and she’s having a hard time saying goodbye [...] She’s unhappy with her situation".[15] It begins with Madonna singing the lines "Something’s missing and I don’t know why/I always feel the need to hide my feelings from you".[16] The "profound inner turmoil" felt by the narrator is depicted by the time the song gets to the refrain, "Bad girl, drunk by six/Kissing someone else's lips/Smoked too many cigarettes today/I’m not happy when I act this way".[10][16] Billboard's Larry Flick noted that Madonna's vocals are "mournful [...] amid a swirl of synths and a slow, syncopated beat".[12]

Release and critical reception edit

"While most of the songs on Erotica explore the explicit and often rewarding aspects of sex, 'Bad Girl' takes a different route, tackling the emotional consequences that can come with the act [...] It’s a sharp lesson that pain can be synonymous with passion."

Billboard's Bianca Gracie reviewing "Bad Girl" on the magazine's list of Madonna's 100 best songs.[17]

In Australia and numerous European countries, "Bad Girl" was released as Erotica's third official single on February 2, 1993.[18][19][20][21] In the United States, it was released on March 11 with "Fever" as B-side.[22] Upon release, "Bad Girl" was generally well received by music critics. For Billboard, Flick highlighted its "intense" lyrics which Joe Lynch, from the same magazine, considered to be Madonna's "most affecting".[12][7] Benson and Metz pointed out that the song was a departure from the singer's "highly sexualized image" at the time.[14] AllMusic's Jose F. Promis stated that the song's lukewarm commercial reception was not a reflection of its "artistic achievement".[23] Arion Berger, from Rolling Stone, called it "riveting", and pointed out that the song sees the singer recognize the "discomfort [the audience] feel[s] when sensing the human character of a woman whose function is purely sexual. A sex symbol herself, she coolly removes the threat of her own personality."[24] J. D. Considine, for The Baltimore Sun, named it "as sobering as it is sad", and opined, "Simply hearing the quaver in her voice as she insists 'You'll always be my baby' is enough to break any listener's heart."[10] Chris Willman, for Los Angeles Times, named it one of Erotica's best tracks, as it "trades in mixed emotions instead of purely catty or cornball ones".[25] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani deemed it a hymn to promiscuity, and Anthony Violanti, from The Buffalo News, Madonna's "personal confessional on love".[3][26] A negative review came from Entertainment Weekly's David Browne, who dismissed it as a "lonely-at-the-top, lovesick-victim" song.[27] Graham Gremore, writing for Queerty, was also dismissive of the track, referring to it as "sappy" and opining that "Thief of Hearts", another song from Erotica, would've made a better single.[28]

Retrospective reviews have been positive. Eric Henderson, for Slant Magazine, named the song Madonna's 35th greatest single and a "brutal self-laceration served in the most flamboyantly melodramatic fashion imaginable"; Henderson also compared it to "In This Life", with the exception that, "['Bad Girl'] is the far more dangerous track".[29] For Albumism's Justin Chadwick, it is the single that "leaves the most enduring impression" and reinforces Madonna's abilities to craft "ballads that carry emotional weight without coming across as overwrought".[30] Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost said the track is the "classiest" in Erotica, and placed it at number 34 of his ranking of the singer's singles.[31] A similar opinion was shared by The Backlot's Louis Virtel, who felt the track is a "classy ballad with a great message", and the singer's 75th best song.[32] On Gay Star News' ranking, "Bad Girl" came in at number 27.[33] The song was considered a "well-honed, slow piece of pop theatre" by The Guardian's Jude Rogers, who also deemed it Madonna's 45th best.[34] "Bad Girl" was classified as the singer's 42nd and 49th greatest song by Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly's Chuck Arnold, respectively;[13] the latter opined it "feels like a great deep cut rather than a single".[35]

It has also been considered one of Madonna's most underrated tracks: Idolator's Mike Wass said that, thematically, it "deserved to be recognized as one of [Madonna]'s signature songs"; in another occasion, Wass opined that the song "should have been bigger" as it is "one of the most achingly-honest pop songs of the '90s", as well as a "towering achievement that still holds up today".[36][16] From the Official Charts Company, Justin Myers considered "Bad Girl" to be one of Madonna's "hidden gems" that show off her "storytelling abilities in its (rather depressing) lyrics".[37] Lisa Yang from WatchMojo also placed it among Madonna's most underrated songs, adding that, "with its intentionally vintage sound, 'Bad Girl' was a refreshing look at the reality of Madonna's party-focused lyrics".[38] In 2022, the staff of Queerty referred to "Bad Girl" as one of the singer's "most underappreciated" singles.[39] Matthew Barton, writing for British magazine The Quietus, said it was among "the most gorgeous ballads of [Madonna's] career".[40]

