After a successful
run of singles from the rather intense
album "Ray of Light," Madonna
let loose on "Beautiful
Stranger" with something a little
more relaxed. Taken from the film
"Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged
Me," Madonna and William Orbit
collaborated to write the best '60s song
of the '90s. Heavily reverbed guitar, a
drum loop borrowed from one of Orbit's
own remixes of "Ray of Light,"
and a simple tale of infatuation made
this track a lovely little summer ditty.
Victor Calderone then transformed the
track into a pulsating dancefloor stomper
which took the idea of being in to a more
desperate and almost somber level of
gravity. Of the numerous mixes he has
done for Madonna in the past few years,
many fans consider this his best.
"Beautiful Stranger" was also
Madonna's first song since "Into to
the Groove" and
"Spotlight" to fall prey to the
practice of promoting a track for radio
airplay only. Many fans were highly
disappointed with Maverick Records'
decision to withhold a single, although
it can be argued that their strategy of
forcing fans to buy the album succeeded
(the Austin Powers 2 soundtrack sold
nearly 2 million copies). Nonetheless,
many feel this could have been another #1
hit for Madonna, or at least another top
ten to add to her impressive catalogue.
The song did very well at the awards
shows however, as it managed to nab both
a Grammy and an MTV VMA award.
The video upped the sex factor, but the
comedic tone of the clip was in line with
the movie's theme, and proved to be one
of Madonna's most successful video hits
on MTV and VH1.
A little bit of
controversy swirled around this track
when someone dug up the old sixties song
"She Comes In Colours" by the
group Love, claiming that "Beautiful
Stranger" was just a rip-off of that
track. The two songs do have some
virtually identical chord progressions
and instrumentation, so at the very least
either Orbit or Madonna had this song in
the back of their head during recording.
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