Songoftheday 7/25/22 - Tell the sun not to shine not to get up this time, let it fall by the way but don't leave me where I lay down...

 

 

"Don't Tell Me" - Madonna

from the album Music (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 18

 

Today's song is from Madonna, who returned to #1 on the American pop chart in the autumn of 2000 with the title track from her eighth studio album "Music".  For the second single, she released the dance/country fusion dish of "Don't Tell Me", written by Madonna with producer Mirwais Ahmadzai and singer/songwriter Joe Henry, who is married to Madonna's sister Melanie Ciccone. The song plays like a tone poem, more on beats and melody that words, until the rather chilling final verse of

 

Tell the bed not to lay
Like a open mouth of a grave, yeah
Not to stare up at me
Like a calf down on its knees

 

Now that's an image. Nevertheless, the acoustic guitar loop and soothing synth background lulls you into a peace that glosses over that into a simple "don't tell me not to stop loving you" message. The music video brings in the cowboys for a full western pastiche that had me mesmerized in 2001...

 

 

"Don't Tell Me" became the second top ten hit from Music in February of 2001. On the radio, the song rose to #4 on both the Mainstream and the older-skewing Adult Top-40 formats, while the remixes of the track helped it top Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart for a week. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Italy, Canada, and New Zealand, and reached the top ten in Spain (#2), Finland (#3), Poland (#3), Hungary (#3), the UK (#4), Greece (#5), Norway (#6), Australia (#7), Croatia (#8), and Switzerland (#10), and got to #16 in France and #22 in Germany. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Don't Tell Me" was nominated for best Music Video, losing out to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon Of Choice" (the one with Christopher Walken dancing). Both Madonna and this album will be back to the series.

(9/10)

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The dance remixes of the song helped "Don't Tell Me" top the club charts, including this version from the Thunderpuss team....

 Next up, on her Drowned World Tour behind the Music album in 2001...

And with a continental backdrop for her Re-Invention Tour in 2004, using the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" as the sample...

In 2014, Madonna came on to Miley Cyrus' MTV Unplugged gig, where they performed "Don't Tell Me" along with Miley's "We Can't Stop"...

And lastly, after a six year detente between the pair, Madonna performed the song on Letterman (along with Bro-in-law Joe Henry)..

Up tomorrow: This high-octane rock band is losing blood.