Chart performance edit

In the United States, "Bad Girl" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 75, in the issue dated February 20, 1993.[41] As the weeks went by, the song climbed places and finally peaked at number 36 on the week of March 27.[42] "Bad Girl" became Madonna's first single to not reach the top 30 or top 20 of the Hot 100, breaking a streak of 27 consecutive top 20 singles that began with "Holiday" (1983) and ended with "Deeper and Deeper", as well as her lowest-charting song since "Oh Father" (1989).[43] Fred Bronson attributed the single's poor chart performance to the controversy surrounding Madonna with Erotica, the Sex book, and the film Body of Evidence (1993).[43] Similarly, Promis felt that the public was tired of the artist's "bratty bad girl posturing", which was in "full swing" at the time of the single's release.[23] On the Hot 100 component charts Top 40 Radio Monitor and Top Singles Sales, it reached numbers 44 and 36, respectively.[44][45] "Bad Girl" peaked at number 26 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart.[46] The "Fever"/"Bad Girl" release reached the first position of Billboard's Dance Singles Sales chart, and came in at number 46 on the year-end chart.[47][48] In Canada, the single peaked at number 20 of RPM's Top Singles chart on the week of March 27, 1993.[49]

In the United Kingdom, "Bad Girl" debuted at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 10 on March 13, 1993; it was present on the chart for a total of seven weeks.[50] According to Music Week magazine, over 74,915 copies of the single have been sold in the UK as of 2008.[51] In other European countries, such as France,[20] Germany,[21] and Belgium, the single saw a weak commercial reception as it failed to crack the top 30.[19] The song fared better in the charts of Switzerland and Ireland, peaking at 25 and 20, respectively.[52][53] In Australia, "Bad Girl" entered the ARIA Singles Chart at number 40, eventually peaking at 32 and lasting seven weeks on the chart.[18] In countries like Italy, Iceland, and Ecuador, the song reached the top 3 of the charts.[54][55][56]

Music video edit

Background and synopsis edit

 
"Bad Girl" marked Madonna's final collaboration with director David Fincher (pictured).[57]

The "Bad Girl" music video was filmed on location in New York in January 1993,[58] under the direction of David Fincher, who had previously worked with Madonna on "Express Yourself" (1989), "Oh Father", and "Vogue" (1990).[57] The singer had previously asked Tim Burton to direct the video, but he turned the offer down;[57] Mark Romanek, who would go on to direct the videos for "Rain" and "Bedtime Story" (1995), was also approached.[59] Personnel working on the clip included Bob Jenkins in editing, Juan Ruiz Anchía in cinematography, and Jeffrey Beecroft as production designer.[60] The plot was inspired by Richard Brooks' Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1987).[61] In the video, Madonna plays Louise Oriole, a "promiscuous, chainsmoking Manhattan career woman";[62] Louise is the singer's middle name, while Oriole likely references Oriole Way, a Los Angeles street in which she lived with her ex-husband Sean Penn.[15] Actor Christopher Walken played the role of the singer's guardian angel.[62] Walken recalled his participation as being "kind of fun."[63] Actors Mark Margolis, Tomas Arana, James Rebhorn, Rob Campbell, and Matt Dillon also appeared on the music video; Dillon plays a police detective, but was uncredited.[60]

The video begins with the police finding Madonna's dead body. Louise Oriole is a successful, chain smoking alcoholic businesswoman, who engages in one-night stands with multiple men.[64] She behaves this way in order to try and deal with the depression and sadness over a failed relationship; all throughout the video, her guardian angel watches over her.[64] In one scene, Louise wakes up alone in her bed after a one-night stand and discovers a hand-written note laying on the pillow beside her. She gets upset after reading its content and tosses the note to the ground; her angel picks it up, revealing its content: "Thank you, whoever you are", the paper reads.[64] Towards the end of the video, Louise picks up another stranger. All of a sudden, the song stops, a cat hisses, a can of breath freshener is sprayed, and the angel kisses her on the lips.[65] It is then implied that the man murdered Louise with her stockings; after her death, she reappears as a spirit along with her guardian angel, overseeing the police taking her body away to the morgue. The final shot shows Louise and her angel being lifted away on a director's chair.[64][66]

Reception and analysis edit

 
Screenshot of the "Bad Girl" music video, depicting Louise Oriole (Madonna) after her guardian angel (Christopher Walken) has given her what Georges-Claude Guilbert considered to be a "kiss of death"[64]

