Material Girl song reached the top-ten in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles, while reaching the top 40 of Germany, Italy and Switzerland. In New Zealand and Japan, the song reached the top-five. The music video was inspired by Madonna's admiration of Marilyn Monroe and mimicked the latter's performance of the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". It also featured actor Keith Carradine, who played Madonna's love interest. The video was the first to showcase Madonna's acting ability, as it combined the dance routines of "Diamonds Are a Girl's
Girl (Destiny's Child song) "smooth bump-and-grinder... almost sunk by the group's hyperbolic vocal arrangements". "Vibe"s writer Dimitri Enrlich concluded, "Destiny's Child refuses to play it safe with cookie-cutter formulas" something he found evident on "Girl". "The Observer" reviewer Kitty Empire noted that the band's characteristic female solidarity, "is limply expressed in 'Girl', on which they purport to be your best friend". While reviewing "#1's", Thomas Inskeep from Stylus Magazine described the song as "lovely". Jess Harvell writing for Pitchfork Media opined, "'Girl' was a stroll over a 9th Wonder-produced Dramatics sample through bros-before-hoes territory as latte frothy as its 'Sex & the City' video."