"The Power of Good-Bye" (released as double A-side single with "Little Star" in the UK) is a pop ballad written by American singer Madonna and Rick Nowels for Madonna's seventh album Ray of Light (1998). It was produced by Madonna, William Orbit and Patrick Leonard, and received a positive reception from music critics. The song was released as a single in the fall of 1998 (see 1998 in music), and although it failed to match the chart success of its predecessor "Ray of Light", which reached the top five in several countries, it reached number one in Mexico, number four in Germany, the top ten in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the top twenty in the United States, where it became Madonna's thirty-seventh top-twenty single.