To follow up your biggest single "flop" to date with something like Human Nature, rather than any of the more commercial cuts from Bedtime Stories like Inside of Me, Forbidden Love, or Don't Stop, seemed rather risky. And in terms of chart performance, the decision clearly did not pay off (incidentally, many radio stations did add Don't Stop to their playlists despite it never being promoted by Warner Bros.). However, while peaking lower than Bedtime Story, Human Nature was all around a far more successful single. It didn't perform as well on the dance chart (it frustratingly remained lodged at #2 for three weeks), but it was a surprising minor R&B hit. The smash Take A Bow, released just a few months earlier, had barely nicked the top 40 of the R&B chart, but Human Nature was Madonna's first single since Justify My Love to appear on the R&B Airplay chart. It should be noted that Madonna has not made a dent on the R&B charts since Human Nature's appearance.

Another fascinating aspect to Human Nature's chart performance was its bizarre pattern on the Airplay and Sales charts. For the six weeks from July 8 to August 12, the track was bulleted on either Airplay or Sales, but never both. Propelled by a very late maxi-single release, the single actually peaked in sales the week it fell off the airplay chart. Almost undoubtedly, had the airplay and sales peaks coincided, the single probably would have landed comfortably inside the top 40 for at least one week.

At least we have the amazing video for Human Nature! Directed by Madonna favorite Jean-Baptiste Mondino, it features some of the most amazing choreography ever seen. While many dismiss the Bedtime Stories era as Madonna's attempt to become hip again, I think that in least in terms of music videos, it is possibly Madonna's highest career point. Only the videos from the Like A Prayer album really compare.

TRIVIA: Although my records for VH1 positions go back only until "Secret" in 1994, it is quite possible that "Human Nature" is Madonna's least successful video on the music channel. It spent a mere three weeks on the VH1 tally and peaked no higher than #22. By comparison, every other video between 1994 and 2000 peaked in the top ten, except for "I Want You" which maxed out at #11. "Human Nature" is also, believe it or not, Madonna's only single to feature a "swear-word" in the song. The video version replaced the word "shit" with a thudding sound, while many radio stations simply removed the line "I'm not your bitch don't hang your shit on me" and repeated "it's human nature" instead.