The video was acclaimed by critics. Georges-Claude Guilbert considered it a "masterpiece of the genre".[64] The Odyssey's Rocco Papa named the visual Madonna's "most cinematic", as it "features a plot in a way videos rarely do today". He ranked the video her fifth best.[67] Louis Virtel from The Backlot placed it at number 21 of his ranking of the singer's videos; "beautifully shot, dramatically acted [...] unexpectedly emotional".[68] Parade's Samuel Murrian highlighted the performances: "[Madonna] can be such a brilliant actor, and her performance as a broken, unhappy woman whose self-destructive behavior gets her killed is one of her best." He also noted that the "sad [and] disturbing" clip "lingers in the memory long after you’ve seen it—like all of [Fincher's] best work"; he considered it Madonna's 16th greatest music video.[69] The Independent's Adam White also praised the singer's performance and the directing, writing that, "[Fincher directs] her to express all kinds of contradictory emotions through mere glances or expressions. It is a remarkable performance full of self-loathing, withdrawal and, finally, child-like bliss".[15] "Bad Girl" was considered one of Madonna's most underrated music videos by both VH1's Christopher Rosa and Idolator's Mike Neid;[70] the latter one called it her most "over-the-top".[71] "Bad Girl" came in the ninth position of a poll conducted by Billboard of the singer's 10 greatest videos.[72] For Sal Cinquemani, it's Madonna's 18th greatest music video.[73] White said it was Fincher's "most important venture", noting a "short, stylish erotic thriller" that nods toward the work the filmmaker would go on to do in the future.[15] He furthered compared it to Madonna and Fincher's collaboration in 1989's "Oh Father", as both videos feel like "personal exorcism for [Madonna]" that only Fincher could capture.[15] White concluded by referring to "Bad Girl" as an "unexpected final chapter in the Madonna/Fincher saga [...] something of a twisted funeral for their love story – emotive and affectionate, yet filled with bloody murder".[15] Vulture named "Bad Girl" the 9th best music video directed by Fincher.[74]

"David Fincher’s work with Madonna has been all over his filmmaking, their music video collaborations regularly gesturing towards the movies that would make him internationally famous. [...] But it is 'Bad Girl', full of the psychological depth, visual symbolism and pulpy thrills that would dominate much of Fincher’s filmography, that is his unheralded masterpiece."

The Independent's Adam White on the music video.[15]

David Denby deemed the music video a "premature summation of Fincher's work in miniature", pointing out references to other works by the director: the police discovering Madonna's corpse referenced Seven (1995); the "backward-running timepiece" image of Walken's angel of death character looking at his watch became the "key visual and metaphysical idea" in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Finally, Madonna being murdered by a seeming serial killer was a reference to both Seven and Zodiac (2007).[75] In a similar note, Vice's Raza Syed wrote that the music video "has many of the hallmarks of David Fincher's style of cinematography that would dominate much of his subsequent filmography: air-tight camerawork, brushed-metal visual palette, corporate intrigue, a palpable sense of emotional isolation... and murder".[57] White compared the Louise Oriole character to Amy Elliott Dunne from Gone Girl (2014), as both women share a "troubled antihero quality".[15] According to Mark Browning, the shot of Walken and the singer in an elevated director's chair signifies a "God-like" presence in the actor's character; the author also felt this particular shot was an intentional, tongue-in-cheek reference by Fincher to "the responsibility and pressure that comes with directing".[66] In Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context (2004), Carol Vernallis pointed out that, through "iconic imagery", the viewer can predict the fate of Madonna's character: her black dress in a dry cleaner's plastic bag alludes the body bag she will be wrapped in; the cat hissing at her suggest she's already a "ghost or figure who bears a curse"; finally, a door Madonna walks through looks like the "entrance to Hades".[76] The music video can be found on Madonna's 1999 compilation The Video Collection 93:99.[77]

Live performances and cover versions edit

 
Madonna singing "Bad Girl" during one of the concerts of the Celebration Tour (2023—2024)

The first live performance of "Bad Girl" took place on January 16, 1993, on the late-night live television show Saturday Night Live.[78][79] After finishing the song, Madonna tore up a photograph of Joey Buttafuoco – the alleged lover of Amy Fisher, the Long Island teenager who shot Buttafuoco's wife Mary Jo – and yelled, "Fight the real enemy!"[80] This echoed Sinéad O'Connor, who ripped apart a photograph of Pope John Paul II and yelled the same thing when she was the show's musical guest in October 1992.[80] HuffPost considered this one of Madonna's "most legendary" performances, and Myers said it had one of her "very best live vocals".[37][81]

Thirty years later, "Bad Girl" was included on the Celebration Tour. Dressed in a red silk slip dress with black lace, and knee-high boots, Madonna sang as her daughter Mercy James played piano.[82] The number was named one of the best moments of the concert by Billboard's Joe Lynch, who added that, "watching her daughter Mercy James sit down at a grand piano and effortlessly tickle the ivories during 'Bad Girl' [...] was pretty damn impressive.[83]

