Bad Girl (Madonna song)
"Bad Girl" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna, recorded for her fifth studio album "Erotica" (1992). It was written and produced by both Madonna and Shep Pettibone, with additional writing from Anthony Shimkin. 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 with "Fever" as its B-side. Lyrically, the song describes a woman trying to escape her reality through self-destructive behaviors such as drinking and chain smoking. Upon release, the  song received positive reviews from music critics, with some noting it was a departure from the singer's highly sexual image of the time; in retrospective reviews, it its now considered one of Madonna's best and most underrated singles. Commercially, "Bad Girl" saw a lukewarm reception: in the United States, it became 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). It fared better in the UK, where it  reached the top 10. The accompanying music video marked Madonna's final collaboration with director David Fincher; the singer played Louise Oriole, a successful but promiscuous Manhattan businesswoman who engages in one-night stands with multiple men, until one of them murders her. Actor Christopher Walken played the role of her guardian angel. The video received positive reviews, with critics deeming it the singer's most "cinematic" and noting tropes and references Fincher would go on to use in his future works. Madonna has only performed "Bad Girl" live once, during a visit to the late-night live television show  Saturday Night Live. Background and recording. 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. The first two projects from the venture were her fifth studio album "Erotica" and a coffee table book of photographs featuring Madonna, entitled "Sex". 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. Pettibone would build the base music of the  songs in a style similar to his remixes, while Madonna wrote the melodies and lyrics. 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. In October 1991, Madonna met with Pettibone in New York City to start working on demos. According to Mark Bego, the first batch of songs they worked on were "Erotica", "Deeper and  Deeper", "Bad Girl", "Thief of Hearts" and "Rain". Recording took place at Astoria's Sound Work Studios from November 1991 to October 1992. Madonna's vocals were recorded using an older style SM57 microphone because, according to Pettibone, "sometimes, older is better". Pettibone 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". Similarly, Shimkin said that "Bad Girl", along with 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. 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". Pettibone, however, said that he never thought of "Bad Girl" as autobiographical, but as a song people could relate to. Composition. "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. It has been described as a melancholic, "somber, guilt-ridden" ballad that talks about a woman experiencing extreme sadness due to a failed relationship. According to Carol Benson and Allan Metz, authors of "The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary", the song highlights the main theme explored throughout the "Erotica" album: "the pain and torment of the heart and the perils of romance". 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 self-destructive 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". This is reflected in the refrain, where she sings "Bad girl/drunk by six/ kissing some kind stranger's lips/Smoked too many cigarettes today/I’m not happy when I act this way"; her vocal range spans from F to C. "Billboard"s Larry Flick noted that Madonna's vocals were "mournful [...] amid a swirl of synths  and a slow, syncopated beat". Release and critical reception. In Europe and Australia, "Bad Girl" was released as "Erotica"s third official single on February 2, 1993. In the United States, it was released on March 11 with "Fever" as its B-side. Upon release, it was generally well received by music critics. For "Billboard", Larry Flick highlighted its "intense" lyrics which Joe Lynch, from the same magazine, considered to be Madonna's "most affecting". Carol Benson and Allan Metz pointed out that the song was a departure from the singer's "highly sexualized image" at the time. AllMusic's Jose  F. Promis stated that the song's lukewarm commercial reception was not a reflection of its "artistic achievement". Arion Berger, from "Rolling Stone", called it "riveting", and pointed out that it's a song in which the singer recognizes 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". J. D. Considine, for "The Baltimore Sun", named it "sobering as it is sad", and opined that "simply hearing the quaver in her voice as she insists 'You'll always  be my baby' is enough to break any listener's heart". "Slant Magazine"s Sal Cinquemani deemed it a hymn to promiscuity, and Barbara walker, from the "Sun Sentinel", Madonna's "personal confessional on love". A negative review came from "Entertainment Weekly"s David Browne, who dismissed it as a "lonely-at-the-top, lovesick-victim" song. Graham Gremore, writing for "Queerty", was also dismissive of track, which he referred to as "sappy", and opined "Thief of Hearts", another song from "Erotica", would've made a better single. Retrospective reviews have been positive. Eric Henderson, for "Slant Magazine", named it 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". For Albumism's Justin Chadwick, it's 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". Matthew Jacobs from "HuffPost" said it was the "classiest" song in "Erotica", and placed it at number 34 of his ranking. A similar opinion was shared by The Backlot's Louis Virtel , who felt it was a "classy ballad with a great message", and the singer's 75th best song. On "Gay Star News" ranking, "Bad Girl" came in at number 27. It was considered a "well-honed, slow piece of pop theatre" by "The Guardian"s Jude Rogers, who also deemed it Madonna's 45th best. "Bad Girl" was classified as the singer's 42nd and 49th greatest song by "Rolling Stone" and "Entertainment Weekly"s Chuck Arnold, respectively; the latter opined it "feels like a great deep cut rather than a single". 