“Don't Tell Me” by Madonna

"Don't Tell Me" started life somewhere else entirely: Joe Henry, Madonna's brother-in-law, wrote it as a tango-flavored torch song called "Stop", and when the demo reached her she rebuilt it as a country-dance number for Music, her eighth album, from 2000. She co-wrote and co-produced it with Mirwais, who plays acoustic guitar and keyboards, and Mark “Spike” Stent mixed. The lyric asks a lover to stop trying to control her.

Out as the album's second single in November 2000, it topped the charts in Canada, Italy and New Zealand, became Europe's biggest radio hit of 2001 and reached 4 on the Hot 100, which drew her level with the Beatles for second place on the all-time list of Hot 100 top-ten hits. Jean-Baptiste Mondino's video put her in cowgirl gear on a treadmill before a projection screen, with cowboys dancing behind her.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.