A cover by Boy George, Amanda Ghost, and James Hardway, was included on the tribute albums Virgin Voices: A Tribute to Madonna, Vol. 1 (1999), A Tribute to Madonna: Virgin Voices (2003), Tribute to Madonna: Like a Virgin (2005), and The World's Greatest 80's Tribute to Madonna (2006).[84][85][86][87] A rendition by Semi Moore was included on 2000's Truly Blue: Tribute to Madonna.[88] Covers by Cruzer and Strike a Pose were included Immaculate Deception: A Tribute to the Music of Madonna (2004) and A Tribute To Madonna Vol 1 (2006), respectively.[89][90]

Track listings and formats edit

Credits and personnel edit

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[11]

  • Madonna – lead vocals, songwriter, producer
  • Shep Pettibone – songwriter, producer, sequencing, keyboard, programming
  • Joe Moskowitz – keyboards
  • P. Dennis Mitchell – recording engineer
  • Robin Hancock – recording engineer
  • Goh Hotoda – mixing engineer
  • Ted Jensen – mastering

Charts edit

References edit

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Bibliography edit

girl, madonna, song, girl, song, american, singer, songwriter, madonna, from, fifth, studio, album, erotica, 1992, written, produced, both, madonna, shep, pettibone, with, additional, writing, from, anthony, shimkin, released, maverick, sire, warner, australia. Bad Girl is a song by American singer and songwriter Madonna from her fifth studio album Erotica 1992 It was written and produced by both Madonna and Shep Pettibone with additional writing from Anthony Shimkin and released by Maverick Sire and Warner In Australia and most European countries the song was released as the album s third single on February 2 1993 in the United States a release was issued on March 11 Bad Girl is a pop and R amp B ballad with lyrics that describe a woman trying to escape her reality through self destructive behaviors such as drinking and chain smoking Bad Girl Single by Madonnafrom the album EroticaB side Fever ReleasedFebruary 2 1993 1993 02 02 Recorded1992StudioSoundworks New York GenrePop R amp BLength5 23LabelMaverick Sire Warner Bros Songwriter s Madonna Shep Pettibone Anthony ShimkinProducer s Madonna Shep PettiboneMadonna singles chronology Deeper and Deeper 1992 Bad Girl 1993 Fever 1993 Music video Bad Girl on YouTubeUpon release Bad Girl received positive reviews from music critics with some noting a departure from Madonna s highly sexual image of the time in retrospective reviews it is now considered one of her best and most underrated singles Commercially Bad Girl saw a lukewarm reception In the United States it reached number 36 becoming Madonna s first single to not reach the top 30 or top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 breaking a streak of 27 consecutive top 20 singles that began with Holiday 1983 and ended with Deeper and Deeper 1992 Bad Girl fared better in the United Kingdom where it reached the top ten and in Ecuador Iceland and Italy where it reached the charts top three spots The accompanying music video for Bad Girl marked Madonna s final collaboration with director David Fincher the singer plays Louise Oriole a successful but promiscuous Manhattan businesswoman who engages in one night stands with multiple men until one of them murders her Christopher Walken played the role of her guardian angel The visual was lauded by critics who deemed it one of Madonna s best and noted tropes and references Fincher would go on to use in his future works Madonna performed Bad Girl during a visit to Saturday Night Live in January 1993 and thirty years later on the Celebration Tour Contents 1 Background and recording 2 Composition and lyrics 3 Release and critical reception 4 Chart performance 5 Music video 5 1 Background and synopsis 5 2 Reception and analysis 6 Live performances and cover versions 7 Track listings and formats 8 Credits and personnel 9 Charts 9 1 Weekly charts 9 2 Year end charts 10 References 11 BibliographyBackground and recording editIn 1992 Madonna founded her own multi media entertainment company Maverick consisting of a record company Maverick Records a film production company Maverick Films and associated music publishing television broadcasting book publishing and merchandising divisions 1 The first two projects from the venture were her fifth studio album Erotica and a coffee table book of photographs featuring Madonna entitled Sex 1 2 For Erotica Madonna primarily collaborated with American producer Shep Pettibone Pettibone first began working with the singer during the 1980s providing remixes for several of her singles 3 4 Pettibone would build the base music of the songs in a style similar to his remixes while Madonna wrote the melodies and lyrics 5 According to the producer in an article titled Erotica Diaries published on Madonna s Icon magazine he created a tape of three tracks for Madonna to listen to he traveled to Chicago where she was filming A League of Their Own 1992 played the songs for her and she liked all of them 4 In October 1991 Madonna met with Pettibone in New York City to start working on demos 4 According to Mark Bego the first batch of songs they worked on were Erotica Deeper and Deeper Bad Girl Thief of Hearts and Rain 6 Anthony Shimkin who also worked on the album