While the video undoubtedly gave the single the push to become a classic, the ballad also stands on its own merits with its Oriental-tingled instrumentation (which is also inspired oleh the Paul Robeson version of the classic poem "Trees"), Craig Armstrong's amazing string arrangement and Madonna's silky smooth vocals backed oleh co-writer/co-producer Babyface, one of the most famous hitmakers at the time.
But it's the song's chart performance that made it a remarkable entry in Madonna's career. All formats of the single were released days after the video premiere and both sales and airplay would slowly and steadily climb until the end of January, when madonna gave her first and so far only live performance of the song at the American musik Awards (the only time she sang at this show). Dressed in a Chinese gown, madonna gave a simple but effective performance backed oleh an orchestra and Babyface himself, which gave great exposure to the song in the US and soon after it would climb to #1, kicking the Dallas Austin produced "Creep" oleh TLC from the puncak, atas spot and holding it for seven weeks, which would be the longest ever for a madonna single. While the sales of Take A Bow exceeded 600,000 copies in the US which earned it a emas certification, it failed to reach the Platinum status of her other megahits as it was airplay where the track was really shining: it was the most played song of America for nine straight weeks. The success of the single also helped the album to stop falling down the chart and it managed to stay in the puncak, atas 20 during the natal season, which would eventually become the only reason why Bedtime Stories outsold Erotica in the US, as after Take A Bow started its slow descent on the charts, the album went with it and subsequent single releases didn't have much effect.
Outside the US the single also became a big hit in Canada, jepang and Australia, her other main markets of the 90s. In Europe, however, madonna got some of her worst chart positions ever when this single got lost in the natal shuffle, like in Belgium, atau in the UK, where it was her then-lowest peaking single and is one of the six madonna singles that failed to reach the UK puncak, atas 10. madonna gave 2 lip-synced performances of Take A Bow at Germany's Wetten Dass and Italy's San Remo which gave better chart performances in those countries.
The success of Take A Bow allowed it to become one of the 4 songs in Madonna's discography that can be found on 4 different madonna albums. Featuring on all the compilations released after the single itself, proves that among all of Madonna's ballad hits of the mid-90s, Take A Bow is the pinnacle.
Unfortunately Take A Bow has never been performed live on a madonna tour and is the only one out of the 34 hits of the Celebration compilation that was not used on a tour in any form. It is speculated that madonna intentionally refuses to perform songs on her tours that have a "goodbye" theme. Maybe madonna is saving Take A Bow to be her last ever live performance? Time will tell...
