I Don't Wanna Cry
"
I Don't Wanna Cry" is a song written by
Mariah Carey and
Narada Michael Walden, and produced by Walden for Carey's debut album
Mariah Carey (1990). It was released as the album's fourth
single in the second quarter of 1991 (see
1991 in music). The protagonist of this
ballad says that she "don't wanna cry", but nothing in the world could take her and her lover to where they used to be. It became another U.S. number one single for Carey, but elsewhere was a major commercial disappointment. Like the previous singles released from
Mariah Carey, the song received a
BMI Pop Award.
"I Don't Wanna Cry" was Carey's first single that she did not co-write with
Ben Margulies. When she and Walden first wrote the song, she was excited because it sounded like something that would be played on the radio. Because of bad experiences during its production, Carey stated in an
MTV interview that she dislikes the song and tries to sing it as rarely as possible, as she feels that it "doesn't have a message". Carey had lobbied to co-produce the song, but was denied permission by
Sony/
Columbia, her record label at the time. She often fought with Walden in the studio concerning the song's production and as a result Walden became her least favorite among the producers who worked on her debut album. It is rumored that Walden didn't even produce the track himself, but that his protege at the time,
Walter Afanasieff, actually ghost-produced much of it.
"I Don't Wanna Cry" became Carey's fourth number-one hit on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100, making her only the second act (and first female and first solo artist) after
The Jackson 5 to have their first four singles make number one on the Hot 100. It also made
Mariah Carey a record-breaking album, as every single released from it was a chart-topper in the U.S. It reached number one in its eighth week and spent two weeks at the top, from
May 19 to
June 1 1991. It replaced "I Like the Way (the Kissing Game)" by
Hi-Five, and was replaced by
Extreme's "
More Than Words". The single became Carey's third number-one single on the
Adult Contemporary chart. It remained in the top forty for thirteen weeks and was one of four singles from Carey on the Hot 100's 1991 year-end charts, ranking twenty-sixth.
Outside the U.S., it was one of the least successful of the singles released from
Mariah Carey. Like "Someday", it failed to make the
Australian top forty and became her first single in
Canada to miss the top five, although it did make the top ten. "
There's Got to Be a Way" was released as the album's fourth single in the UK instead of "I Don't Wanna Cry".
|
A scene from the music video. |
The single's
video, directed by
Larry Jordan, features Carey brooding in a dark
midwestern home and in
cornfields over her tainted relationship. While she dislikes the song, she is a fan of its video, as it was the first in which was she was allowed to present a relatively sexual image.
Part of an alternative version of the music video was released on the DVD/home video
The First Vision (1991), and the original, more familiar version was included on the DVD/home video
#1's (1999) as a director's cut. The 1991 version had a few sepia-toned sequences that were eliminated and replaced for the DVD release. It was the only video from Carey's debut album to be included on
#1's, because she was ashamed of the three previous music videos.
*
U.S. CD single (cassette single/7" single)# "I Don't Wanna Cry" (album version)# "You Need Me" (album version)
| Chart (1991) | Peak
position | No. of chart topper | | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 (2 weeks) | 4th |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | 2 | — |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 1 (1 week) | 3rd |
| U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 | 1 (2 weeks) | 4th |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 7 | — |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 49 | — |
|
*
Hot 100 number-one hits of 1991 (USA)*
Lyrics for the album version