recalled that Madonna had with her a book full of lyrics and melody ideas 7 Recording took place at Astoria s Sound Work Studios from November 1991 to October 1992 4 For the singer s vocals an older style SM57 microphone was used Pettibone believed that sometimes older is better 8 The producer recalled how as the recording sessions progressed the melodies became more melancholic he noted that Madonna s stories made the songs a lot more serious and intense leading them into a deeply personal territory 4 Similarly Shimkin said that Bad Girl along with fellow album track In This Life was a song that the singer had a really deep personal attachment to but didn t notice this until the album was completed 7 9 He added Bad Girl is one of those songs like Oh Father or Papa Don t Preach where she really calls on her own emotions and experiences She s never afraid to expose herself emotionally 9 Pettibone however said that he never thought of Bad Girl as autobiographical but as a song people could relate to 7 Composition and lyrics edit nbsp Bad Girl source source A 20 second sample of Bad Girl the song s theme of a woman who uses drunken debauchery as a mask for her pain is displayed in lyrics such as Bad girl drunk by 6 Kissing someone else s lips 10 Problems playing this file See media help Bad Girl was written and produced by both Madonna and Pettibone with additional lyrics by Anthony Shimkin Personnel working on the song included Pettibone on the sequencing keyboard arrangement and programming alongside Shimkin Dennis Mitchell and Robin Hancock were the song s recording engineers while Goh Hotada was in charge of mixing and Ted Jensen of mastering 11 Musicallly Bad Girl is a melancholic 12 somber guilt ridden 13 ballad that talks about a woman experiencing extreme sadness due to a failed relationship 14 Madonna s vocal range spans from F 3 to C 5 14 According to Carol Benson and Allan Metz authors of The Madonna Companion Two Decades of Commentary the song highlights the main theme explored throughout Erotica of the pain and torment of the heart and the perils of romance 14 Speaking to the BBC Madonna herself explained that the lyrics talk about a woman in a toxic relationship trying to distract herself from reality through behaviors such as drinking and chain smoking she really cares for this person and she s having a hard time saying goodbye She s unhappy with her situation 15 It begins with Madonna singing the lines Something s missing and I don t know why I always feel the need to hide my feelings from you 16 The profound inner turmoil felt by the narrator is depicted by the time the song gets to the refrain Bad girl drunk by six Kissing someone else s lips Smoked too many cigarettes today I m not happy when I act this way 10 16 Billboard s Larry Flick noted that Madonna s vocals are mournful amid a swirl of synths and a slow syncopated beat 12 Release and critical reception edit While most of the songs on Erotica explore the explicit and often rewarding aspects of sex Bad Girl takes a different route tackling the emotional consequences that can come with the act It s a sharp lesson that pain can be synonymous with passion Billboard s Bianca Gracie reviewing Bad Girl on the magazine s list of Madonna s 100 best songs 17 In Australia and numerous European countries Bad Girl was released as Erotica s third official single on February 2 1993 18 19 20 21 In the United States it was released on March 11 with Fever as B side 22 Upon release Bad Girl was generally well received by music critics For Billboard Flick highlighted its intense lyrics which Joe Lynch from the same magazine considered to be Madonna s most affecting 12 7 Benson and Metz pointed out that the song was a departure from the singer s highly sexualized image at the time 14 AllMusic s Jose F Promis stated that the song s lukewarm commercial reception was not a reflection of its artistic achievement 23 Arion Berger from Rolling Stone called it riveting and pointed out that the song sees the singer recognize the discomfort the audience feel s when sensing the human character of a woman whose function is purely sexual A sex symbol herself she coolly removes the threat of her own personality 24 J D Considine for The Baltimore Sun named it as sobering as it is sad and opined Simply hearing the quaver in her voice as she insists You ll always be my baby is enough to break any listener s heart 10 Chris Willman for Los Angeles Times named it one of Erotica s best tracks as it trades in mixed emotions instead of purely catty or cornball ones 25 Slant Magazine s Sal Cinquemani deemed it a hymn to promiscuity and Anthony Violanti from The Buffalo News Madonna s personal confessional on love 3 26 A negative review came from Entertainment Weekly s David Browne who dismissed it as a lonely at the top lovesick victim song 27 Graham Gremore writing for Queerty was also dismissive of the track referring to it as sappy and opining that Thief of Hearts another song from Erotica would ve made a better single 28 Retrospective reviews have been positive Eric Henderson for Slant Magazine named the song Madonna s 35th greatest single and a brutal self laceration served in the most flamboyantly melodramatic fashion imaginable Henderson also compared it to In