"Oh father," is often the start of a prayer, typically a child talking to God and often as part of a confession. Like the song "Promise To Try" on the album, it relates to Madonna's childhood and finds her taking on the emotional burden she carried as a little girl. Regarding "Oh, Father," she said it was "me dealing with all authority figures in my life."
The black-and-white video was influenced by the photography in the movie Citizen Kane. Some of the material for the video was autobiographical, which led to questions about Madonna's relationship with her father, to which Madonna replied it was about her coming to terms with all the men in her life who had hurt her. She added that her own father had never asked about the song and they had never spoken of it.
The single did poorly as a commercial release, ending Madonna's streak of 18 Top 10 hits in the US. However it reached #1 in South Africa. In the UK it wasn't released as a single until 1995 when it was issued to promote her compilation album Something To Remember.
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