Madonna’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ Turns 25 | Anniversary Retrospective

Happy 25th Anniversary to Madonna’s sixth studio album Bedtime Stories, originally released October 25, 1994.

In only four years—and off the back of just two records—Madonna had conquered the world.

Despite her unquestioned omnipotence at radio and retail, critics were hard-pressed to dole out musical praise for Madonna. That changed in March of 1986 with the release of “Live to Tell,” the first single from her third album True Blue (1986). That bold, balladic single was indicative of her stratospheric leap forward in creativity and the once unmoved critics were now paying attention. Give or take two songs, True Blue was Madonna’s first record that couldn’t be dismissed as merely a host for singles.

The three albums to follow True Blue—Like A Prayer (1989), the Dick Tracy companion piece I’m Breathless (1990) and Erotica (1992) —were no less ambitious and yielded further progress (and rapid success) for the Queen of Pop. However, divorced from their mammoth hits and music videos, each of them suffered from either lackluster sequencing or underwhelming songwriting.

But, it was Erotica—and its companion book Sex—that nearly leveled Madonna. A loose concept LP concerned with taboo sexual mores and emotional masochism collapsed under its own misshapen weight; worse, the songs simply weren’t there on the whole. By placing “the event” ahead of a proper commitment to the thematic task of the album itself, Madonna made herself an easy target to be dismissed as a shrewd media manipulator versus the adept singer and songwriter she is. Insulated by the pop culture hysteria she’d generated for a decade, the critical blowback from Erotica/Sex unceremoniously burst that bubble—it was likely a sobering experience.

Yet, there was a silver lining to the difficulties she endured with Erotica in that they helped her gain perspective and grow to realize that she wanted the public to recognize her as an artist. This outlook gave Madonna a newfound focus going into Bedtime Stories. Sessions for her sixth studio set began with Shep Pettibone, Madonna’s principal producer and compeer for Erotica. One of the initial compositions Madonna and Pettibone started work on was its eventual first single, “Secret,” but they ultimately and amicably parted ways, as she wanted to take the urban-pop vibe of that anterior album in a new direction. Madonna returned to finish “Secret” with Dallas Austin, an up-and-coming voice in the contemporary soul genre who had produced sides for Monica, Grace Jones and Joi, among others.

Austin’s work with Joi on her debut The Pendulum Vibe (issued in June 1994) had been of note to Madonna and led to her fast recruitment of Austin for one of two collaborative cliques on Bedtime Stories. That first clique included (but wasn’t limited to) an astonishing array of talent: Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Dave “Jam” Hall and bassist/vocalist/Maverick signee Meshell Ndegeocello. Repurposing the coarser R&B-pop sonics she had laid out on Erotica, Madonna fashions them to be seductively intimate and groove-oriented for Bedtime Stories. From the bluesy, acoustic funk of “Secret,” to the breezy jam “Don’t Stop” and around to the silky shuffle of “Inside of Me,” these songs and most of the LP are sculpted from a mix of expert live instrumentation and impressive studio production. 

Almost all of the aggressive beat and groove combinations that defined Erotica are absent with the exceptions of “I’d Rather Be Your Lover”—a side that deliciously weds Ndegeocello’s bass playing (and rap) to Madonna’s smoky mezzo-soprano—and “Human Nature.” The latter track, a stinging rebuke toward Madonna’s Erotica/Sex naysayers, would have been better served up as a B-side as its petulant script threatened to fracture the more demure, introspective air Madonna embodied on Bedtime Stories. Thankfully, the surrounding song stock buffers and neutralizes its antagonistic energy. Musically though, “Human Nature” is an interesting piece with it being erected around the Main Source hip-hop banger “What You Need”—Main Source themselves had loaned a portion of their cut from the jazz musician Walter Maynard Ferguson’s selection “Spinning Wheel.” “Human Nature” represents one of Bedtime Stories’ multiple arrangements that contain clever sample traces or interpolations, along with “I’d Rather Be Your Lover” (Lou Donaldson),  “Inside of Me” (Aaliyah, The Gap Band, Gutter Snypes), “Forbidden Love” (Grant Green), and “Sanctuary” (Herbie Hancock).

Lyrically, Bedtime Stories showcases Madonna’s keen pen that captures the elusive emotional space between strength and vulnerability through love songs or semi-autobiographical entries. “Survival,” “Love Tried to Welcome Me” and “Sanctuary” are undeniable canonical highlights.

Spotlighting “Sanctuary,” Madonna and Austin were the primary assemblers for the downbeat ambient track that slips beautifully into the palatial electronica of “Bedtime Story.” It is here that the second clique Madonna partnered with on Bedtime Stories announces itself. Written by Marius de Vries, Björk and Nellee Hooper, the latter Massive Attack associate and Madonna co-produce this mesmeric slice of existentialist electro-pop that prognosticates what was to come with her next long player (1998’s Ray Of Light) in four years’ time. That Madonna manages to keep “Bedtime Story” in line with the ruling R&B arc of the record is an impressive feat and evidence of her skill toward applying a consistent tone for an album despite any supposedly dueling sounds.

Bedtime Stories was released to positive reviews and improved sales, with four singles birthed from the project during its commercial lifespan in the form of “Secret,” “Take a Bow,” “Bedtime Story” and “Human Nature.” The largest charter of this batch was the gorgeous canto-pop-soul of “Take a Bow” that crowned the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. To date, it is Madonna’s longest running number-one single in the United States.

After several attempts, Madonna had finally made an album meant to be experienced in its entirety. What was to follow Bedtime Stories was a dazzling assortment of recordings in Ray Of Light, Music (2000) and American Life (2003) that saw Madonna’s artistic vision at its most confident and vibrant. However, the genesis of this second career epoch was Bedtime Stories, an effort that eschewed controversy and platformed Madonna’s singular abilities as a singer and songwriter.