words which implied deep and personal thoughts, rather than the regular dance-floor anthemic tunes she had composed. "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", the first song on the album, was written and produced by Madonna and Orbit, with additional writers including Rod McKuen, Anita Kerr and David Collins. The singer's manager Guy Oseary had telephoned and asked Orbit for collaborating on the album. Orbit sent a 13-track digital audio tape (DAT) to Madonna, which included a demo version of the track. According to Madonna, she had been a fan of Orbit's work for a long time and was pleased with the demo. The song includes a sample from the song "Why I Follow the Tigers" by the San Sebastian Strings, a group created by both Kerr and McKuen. The vocal sample was of a man uttering the words "you see", later confirmed by him to be actor Jesse Pearson. Both McKuen and Kerr received co-writing credits on "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" due to the inclusion of the sample, and also because thematically the track follows a plotline that transpired in "Why I Follow the Tigers". Madonna was a great admirer of Collins's interior designing and had commissioned for designing a friend's night club located in Miami. He later ended up as one of the writers on the song. The most important track on the album according to the singer, "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" was released as the third single from Ray of Light on August 24, 1998, worldwide, except in the United States. In the latter market, the album's second single "Ray of Light" had been released with a one-month delay, so Madonna's record label decided to release "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" outside of North America, thereby closing the one-month gap between the next single "The Power of Good-Bye" (1998). The song received remix treatment from musicians like Brian "BT" Transeau and Sasha, and according to Billboard was one of the most expected tracks to be remixed. Recording and composition "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" was recorded, with the rest of the album, at Larrabee North Studio in North Hollywood, California. It was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Studios in New York. An ambient pop track, it takes the title from author J. G. Ballard's post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, The Drowned World (1962). The final version progressed significantly from the DAT demo, which Orbit described as "serendipity". However they kept the initial