This Life with the exception that Bad Girl is the far more dangerous track 29 For Albumism s Justin Chadwick it is the single that leaves the most enduring impression and reinforces Madonna s abilities to craft ballads that carry emotional weight without coming across as overwrought 30 Matthew Jacobs from HuffPost said the track is the classiest in Erotica and placed it at number 34 of his ranking of the singer s singles 31 A similar opinion was shared by The Backlot s Louis Virtel who felt the track is a classy ballad with a great message and the singer s 75th best song 32 On Gay Star News ranking Bad Girl came in at number 27 33 The song was considered a well honed slow piece of pop theatre by The Guardian s Jude Rogers who also deemed it Madonna s 45th best 34 Bad Girl was classified as the singer s 42nd and 49th greatest song by Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly s Chuck Arnold respectively 13 the latter opined it feels like a great deep cut rather than a single 35 It has also been considered one of Madonna s most underrated tracks Idolator s Mike Wass said that thematically it deserved to be recognized as one of Madonna s signature songs in another occasion Wass opined that the song should have been bigger as it is one of the most achingly honest pop songs of the 90s as well as a towering achievement that still holds up today 36 16 From the Official Charts Company Justin Myers considered Bad Girl to be one of Madonna s hidden gems that show off her storytelling abilities in its rather depressing lyrics 37 Lisa Yang from WatchMojo also placed it among Madonna s most underrated songs adding that with its intentionally vintage sound Bad Girl was a refreshing look at the reality of Madonna s party focused lyrics 38 In 2022 the staff of Queerty referred to Bad Girl as one of the singer s most underappreciated singles 39 Matthew Barton writing for British magazine The Quietus said it was among the most gorgeous ballads of Madonna s career 40 Chart performance editIn the United States Bad Girl debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 75 in the issue dated February 20 1993 41 As the weeks went by the song climbed places and finally peaked at number 36 on the week of March 27 42 Bad Girl became Madonna s first single to not reach the top 30 or top 20 of the Hot 100 breaking a streak of 27 consecutive top 20 singles that began with Holiday 1983 and ended with Deeper and Deeper as well as her lowest charting song since Oh Father 1989 43 Fred Bronson attributed the single s poor chart performance to the controversy surrounding Madonna with Erotica the Sex book and the film Body of Evidence 1993 43 Similarly Promis felt that the public was tired of the artist s bratty bad girl posturing which was in full swing at the time of the single s release 23 On the Hot 100 component charts Top 40 Radio Monitor and Top Singles Sales it reached numbers 44 and 36 respectively 44 45 Bad Girl peaked at number 26 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart 46 The Fever Bad Girl release reached the first position of Billboard s Dance Singles Sales chart and came in at number 46 on the year end chart 47 48 In Canada the single peaked at number 20 of RPM s Top Singles chart on the week of March 27 1993 49 In the United Kingdom Bad Girl debuted at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 10 on March 13 1993 it was present on the chart for a total of seven weeks 50 According to Music Week magazine over 74 915 copies of the single have been sold in the UK as of 2008 51 In other European countries such as France 20 Germany 21 and Belgium the single saw a weak commercial reception as it failed to crack the top 30 19 The song fared better in the charts of Switzerland and Ireland peaking at 25 and 20 respectively 52 53 In Australia Bad Girl entered the ARIA Singles Chart at number 40 eventually peaking at 32 and lasting seven weeks on the chart 18 In countries like Italy Iceland and Ecuador the song reached the top 3 of the charts 54 55 56 Music video editBackground and synopsis edit nbsp Bad Girl marked Madonna s final collaboration with director David Fincher pictured 57 The Bad Girl music video was filmed on location in New York in January 1993 58 under the direction of David Fincher who had previously worked with Madonna on Express Yourself 1989 Oh Father and Vogue 1990 57 The singer had previously asked Tim Burton to direct the video but he turned the offer down 57 Mark Romanek who would go on to direct the videos for Rain and Bedtime Story 1995 was also approached 59 Personnel working on the clip included Bob Jenkins in editing Juan Ruiz Anchia in cinematography and Jeffrey Beecroft as production designer 60 The plot was inspired by Richard Brooks Looking for Mr Goodbar 1977 and Wim Wenders Wings of Desire 1987 61 In the video Madonna plays Louise Oriole a promiscuous chainsmoking Manhattan career woman 62 Louise is the singer s middle name while Oriole likely references Oriole Way a Los Angeles street in which she lived with her ex husband Sean Penn 15 Actor Christopher Walken played the role of the singer s guardian angel 62 Walken recalled his participation as being kind of fun 63 Actors Mark Margolis Tomas Arana James Rebhorn Rob Campbell and Matt Dillon