Madonna has done it before, and she did it once again with the Ray of Light project: releasing a song internationally but not in the United States. While the Ray of Light single was drifting down the charts in late summer 1998, the rest of the world was treated to the single release of Drowned World/Substitute for Love. The two-part single included a BT/Sasha remix of Drowned World, as well as remixes of Sky Fits Heaven by Victor Calderone and Sasha. These import remixes found their way into enough clubs to get signficant club play. Sky Fits Heaven charted for six weeks in the top 50, peaking at 41, while Drowned World managed to make an even smaller mark. That song was on the Dance-Club Play breakout chart for one week at #5 (it is like a bubbling under for club play).

Where it was released, Drowned World/Substitute for Love was not a very big hit, although it did reach #1 in Spain. It debuted and peaked at #10 on the UK chart, continuing Madonna's string of top ten hits (a string which has been interrupted only by One More Chance, Take A Bow, and Oh Father during her entire career).

In addition to remixes, a video for Drowned World/Substitute For Love was also promoted outside of the US (a small clip can be seen on Madonna's Behind the Music special on VH1), which showed Madonna being hounded by papparazzi. The video is now available stateside on Madonna's 93:99 video collection.

TRIVIA: Madonna was criticized for depicting events some consider too similar to the circumstances surrounding Princess Diana's death a year earlier, due to Madonna being chased by the papparazzi in the video. Also, the little girl at the end of the video is not Madonna's daughter Lourdes, but is simply a child actress. Meanwhile, Sky Fits Heaven got some attention because the first two lines of the song are actually lifted from a GAP clothing TV ad! The lines are "Sky fits heaven so fly it/child fits mother so hold your baby tight."