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BEDTIME STORIES: Her Most Underrated Album!


MarXus
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I don't care what anyone says!  This is Madonna's MOST underrated album ever. This is an album that came and went with no intent to shock or awe anyone.  She simply produced an album "of the times" which still sounds great today. Certainly, she jumped on the Babyface bandwagon for a couple of songs, but those songs are lush like the rest of the album tracks.  The album has sold around 8 million copies to date, with 2.5 million coming from the United States.  At the time, the album was considered one of her least successful due to low sales, but it certainly wasn't because the album sucked. The album debuted at #3, selling 145,000 copies the first week.  It eventually outsold her very much hyped and controversial album Erotica.  it's as R&B Madonna gets.  Adding a little taste for what was to come (in the next few  years) with the Electronic title track. While the album was pretty low key and a promise from Madonna that she would be on her best behavior with this release, she still didn't hold back with final single track "Human Nature" when she shot back at years of criticisms; stating she's "not sorry"!  "Absolutely No Regrets!"  Also, the Bedtime Stories video release was an MTV event where Madonna put on a "Pajama Party", where she wore a revealing night gown, danced all night with her friends, and ended the night with a reading from Mrs. Spiders Tea Party by David Kirk.  She mentioned she would tour the album, but that never happened due to the fact she set her eyes on taking on the EVITA role.  It was the video for Take A Bow which she sent the director of the film, Alan Parker, with a several page letter, outlining to him why she would be perfect for the role. We all know the outcome of that!  Once again, the album is her most underrated album.  Bedtime Stories produced four top 10 songs (in varied countries), with Take A Bow being her most successful #1 song to date, with it staying at that position for seven weeks in the U.S.  Secret, the lead single from the album, managed  #1 in various countries and #3 in the U.S.  Interestingly enough, Madonna herself made the least successful single from the four, Human Nature into a classic among her catalog.  The video for that song became very popular even though many radio stations were hesitant in playing it, due to it's explicit lyrics and tone.  Til this day, Bedtime Stories the album seems to be most ignored by Madonna when she performs on tour, with the exception of performing the song Human Nature on various tours, including her current Madame X tour.

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Claimed to be intended to be the album cover, early on.

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Back cover of Bedtime Stories

 

Feel free to share opinions and experiences regarding this album. What's your favorite songs from the album?  Which music video is your favorite?   

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I've thought so many times the American Life album was Madonna's most underrated album, but, now I have to wonder with everything you posted @MarXusand @Ashley. Excellent posts. One thing about this era for sure: the videos for Secret, Take A Bow, Human Nature, and Bedtime Story were/are exceptional and so different from one another.  The photos shoots were stunning of her. Long and mid length, I loved her hair and looks from this time period too. Gorgeous! 

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17 minutes ago, Voguerista said:

I've thought so many times the American Life album was Madonna's most underrated album, but, now I have to wonder with everything you posted @MarXusand @Ashley. Excellent posts. One thing about this era for sure: the videos for Secret, Take A Bow, Human Nature, and Bedtime Story were/are exceptional and so different from one another.  The photos shoots were stunning of her. Long and mid length, I loved her hair and looks from this time period too. Gorgeous! 

Thank you for your response!  I was going to mention this as I figured some would jump in as you have and dispute my opinion, but I wanted to stick to just talking about Bedtime Stories. And yes, I realize it's my opinion, but I think it's quite a pretty sound argument on my part.  American Life came with a lot of fanfare and controversy.  Bedtime Stories didn't.  American Life had a lot of more upfront promotion with performances and hype with the original video, etc.  She seemed to really push that album, unlike the relaxed approach she took with Bedtime Stories.  Of course BS did get promotion, but it's still one of her least mentioned albums when one speaks of Madonna.  American Life is certainly underappreciated as well, but not like Bedtime Stories.  AL seems to have a negative stigma behind it, and people are able to dispute the lead single as one of her worst.  Though, no one says that of Bedtime Stories lead single.  As mentioned, the album is just never spoken of, with the exception in the fan base when certain fans bring it up.

And do you realize that Bedtimes Story actually sold less copies the first week than American Life and a few other of her low selling albums such as MDNA and HARD CANDY?   Those three latter albums sold more than almost double if not double the amount copies as Bedtime Stories did its first week out.  Now granted, BS ended up outselling those albums and even Erotica, but it took time.  Which gives me hope that her other least successful albums will still sell significantly over time. 

Bedtime Stories is such a chill vibe album.  Certainly, it's dated somewhat, but it's still very nice to listen to, and deserves to be considered one of her best low key albums ever.  Every album before and after had far more push and hype behind it than this one!  So this is why I say it's the most underrated! 

 

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I agree and thank you for the lovely write up and videos/photos to commemorate the era and album. It is true despite her toning down her image and going a more mainstream sound, it didn't make as a big of a splash as other albums either by shock, etc. It was successful and the songs have all aged well to this day and she looked beautiful throughout the era. It definitely is underappreciated in the public consensus and largely ignored on tour aside from Human Nature. Had Evita not happened it makes you wonder which songs she would have done on the tour and even possibly the Ray of Light tour before The Next Best Thing happened. I always found the particular story about "Love Tried to Welcome Me" being inspired by Madonna seeing a stripper and putting herself in her shoes.

I also think "I'm Breathless" is underappreciated due to its being associated as a film soundtrack to Dick Tracy. It has a lot of original material, great songs and great vocals by Madonna that also don't get their fair dues.

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Danorama remix of Secret Video. 

Side Note:  "Secret" was the first time Madonna promoted a single to the internet when it was just starting to catch on to the public.  If anyone can find it and post it in this thread, that would be great.  She playfully sent out an audio of herself promoting the single, with "Hello all you cyberheads out there. This is Madonna and leaving with the in famous line: "Often imitated, but never duplicated!"   (pardon me if I messed up the quote!  It's just what I recall!)

 

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Guest Ashley

The only thing i was disappointed with Bedtime Stories was the cover art. It looked too commercial pop after all her other album covers. 

The cover for Secret is more iconic. I actually wished that was the cover for Bedtime Stories. 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Ashley said:

The only thing i was disappointed with Bedtime Stories was the cover art. It looked too commercial pop after all her other album covers. 

The cover for Secret is more iconic. I actually wished that was the cover for Bedtime Stories. 

 

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But we're not here to bring this thread down.  After all, I loved the covers, and the one above is hardly her being "commercial pop".  In fact, the cover is beautiful!  One of her best!

No raining on the parade here.... just post your appreciation for the album. Post what you enjoyed, not what you didn't.

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5 minutes ago, Ashley said:

The only thing i was disappointed with Bedtime Stories was the cover art. It looked too commercial pop after all her other album covers. 

The cover for Secret is more iconic. I actually wished that was the cover for Bedtime Stories. 

 

 

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I loved this cover too. Gorgeous! 

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Guest Ashley
1 minute ago, MarXus said:

But we're not here to bring this thread down.  After all, I loved the covers, and the one above is hardly her being "commercial pop".  In fact, I find it hilarious that she used this for an era which she considered to be tone down herself, and claiming to leave the sexual innuendos behind. 

No raining on the parade here.... just post your appreciation for the album. Post what you enjoyed, not what you didn't.

I am being positive. I said the cover for Secret was great. 

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