also appeared on the music video Dillon plays a police detective but was uncredited 60 The video begins with the police finding Madonna s dead body Louise Oriole is a successful chain smoking alcoholic businesswoman who engages in one night stands with multiple men 64 She behaves this way in order to try and deal with the depression and sadness over a failed relationship all throughout the video her guardian angel watches over her 64 In one scene Louise wakes up alone in her bed after a one night stand and discovers a hand written note laying on the pillow beside her She gets upset after reading its content and tosses the note to the ground her angel picks it up revealing its content Thank you whoever you are the paper reads 64 Towards the end of the video Louise picks up another stranger All of a sudden the song stops a cat hisses a can of breath freshener is sprayed and the angel kisses her on the lips 65 It is then implied that the man murdered Louise with her stockings after her death she reappears as a spirit along with her guardian angel overseeing the police taking her body away to the morgue The final shot shows Louise and her angel being lifted away on a director s chair 64 66 Reception and analysis edit nbsp Screenshot of the Bad Girl music video depicting Louise Oriole Madonna after her guardian angel Christopher Walken has given her what Georges Claude Guilbert considered to be a kiss of death 64 The video was acclaimed by critics Georges Claude Guilbert considered it a masterpiece of the genre 64 The Odyssey s Rocco Papa named the visual Madonna s most cinematic as it features a plot in a way videos rarely do today He ranked the video her fifth best 67 Louis Virtel from The Backlot placed it at number 21 of his ranking of the singer s videos beautifully shot dramatically acted unexpectedly emotional 68 Parade s Samuel Murrian highlighted the performances Madonna can be such a brilliant actor and her performance as a broken unhappy woman whose self destructive behavior gets her killed is one of her best He also noted that the sad and disturbing clip lingers in the memory long after you ve seen it like all of Fincher s best work he considered it Madonna s 16th greatest music video 69 The Independent s Adam White also praised the singer s performance and the directing writing that Fincher directs her to express all kinds of contradictory emotions through mere glances or expressions It is a remarkable performance full of self loathing withdrawal and finally child like bliss 15 Bad Girl was considered one of Madonna s most underrated music videos by both VH1 s Christopher Rosa and Idolator s Mike Neid 70 the latter one called it her most over the top 71 Bad Girl came in the ninth position of a poll conducted by Billboard of the singer s 10 greatest videos 72 For Sal Cinquemani it s Madonna s 18th greatest music video 73 White said it was Fincher s most important venture noting a short stylish erotic thriller that nods toward the work the filmmaker would go on to do in the future 15 He furthered compared it to Madonna and Fincher s collaboration in 1989 s Oh Father as both videos feel like personal exorcism for Madonna that only Fincher could capture 15 White concluded by referring to Bad Girl as an unexpected final chapter in the Madonna Fincher saga something of a twisted funeral for their love story emotive and affectionate yet filled with bloody murder 15 Vulture named Bad Girl the 9th best music video directed by Fincher 74 David Fincher s work with Madonna has been all over his filmmaking their music video collaborations regularly gesturing towards the movies that would make him internationally famous But it is Bad Girl full of the psychological depth visual symbolism and pulpy thrills that would dominate much of Fincher s filmography that is his unheralded masterpiece The Independent s Adam White on the music video 15 David Denby deemed the music video a premature summation of Fincher s work in miniature pointing out references to other works by the director the police discovering Madonna s corpse referenced Seven 1995 the backward running timepiece image of Walken s angel of death character looking at his watch became the key visual and metaphysical idea in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2008 Finally Madonna being murdered by a seeming serial killer was a reference to both Seven and Zodiac 2007 75 In a similar note Vice s Raza Syed wrote that the music video has many of the hallmarks of David Fincher s style of cinematography that would dominate much of his subsequent filmography air tight camerawork brushed metal visual palette corporate intrigue a palpable sense of emotional isolation and murder 57 White compared the Louise Oriole character to Amy Elliott Dunne from Gone Girl 2014 as both women share a troubled antihero quality 15 According to Mark Browning the shot of Walken and the singer in an elevated director s chair signifies a God like presence in the actor s character the author also felt this particular shot was an intentional tongue in cheek reference by Fincher to the responsibility and pressure that comes with directing 66 In Experiencing Music Video Aesthetics and Cultural Context 2004 Carol Vernallis pointed out that through iconic imagery