"Take A Bow" vs. "You'll See"

Which song do you prefer?


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TAKE A BOW
- one of her biggest US hit singles; however, in the UK it broke her streak of consecutive top 10 singles. Iconic video. Never performed live on tour until the Rebel Heart Tour in 2016 when she sang it (to the album backing track) on a few shows. It's a great song and would definitely be in my all time Madonna top 40 and I still don't understand why it wasn't a hit over here to be honest. And I loved how it annoyed Whitney (RIP) at the time. 'Before Madonna? It was Face AND I.'



YOU'LL SEE - deep in Evita preparation mode, the leading single from the ballads compilation Something to Remember is a collaboration with David Foster. The music video was a sequel to 'Take A Bow' and lyrically it is also a sequel of sorts: heartbroken but she picks herself up and carries on into the sunset. I love it as well and her vocals are luscious. The video is decidedly inferior to 'Take A Bow' in my opinion (although, strangely, it has slightly higher views on her official YouTube channel.) Another track that has not been a live staple in the canon - she only performed on a few North American shows on the Drowned World Tour in 2001.

Which of the two songs do you prefer?
 
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I've always found Take a Bow just a *touch* dull, although I can see how it was a perfect fit for American radio at the time - those gloopy RnB lite ballads were total chart catnip in the mid 90s.

You'll See for the DRAMA. There's a reason Shirley Bassey covered it. :disco:
 
You'll See feels like it has endured as a standard much more than Take A Bow. Interesting that it was such a big UK hit when Take A Bow was the one in the USA.

I think I prefer Take A Bow and video as it feels more like a 'Madonna' song, You'll See is fantastic and FULL of drama, but it is a BIT Andrew Lloyd Webber :D

Who can forget the BLUE EYESHADOW TOTP perf though :disco:

 
Take A Bow > This Used To Be My Playground > You'll See

I love them all though. Take A Bow is up there with my top Madonna songs. I think it's use in Friends actually has made in more relevant for younger people.

Also it was number 1 when I was born :disco:
 
You'll See is winning?

I didn't expect that. Take A Bow was probably the first Madonna song I ever fell in love with.
 
You'll See ALL THE WAY, those guitar strings are already 20x more AUTHENTIC Spanish than a tacky POSTCARD BULLFIGHTING video. I appreciate that non-Spanish people may not have this NATIONAL PSYCHODRAMA in them but bullfighting represents a barbaric, old-fashioned and old money way of living for a CERTAIN SECTOR of the Spanish class that makes me very uncomfortable, and the glamourisation of it in Take a Bow doesn't sit well with me.
 
Take a Bow for me, I just love the background harmonies by Babyface. They really elevate this.
I can't remember the last time I listed to You'll See all the way through. I find it a bit boring and lifeless these days.
 
"Take a Bow" is about as SULTRY (tm) as it gets. The richness of her voice on it is lovely and really elevates it. "You'll See" is also very good but feels a bit more anonymous to me and lacks the SEX that "Take a Bow" exudes.
 
I find most of Erotica more sultry than Take a Bow. it's a lovely song though, but not a personal FAVE.
 
I find Take A Bow a little INSIPID compared to You'll See.
 
You'll See is winning?

I didn't expect that. Take A Bow was probably the first Madonna song I ever fell in love with.

I was expecting a landslide to be honest. Take A Bow is great, in a 7-8/10 way, but You'll See is a total ten with the drama, vocals, build up etc.
 
Oh they are both amazing I would have to go for Take A Bow by a SMIDGE due to the fact it was Mama Lecter’s Madge song of choice (followed by this then Angel fact fans)

I remember being outraged when it missed the top ten at Xmas that year
 
MAKE IT HAPPEN SUEDETTE :disco:

I'm not carrying my Madge stan card too often these days but I can always loon out over Erotica.
 
You'll see just for the sheer drama and goes along my toxic personality. This doesn't make Take a Bow any less good but I've found it's a much more fitting mood piece when I'm all lovey-dovey.
 
Are the young gays aware that the “lesser known ballad” Take A Bow, which kinda went down quietly in the UK, spent 7 weeks at #1 in the US and is one of her most successful singles of all time?
 
The Take a Bow video is strange because I always get more of a vague sense of CHINOISERIE than Spanish torture sports from the song itself.
 
The Take a Bow video is strange because I always get more of a vague sense of CHINOISERIE than Spanish torture sports from the song itself.
Oui bien sur. Well, yes, hence this live performance at the time. The lewk was a serve (cultural appropriation be damned!); the vocals perhaps less so. And, as I said in the opening post, she only performed it on some select Asian dates on the Rebel Heart Tour. Come through ASIANDONNA :disco:


 
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For the record, she didn't come up with the idea of the matador for the video (but she embraced it so she is partly to blame IMO).

My other big issue with the video is that they could have shot in any old bullring throughout Spain but they went and chose the one in Ronda, completely IGNORING the STUNNING VIEWS the town could have given them for ADDED DRAMA.

Ronda-Puente-Nuevo-18-by-Geoffrey-Morrison.jpg
 
Disagree. Bedtime Stories is the sultriest album of Sultrydonna's entire career!

Now a lot of Erotica might be SLUTTY, sure. But SULTRY it ain't... apart from maybe 'Secret Garden'.


I agree with the first part (and Secret Garden), but disagree about Erotica. It’s not slutty; it’s filthy and perverted.
 
Statements about things in this thread:

Madonna’s SULTRIEST album is obviously Bedtime Stories. Nonsense to suggest otherwise.

Take A Bow was a flop here because it was peak “anti-Madonna” time. The media hated her, the public had had enough of her, it didn’t get much airplay- it wasn’t UK friendly enough- and was released at Christmas with zero promo over here. We also didn’t even get any good single packages- a limited 7” plus the two CDs with the same track listing if I remember as one was a “limited with postcards” (snore). The remixes were done for the US release and weren’t ready for the UK one I don’t think, as the commercial singles here were rushed out to get a ballad on the Christmas market. It basically got lost in the shuffle that year.

You’ll See, on the other hand, was a bit of a surprise hit off quite low stock, but the TOTP performance and UK promo she did at the time helped. They softened her image a LOT for Something to Remember and the album did massively well as it had the bonus of basically having two lead singles as I Want You was everywhere on MTV at the time. Indeed, I knew a new madonna single was out on the Monday, but at the end of the chart, when they did a “next week’s hits could include” segment, I was amazed when they played You’ll See, which I’d never heard before or even heard OF. I thought I Want You was going to be released and although I don’t remember it getting UK airplay, it was all over the video channels at the time and a number 1 on The Box (oh what could have been with a release...as I do think it would have been even bigger).

Why does funky keep wading into threads making statements when he hasn’t read the earlier posts? His age I guess.

I love both, but Take a Bow I found “meh” at the time, went through a period of loving lots and have fallen just a little bit out of love with, though it’s still blatantly a 9 or 9.5 out of 10. You’ll See, though, is sublime. She spits it out. Real venom in the delivery whilst being entirely understated. Now that’s good singing.

As you were.
 
Oh and the video didn’t fit the song at all, it is of course Oriental in its nature. And hence the outfits at the time, as my dear Suedey suggests.

The video is top notch, though. Delightfully bitchy MTV making of programme too (oh how I miss GOOD MTV- I’d love that channel back now) and in which she shows that she speak mimes the words for her videos rather than miming or singing them- probably cause she didn’t want to be caught on camera singing off key.
 

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