In order to promote Bedtime Stories, Madonna performed "Take a Bow" on a few occasions, including live with Babyface at the 1995 American Music Awards.

[11] "Take a Bow" was written and produced by Madonna and Babyface, and is a midtempo pop,[13] R&B,[14] and soul[15] ballad with Japanese musical influences, like that of Kyu Sakamoto's 1961 song, "Sukiyaki".

[16] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic referred to "Take a Bow" as "tremendous", listing it as one of the best songs from Bedtime Stories and stating that it "slowly works its melodies into the subconscious as the bass pulses".

He wrote, "Madonna's most successful single to date is a melancholic evisceration of a lover's artifice, and its hopeless plain-spokenness makes it one of the finest examples of 90s balladry".

[23] In his review of Bedtime Stories, Billboard's Paul Verna called it a "holiday feast for Top 40, rhythm crossover, and AC".

This single has a delightful, immediately memorable melody and chorus, engaging romance-novel lyrics and a lead vocal that is both sweet and quietly soulful.

[26] While ranking Madonna's singles in honor of her 60th birthday, Jude Rogers from The Guardian placed the track at number 38, calling it a "compellingly cinematic orchestral drama".

[27] Matthew Jacobs, from The Huffington Post, placed it at number 19 of his list "The Definitive Ranking Of Madonna Singles", calling it her "most poetic ballad".

[28] Bianca Gracie from Idolator noted it as a "timeless ballad", adding that it "has warm strings and soaring harmonies with a hint of tragedy from Madonna’s somber vocals, which makes the end result all the more beautiful.

"[31] A reviewer from Music Week gave it five out of five, calling it "an old-fashioned ballad, full of sweeping violin and vaguely oriental sounds.

[33] Stuart Bailie from NME viewed it as "a return to the True Blue era of boss tunes, a swooning, goose-feather production that's clearly in awe of KD Lang's Ingenue.

[35] NPR Multimedia senior producer Keith Jenkins gave a positive review of the song, stating that it "washes over you and gets your blood boiling.

[37] Encyclopedia Madonnica writer Matthew Rettenmund called it a "sentimental ballad with showbiz theme" while finding similarities in the song to that of "Superstar" by The Carpenters.

Although he felt that it sounded "shockingly normal" after the "ambient 'Bedtime Story'", he found the song's length as over-long and deduced it to be "communica[ting] no sense whatsoever of the pain of a real goodbye.

He declared it as one of the singer's "purest songs, totally free of any gimmicks, self-consciousness or knowing sexual references; a graceful end to the album.

[41] With a writing credit in nine chart-toppers, Madonna became the female songwriter with the most number-one songs at that time, overtaking Carole King, who had held the record for more than 30 years.

[42] "Take a Bow" became Madonna's fifth number-one on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States, following "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", "Cherish", and "I'll Remember".

[45] The song is also notable as Madonna's last single to make the top 40 of the US R&B chart until 2023 when her collaboration with The Weeknd and Playboi Carti, "Popular", peaked at #14.

[59] The music video for "Take a Bow" was directed by Michael Haussman and is a lavish period-style piece, filmed November 3–8, 1994, in Ronda and in the bullring of Antequera, Spain.

[62] The costumes worn by Madonna in the video were created by stylist Lori Goldstein, who received the VH1 Fashion and Media Award for best styling.

Later it was clarified that Madonna was refused due to unknown moral reasons from the Brotherhood, who accused the media of making free publicity on the singer's behalf.

The refusal generated controversy in Ronda, whose political groups believed that allowing the video to be shot within its precipices would be great promotion for the city.

According to Abbey Konowitch, who worked at Madonna's Maverick Records, the singer had a long history with MTV and VH1, and hence was eager to participate in the campaign when asked by VH1 president John Sykes.

The video can be viewed as a statement on classism, supposing the bullfighter feels threatened and angered by the aristocrat's station, resulting in his physically abusing and then coldly abandoning her.

[68] Madonna requested that Haussman give the video a Spanish theme because, at the time, she was lobbying for the role of Eva Perón in the film version of Evita.

For Vernallis it was not clear if the imagery was literal or figurative of the lyrics, "embodying a lasting affection, as separate parts of Madonna's psyche, or as the exaggerated claims of a groupie."

The scenes showing Madonna in an enclosed room with a single light bulb also drew comparisons to Glenn Close's character Alex Forrest in the 1987 psychological thriller film, Fatal Attraction.

"[82] On January 30, 1995, Madonna performed "Take a Bow" in a cheongsam on the American Music Awards of 1995, accompanied by Babyface and full orchestral strings.

[84] On February 18, 1995, Madonna arrived in Europe to promote Bedtime Stories; that same day, she appeared on German TV show Wetten, dass..?, where she was interviewed and performed "Secret" and "Take a Bow".

[95] Hong Kong pop singer Sandy Lam recorded a version of the song for her 1997 English language covers album Wonderful World (美妙世界).