Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, the song was developed from a line in the parent film, Dick Tracy, talking about a woman who enjoys being spanked by her partner.

Performed in a playful, “tongue-in-cheek” style, "Hanky Panky" is a jazz and swing song, keeping with the film's general theme of the 1920s and 1930s, with a changing bassline and minor to major key-shift in the chorus.

In 1990, Madonna starred in the film Dick Tracy as Breathless Mahoney—a new role introduced for her—with Warren Beatty, her boyfriend at the time, playing the titular character.

She and Leonard toiled to create music that would fit the style and production of the film, set in the days of the Untouchables law enforcement.

[7] Personnel working on the song included Leonard on keyboards, Jeff Porcaro on drums, Guy Pratt on bass and Donna De Lory, Niki Haris and N'Dea Davenport on background vocals.

[9] J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of Madonna: An Intimate Biography, commented that "the steamrolling 'Hanky Panky' simply sounds like a silly innocent romp until you realize what she's going on and on is about ('Warren's favorite pastime')... being spanked!".

[17] Music critic Robert Christgau highlighted "Hanky Panky" as one of the best tracks on I'm Breathless; calling it a "fake period piece" but praising its "risqué s&m-lite" sound as "all her".

[20] Rolling Stone's Mark Coleman wrote that the song, alongside "Cry Baby" and "I'm Going Bananas", was one of the "more-legitimate sounding and confidently sung show tunes without a trace of disco" on the album.

[25] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine felt it was a "cheeky" song, also writing that it touched on themes Madonna would go on to explore more explicitly later in the 1990s.

[26] Stephen Holden of The New York Times described it as a "big-band blues [song] in which she endorses sexual spanking [...] a calculated bid for outrage".

[27] Ray Boren from The Deseret News described "Hanky Panky" as "naughty", comparing it to the 1928 jazz song "Makin' Whoopee" by Eddie Cantor.

[28] Dave Tianen from The Milwaukee Sentinel, while reviewing I'm Breathless noted that "one aspect of Madonna remains constant even when you push her back in time.

King believed that the subject matter of "Hanky Panky" would surely receive "flank", but defended Madonna saying that she had been singing about such topics for years by then.

[33] Writing for Gay Star News, Joe Morgan gave a mixed review, calling it "less sexual and feminist liberation and more corny and blatant [...] A forgettable number that sounds like track six of a musical theatre cast album".

[35] Also negative was The Guardian's Jude Rogers, who wrote that "even creators of brilliant pop can go wrong", calling it "over farty" and "Madonna's nadir".

She performed the song dressed in a green and white striped vaudeville-style corset, playing the part of a nightclub singer, standing in front of a microphone.

[57] Fourteen years later, Madonna performed an energetic showgirl themed version of "Hanky Panky" as part of her 2004 Re-Invention World Tour.

[58] Sean Piccoli, from the Sun-Sentinel, praised the singer's ability to "summon the vampy humor of 'Hanky Panky'—a Bette Midler moment if ever [Madonna] had one".

[59] Despite not being part of the official set list, Madonna sang "Hanky Panky" on the final concert of her Rebel Heart Tour, held in Sydney, Australia in March 2016.

[60] In May 2000, the song was performed by actress Alicia Witt on the third-season finale of the American television series Ally McBeal, titled "The Musical, Almost".