Songoftheday 8/30/20 - It won't be easy you'll think it strange when I try to explain how I feel, that I still need your love after all that I've done...

 

 

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" - Madonna

from the album Evita (Original Soundtrack) (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's song of the day is from Madonna, whose starring turn in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Evita had gotta rave reviews and the best audience reception of any of her movies to date. The "new" song added to the work, "You Must Love Me", which was released as the first single, had reached the top-20 on the American pop chart in the fall of 1996, as well as gifting the film with an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and soundtrack, respectively. To follow that up, Madonna released the most well-known song from the show, the climactic "Don't Cry For Me Argentina", written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Released as a CD and cassette single with remixes for the dancefloor, the sales for this were through the roof, with radio preferring the dance version as well remixed by Pablo Flores...

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" returned Madonna to the American pop top ten in March of 1997. The song was also a hit at "easy listening" radio, placing on both the Adult Contemporary (#21) and Adult Top-40 (#14) radio charts in Billboard magazine. The dance remixes helped it spend a week at #1 on their Dance Club Play tally as well. Internationally, the single topped the chart in France, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and reached the top-ten in Italy (#2), Belgium (#2W/#5F), Iceland (#2), the UK (#3), Germany (#3), Austria (#3), the Netherlands (#4), Switzerland (#4), New Zealand (#6), Denmark (#6), Finland (#8), Australia (#9), Sweden (#9), Ireland (#9), and Norway (#9). In Canada, the song peaked at #14. 

Madonna's version of "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" was released internationally as the third single, where it reached the top ten in Belgium (#6W) and the UK (#7), but didn't make any impression in the U.S..Rather, the song "Buenos Aires" was also given the big remix treatment "Argentina" was, and climbed to #3 on Billboard's dance chart, although it wasn't released as a single, and therefore didn't make the Hot 100 pop chart.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the original version from Madonna as was heard in the movie...

The original recording of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from the 1977 concept album Evita made before any stage show was done by British actress/singer Julie Covington. That version went to #1 in the UK, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands...

That same year, Olivia Newton-John reached the top-40 in Australia with her cover from her Making A Good Thing Better album...

Also in 1977, the Carpenters recorded the song for their Passages album...

A year later, the Shadows (Cliff Richards' backing band and Eurovision entry) went to #5 with an instrumental cover of the song...

Shirley Bassey also lent her amazing voice to the classic on her Magic Is You record...

Since Covington declined the invitation to star in Evita on stage in London, Elaine Paige took on the role for the 1978 original West End production...

Meanwhile most Americans associated the role of Evita before the movie with Patti LuPone, who helmed the Broadway debut in 1979...

Also that year, the disco studio act Festival recorded an all-dance album of Evita songs including "Don't Cry For Me Argentina", which spent 30 weeks on Billboard magazine's disco chart, peaking at #3...

In 1996, Sinead O'Connor had a minor hit in Belgium and the Netherlands with her version from her Am I Not Your Girl? album...

The campy "lounge music" act Mike Flowers Pops had a British top-40 hit with yet another take on the song produced by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken in 1996 that didn't predict Madonna's version but rather reacted to the biggest hit of the time, the "Macarena"...

In 2010 the musical show Glee had its stars Lea Michele and Chris Colfer sing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". Their version went to #97 on the American pop chart...

and lastly, Madonna's best concert version, in Buenos Aires, on her Sticky and Sweet tour in 2008, along with "You Must Love Me"...

Up tomorrow: Latin dance trio are asking you to stay.