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 it "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". From the Official Charts Company, Justin Myers considered it to be one of Madonna's "hidden gems" that show off her "storytelling abilities in its (rather depressing) lyrics". Chart performance. In the United States, "Bad Girl" debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number  75, in the issue dated February 20, 1993. As the weeks went by, the song climbed places and finally peaked at number 36 the week of March 27. "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). 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". Similarly, AllMusic's Jose F. 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. On the Hot 100 components Top 40 Radio Monitor and Top Singles Sales, it reached number 44 and 36, respectively. "Bad Girl" peaked at number 26 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. The "Fever"/"Bad Girl" release reached the first position of "Billboard"s Dance Singles Sales, and came in at 46 on the year-end chart. In Canada, the single peaked at number 20  of "RPM"s Top Singles chart on the week of March 27, 1992. In the United Kingdom, "Bad Girl" debuted at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number ten on March 13, 1993; it was present on the chart for a total of seven weeks. According to "Music Week" magazine, over 74,915 copies of the single have been sold in the United Kingdom as of 2008. In Australia, "Bad Girl" entered the ARIA singles chart at number 40, eventually peaking at 32 and remaining seven weeks on the chart. The single failed to enter the top 30  in countries like France, Germany, Belgium, and New Zealand; it fared better in Italy, Iceland, and Ecuador, where it reached the top 3. Music video. Background and synopsis. The "Bad Girl" music video was filmed in Manhattan from January 12–18, 1993, under the direction of David Fincher, who had previously worked with Madonna on "Express Yourself" (1989), "Oh Father", and "Vogue" (1990). The singer had previously asked Tim Burton to direct the video, but he turned the offer down; Mark Romanek, who would go on to direct the videos for "Rain" and "Bedtime Story" (1995), was also approached. Personnel working  on the clip included Bob Jenkins in editing, Juan Ruiz Anchía in cinematography and Jeffrey Beecroft as production designer. The plot was inspired by Richard Brooks "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977) and Wim Wenders "Wings of Desire" (1987). In it, Madonna plays Louise Oriole, a "promiscuous, chainsmoking Manhattan career woman"; 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. Actor Christopher Walken played the role of the singer's guardian angel. Walken recalled his participation as being "kind of fun". Actors Mark  Margolis, Tomas Arana, James Rebhorn, Rob Campbell and Matt Dillon also appeared on the music video; Dillon played a police detective, but was uncredited. 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. She behaves this way in order to try and deal with the depression and sadness over a failed relationship; all throughout the video, she's watched over by her guardian angel. 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 it to the ground; her angel picks it up revealing its content: "Thank you, whoever you are", the paper reads. 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. 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. Reception and analysis. The music video was positively received by critics. Georges-Claude Guilbert considered it a "masterpiece of the genre". The Odyssey's Rocco Papa named it Madonna's "most cinematic" video, as it "features a plot in a way videos rarely do today". He ranked it her fifth best music video. Louis Virtel from The Backlot placed it at number 21 of his ranking of the singer's videos; "beautifully shot , dramatically acted [...] unexpectedly emotional". "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. "The Independent"s Adam White also praised the singer's performance and the directing: "[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". "Bad Girl" was considered one of Madonna's most underrated music videos by both VH1's Christopher Rosa and "Idolator"s Mike Neid; the latter one called it her most "over-the-top". "Bad Girl" came in the ninth position of a poll conducted by "Billboard" of the singer's 10 greatest videos. Adam White said it was Fincher's "most important venture": A "short, stylish erotic thriller" that nods toward the work the filmmaker would go on to do in the future. He furthered compared  it to Madonna and Fincher's collaboration in 1989's "Oh Father"; both videos feel like "personal exorcism for [Madonna], of a kind only Fincher seemed to be able to coax out of her". 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". David Denby deemed it 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). In a similar note, "Vice"s Raza Syed wrote that the video "has many of the hallmarks of Modern Fincher: air-tight camerawork, brushed-metal visual palette, corporate intrigue, a palpable sense of emotional isolation... and murder". Adam White compared the Louise Oriole character to "Gone Girl"s Amy Elliott Dunne, as both women  share a "troubled antihero quality". According to Mark Browning, the shot of Walken and the singer in an elevated director's chair signified a "God-like" presence in the actor's character; the author also felt this particular shot was a tongue-in-cheek reference to "the responsibility and pressure that comes with directing". 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". The music video can be found on Madonna's 1999 compilation "". Live performance and covers. The only live performance of "Bad Girl" took place on January 1993, on the late-night live television show "Saturday Night Live". 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!" This was a reference to 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. The "HuffPost" considered this one of Madonna's "most legendary" performances, and Justin Myers one of her "very best live vocals". 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). A rendition by Semi Moore was included on 2000's "Truly Blue: Tribute to Madonna". Rock covers by Cruzer and Strike a Pose can be found on "Immaculate Deception: A Tribute to the Music of Madonna" (2004) and "A Tribute To Madonna Vol 1" (2006). Credits and personnel. Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.