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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"

February 2, 1993 (1993-02-02)

1992

Soundworks (New York)

5:23

  • Madonna
  • Shep Pettibone

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]

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]

 – lead vocals, songwriter, producer

Madonna

 – songwriter, producer, sequencing, keyboard, programming

Shep Pettibone

Joe Moskowitz – keyboards

P. Dennis Mitchell – recording engineer

Robin Hancock – recording engineer

Goh Hotoda – mixing engineer

 – mastering

Ted Jensen

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