Song of the Day: Madonna, "Beautiful Stranger

Remember when characters from movies would appear in music videos? When was the last time that happened? The past was almost always smellier and worse, but if we’re going to be inundated with retrograde unpleasantless from everywhere at all times, then maybe we can have Scarlett Johansson welcoming Dua Lipa into Jurassic Park.

Anyway I woke up with this song in my head this morning despite the fact that I’m not sure if I have ever heard it in full. Like a million other famous people, Madonna hopped onto the Austin Powers train after it became one of the more quotable comedies of the era. It’s an inoffensive pastiche of the Powers ‘60s psychedelic Britpop aesthetic and Madge’s own modern electronic invention (like the bulk of Madonna’s 1998 album Ray of Light, “Beautiful Stranger” was co-produced by William Orbit). What could make this whole scenario even more late ‘90s? Why not a music video directed by Brett Ratner?

“Beautiful Stranger” was pretty big and netted Madonna a Grammy, though the defining song from the soundtrack to The Spy Who Shagged Me is Lenny Kravitz’s cover of the Guess Who’s “American Woman,” one of the six or seven worst songs ever written.