I'll Remember

Album

With Honors: Music from the Motion Picture

Label

Maverick

Genre

Stage & Screen

Composer(s)

Madonna;Patrick Leonardp;Richard Page

Entered Chart

Apr 2, 1994

Peak Date

May 28, 1994

Released

March 8, 1994

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Maverick/Sire 18247

B-Side

Secret Garden

The accompanying music video for "I'll Remember" was directed by Alek Keshishian, who had previously directed the live performance versions of "Like a Virgin" (1984) and "Holiday" (1983) from the Truth or Dare documentary and also the music video of her single "This Used to Be My Playground" (1992).[42] The video featured production credits by Diane Greenwalt, editing by Patrick Sheffield and photography by Stephen Ramsey.[43] According to Jerry Ryan from creative production team Steele, "I'll Remember" had multiple projection screen fills and classic theatre atmospherics (like smoke haze and the flickering light beams from a projection booth) added. The theatre walls and ceiling had digital enhancements. A sound booth was completely created from scratch to accompany a crane shot down to Madonna. All the movie inserts were treated to appear to be within the theater and all Madonna's close ups and medium shots were individually treated for facial beauty enhancements.[44] The video features Madonna in a stylized recording studio singing the song with back up singers. The video was compared to the music video of Madonna's single "Rain" (1993).[45] Her look in the video consists of blue-black icy hair, bright blue eyes and a long dark dress with a beaded necklace around her neck.[45] Madonna's face was mainly shot above her head, with her face looking up just ahead of the camera focus. Sometimes she looks to a video screen behind her which plays the scenes from the film, as if to take inspiration for her singing.[45] Other times she is accompanied by her back-up singers, mainly during the chorus, and sometimes she sings alone.[46] The music video ends with a shot of Madonna watching herself recording the song. In this last scene she is dressed in a long black coat and holds a cigarette in her hand.[46] Scholars noted that this last shot clearly illustrates the gender paradox of Madonna, because as she watches her female form singing the song, she herself is dressed in an androgynous way, holding a cigarette, which is associated as one of the symbolic forms of male supremacy.[47] Feminist writer Martha Leslie Allen lauded the video, as well as Madonna, "for breaking free of the conventional portrayal of women yet again, and displaying their duality."[48] The video can be found on Madonna's 2009 compilation, Celebration: The Video Collection.

Madonna wrote this with her frequent songwriting partner Patrick Leonard, along with Richard Page (frontman of the '80s band Mr. Mister). The tender ballad represents one of Madonna's many transformations, this time in an effort to neutralize her overtly sexual image, which was in full force two years earlier with her Erotica album and the release of her aptly titled coffee table book Sex. This is the theme song to the college comedy/drama With Honors, starring Brendan Fraser as a Harvard student whose thesis is stolen by a crafty homeless man (Joe Pesci). >> This song was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television category and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 1995. It lost to Bruce Springsteen's "Streets Of Philadelphia" for Philadelphia and Elton John's "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from The Lion King, respectively. (Springsteen's song was not up against Madonna's for the Golden Globe, however; his was eligible for nomination in 1993 and won.) With Honors' director Alek Keshishian also directed the music video for this song, which showed the raven-haired Madonna performing with backup singers in a stylized recording studio. This wasn't Keshishian's first gig with Madge, though. He was also at the helm for the music video of another soundtrack hit, "This Used To Be My Playground," from A League of Their Own, and the 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare. This was included on Something to Remember, Madonna's 1995 compilation of ballads. Chris Colfer performed this song with the rest of the Glee cast in the 2012 episode "Goodbye." The Ramones performed this as part of a "Best Song from a Movie Medley" at the MTV Movie Awards in 1995, though Stone Temple Pilots' "Big Empty" from The Crow took home the prize.

Say goodbye
To not knowing when
The truth in my whole life began
Say goodbye
To not knowing how to cry
You taught me that

And I'll remember
The strength that you gave me
Now that I'm standing on my own
I'll remember
The way that you saved me
I'll remember

Inside
I was a child
That could not mend a broken wing
Outside
I looked for a way
To teach my heart to sing

And I'll remember
The love that you gave me
Now that I'm standing on my own
I'll remember
The way that you changed me
I'll remember

I learned
To let go of the illusion that we can possess
I learned
To let go
I travel in stillness

And I'll remember happiness
I'll remember (I'll remember)

(I'll remember)

And I'll remember
The love that you gave me
Now that I'm standing on my own
I'll remember
The way that you changed me
I'll remember

(I'll remember)
No, I've never been afraid to cry
Now I finally have a reason why
I'll remember

(I'll remember)
No, I've never been afraid to cry
Now I finally have a reason why
I'll remember

(I'll remember)
No, I've never been afraid to cry
Now I finally have a reason why
I'll remember

(I'll remember)
No, I've never been afraid to cry
Now I finally have a reason why
I'll remember