Beautiful Stranger

"Beautiful Stranger"
Song

"Beautiful Stranger" is a Grammy Award winning dance-pop song written and produced by American singer Madonna and William Orbit for the movie soundtrack Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). The song was released as a single in the middle of 1999. It was the last single Madonna released during the 1990s.

Song Information

"Beautiful Stranger" is an up-tempo love song featuring heavily reverbed guitars and bouncy drum loops, with lyrics telling a tale of infatuation. The song was specifically written for an inclusion on the "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" soundtrack. The song has a similar lyrical theme and instrumentation as the song "Amazing", which is included on Madonna's album Music (2000).

The bass and drums on the verses of "Beautiful Stranger" are directly sampled from the intro of The Mamas & the Papas song "In Crowd" (from their 1966 debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears.) Madonna's co-producer, William Orbit, first used this sample on his remixes of "Ray of Light" (1998), then on "Beautiful Stranger" (1999), and lastly on "Amazing" (2000).

Melodic elements of the song are strongly reminiscent of Arthur Lee and Love's 1966 song "She Comes in Colors". (Madonna claimed never to have heard the song; producer Orbit made no public comment.)

Madonna performed it as the fourth song in the setlist of the Drowned World Tour, between "Candy Perfume Girl" and "Ray of Light". The beginning of the performance features a short scene of Mike Myers as Austin Powers, while another song from the movie's soundtrack, "Soul Bossa Nova", was being played in the background. Near the end of the song, a "lost" technician appears on the stage playing the role of the 'beautiful stranger'.

"Beautiful Stranger" features on both of Madonna's later-day hits compilations, GHV2 and the deluxe edition of Celebration.

The song also can be heard in the opening credits of the TV film Sabrina Down Under.

Chart performance

In the United States, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 1, 1999 at #78 and peaked at #19 on July 13, 1999 (after reaching the Top 40 on June 15) on the strength of radio airplay only, a considerable achievement at the time for a song that did not receive a commercial release. By not releasing a single, fans in the US had to purchase the soundtrack, which has sold two million copies in the US alone. "Beautiful Stranger" was also a hit on the Billboard dance charts, reaching number one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play Chart and number three on the Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart.

In the United Kingdom, the song was a huge hit, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart, being kept from the number one spot by S Club 7's "Bring It All Back". The song spent sixteen weeks on the singles chart, with seven of those being within the top twenty. "Beautiful Stranger" also became one of the most played songs on UK radio ever. At one point the song received 2,462 broadcasts per week. Beautiful Stranger sold 513,992 copies in the UK.

Elsewhere the song was also a hit, reaching number one in Canada, South Africa, Finland and Italy. It also went top five in Australia and top twenty in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Japan. The single sold around 4.5 million copies worldwide.

Music video

File:B-stranger 078.jpg

Madonna and Austin Powers star Mike Myers in "Beautiful Stranger" video.

"Beautiful Stranger" featured a retro music video that was directed by Brett Ratner and shot on May 1, 1999 at Universal Studios in Universal City, California.

In the lighthearted video we see Austin Powers on the road as he gets the assignment to catch a spy. A spy that's "a master of disguise", who turns out to be Madonna. The music video, like the song, was extremely successful, winning an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video From A Film.

• Director: Brett Ratner
• Producer: Rebecca Morley
• Director of Photography: Thomas Kloss
• Editor: Mark Helfrich
• Production Company: Villains

Charts

Chart (1999)	Peak position
Australia ARIA Singles Chart	5
Austrian Singles Chart	14
Canadian Singles Chart	1
Dutch Top 40	6
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles	2
Finnish Singles Chart	1
French SNEP Singles Chart	17
German Singles Chart	13
Irish Singles Chart	3
Italian FIMI Singles Chart	1
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	5
South African Singles Chart	1
Spanish Singles Chart	4
Swedish Singles Chart	15
Swiss Singles Chart	6
UK Singles Chart	2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	19
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	23

Remixes

• Soundtrack Version (4:51)
• Lite Radio Mix (5:00)
• Instrumental (4:21)
• Acapella (3:41)
• Video Version (4:32)
• Video Instrumental (4:32)
• William Orbit Radio Edit (3:59)
• William Orbit Radio Edit Instrumental (3:40)
• Edit from William Orbit Promo CD (3:50) promotional release
• Victor Calderone Club Mix (10:13)
• Victor Calderone Dub Mix (6:20) promotional vinyl release
• Victor Calderone Radio Edit (4:03)
• Victor Calderone New Club Edit (5:11) promotional release

Cover versions

• Jon Auer, co-founder of the American power pop band The Posies, recorded a cover of the song on his 2001 solo EP 6 ½.
• A 2007 folk music tribute compilation to Madonna, entitled Through the Wilderness, features a cover of the song by Golden Animals.
• Alternative power pop band Cats & Jammer covered the song. A sample can be heard on their official MySpace page.
• Indie artist Ed Shepp recorded a cover of the song for his EP The Madonna Within.
• Pop star Ronnii Martin performed the song in his promotional tour The Ronnii Show '09.