the viewer can predict the fate of Madonna s character her black dress in a dry cleaner s plastic bag alludes the body bag she will be wrapped in the cat hissing at her suggest she s already a ghost or figure who bears a curse finally a door Madonna walks through looks like the entrance to Hades 76 The music video can be found on Madonna s 1999 compilation The Video Collection 93 99 77 Live performances and cover versions editSee also List of cover versions of Madonna songs and List of Madonna tribute albums nbsp Madonna singing Bad Girl during one of the concerts of the Celebration Tour 2023 2024 The first live performance of Bad Girl took place on January 16 1993 on the late night live television show Saturday Night Live 78 79 After finishing the song Madonna tore up a photograph of Joey Buttafuoco the alleged lover of Amy Fisher the Long Island teenager who shot Buttafuoco s wife Mary Jo and yelled Fight the real enemy 80 This echoed Sinead O Connor who ripped apart a photograph of Pope John Paul II and yelled the same thing when she was the show s musical guest in October 1992 80 HuffPost considered this one of Madonna s most legendary performances and Myers said it had one of her very best live vocals 37 81 Thirty years later Bad Girl was included on the Celebration Tour Dressed in a red silk slip dress with black lace and knee high boots Madonna sang as her daughter Mercy James played piano 82 The number was named one of the best moments of the concert by Billboard s Joe Lynch who added that watching her daughter Mercy James sit down at a grand piano and effortlessly tickle the ivories during Bad Girl was pretty damn impressive 83 A cover by Boy George Amanda Ghost and James Hardway was included on the tribute albums Virgin Voices A Tribute to Madonna Vol 1 1999 A Tribute to Madonna Virgin Voices 2003 Tribute to Madonna Like a Virgin 2005 and The World s Greatest 80 s Tribute to Madonna 2006 84 85 86 87 A rendition by Semi Moore was included on 2000 s Truly Blue Tribute to Madonna 88 Covers by Cruzer and Strike a Pose were included Immaculate Deception A Tribute to the Music of Madonna 2004 and A Tribute To Madonna Vol 1 2006 respectively 89 90 Track listings and formats editUS 7 inch vinyl and cassette single Japanese 3 inch CD single 91 92 Bad Girl edit 4 38 Fever 5 00US 12 inch maxi single 93 Bad Girl extended mix 6 29 Fever extended 12 inch mix 6 08 Fever Shep s Remedy Dub 4 29 Fever Murk Boys Miami Mix 7 10 Fever Murk Boys Deep South Mix 6 28 Fever Oscar G s Dope Mix 4 55US and Australian CD maxi single 94 Bad Girl edit 4 38 Fever Murk Boys Miami Mix 7 10 Fever extended 12 inch mix 6 08 Bad Girl extended mix 6 29 Fever Murk Boys Deep South Mix 6 28 Fever Hot Sweat 12 inch mix 7 55 Digital single Bad Girl Fever 2022 95 Bad Girl edit 4 35 Bad Girl extended mix 6 29 Fever album edit 4 30 Fever edit one 4 05 Fever extended 12 inch mix 6 07 Fever Hot Sweat 12 inch mix 7 58 Fever Murk Boys Deep South Mix 6 28 Fever Murk Boys Miami Mix 7 10 Fever Murk Boys Miami Dub 7 12 Fever radio edit remix 5 09 Fever Shep s Remedy Dub 4 31 Fever Oscar G s Dope Mix 4 55Credits and personnel editCredits are adapted from the album s liner notes 11 Madonna lead vocals songwriter producer Shep Pettibone songwriter producer sequencing keyboard programming Joe Moskowitz keyboards P Dennis Mitchell recording engineer Robin Hancock recording engineer Goh Hotoda mixing engineer Ted Jensen masteringCharts editWeekly charts edit Weekly chart performance for Bad Girl Chart 1993 PeakpositionAustralia ARIA 18 32Belgium Ultratop 50 Flanders 19 40Canada Retail Singles The Record 96 5Canada Top Singles RPM 49 20Canada Contemporary Hit Radio The Record 96 8Ecuador El Siglo de Torreon 56 2Europe Eurochart Hot 100 97 26Europe European Hit Radio 98 5Finland Suomen virallinen lista 99 8France SNEP 20 44Germany Official German Charts 21 47Iceland Islenski Listinn Topp 40 55 3Ireland IRMA 52 20Italy Musica e dischi 54 3Netherlands Dutch Top 40 Tipparade 100 2Netherlands Single Top 100 101 34New Zealand Recorded Music NZ 102 35Switzerland Schweizer Hitparade 53 25UK Singles OCC 50 10UK Dance Music Week 103 10UK MRIB 104 7US Billboard Hot 100 42 36US Dance Singles Sales Billboard 47 With Fever 1US Mainstream Top 40 Billboard 105 26 Year end charts edit Year end chart performance for Bad Girl Chart 1993 PositionIceland Islenski Listinn Topp 40 106 46US Dance Singles Sales Billboard 48 With Fever 46References edit a b Holden Stephen April 10 1992 Madonna makes a 60 million deal The New York Times Archived from the original on May 19 2009 Retrieved February 1 2022 subscription required Orth Maureen October 1992 Madonna in Wonderland Vanity Fair Archived from the original on February 11 2015 Retrieved April 6 2022 a b Cinquemani Sal February 24 2007 Review Madonna Erotica Slant Magazine Archived from the original on May 20 2022 Retrieved January 27 2022 a b c d e Pettibone Shep Erotica Diaries ShepPettibone com Archived from the original on June 27 2007 Retrieved February 1 2022 Burgess 2013 p 42 Bego 2000 p 96 a b c d Lynch Joe October 20 2017 Madonna s Erotica turns 25 An oral history of the most controversial 90s pop album Billboard Archived from the original on January 27 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