number one on the Billboard 200 following Carey's Best New Artist win at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards. Columbia released "I Don't Wanna Cry" as the fourth and final single from Mariah Carey in the United States. It distributed cassettes and 7-inch vinyls to retail in March1991 with the album track "You Need Me" as a B-side. The song has a similar relationship separation theme, this time incorporating funk and rock music. A promotional CD includes a radio edit version. In Japan, Sony Music released "I Don't Wanna Cry" as a mini CD on May 2,1991. It is featured on Carey's compilation albums #1's (1998), Greatest Hits (2001), and #1 to Infinity (2015). Critical reception Critics judged "I Don't Wanna Cry" to be one of the best songs from Mariah Carey. Aside from Carey's work, it received comparisons to other artists' ballads about relationships such as George Michael's "Careless Whisper" and Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Critics thought that Carey's vocal performance elevates the song's orthodoxy. They felt that her vocals and the composition compliment each other and resonate emotion. Commercial performance In the United States, "I Don't Wanna Cry" debuted at number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart dated April 6,1991, as Carey's "Someday" departed the top 10. It rose from number eight to number one in the May 25,1991, issue and replaced "I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)" by Hi-Five. The song's jump to number one was the biggest since Meco's "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" did the same in 1977, a feat British publication Music Week deemed "unprecedented". "I Don't Wanna Cry" became Carey's fourth consecutive number one on the Hot 100. This made her the second act after the Jackson 5 in 1970 to have their first four singles reach number one and the second female artist after Paula Abdul to have four number one songs from a debut album. "I Don't Wanna Cry" spent two weeks at number one and nineteen total on the chart. , it is Carey's 11th-best performing song on the Hot 100 and Walden's final number one as a producer. "I Don't Wanna Cry" experienced success across multiple radio formats in the United States. The song topped at least one of the adult contemporary, urban contemporary, and contemporary hit radio charts published by either Billboard, Gavin Report, or Radio & Records magazines. It received citations from performance rights organizations ASCAP