"The World Is Stone" is a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 singer, Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

. This is the English version of the French song "Le Monde est stone" (1978), which was part of the Starmania musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 and has been most notably associated with Fabienne Thibeault

Fabienne Thibeault

Fabienne Thibeault is a Canadian singer. She is particularly known for her role in Starmania. Thibeault has released numerous albums over her career. She has been the recipient of two Félix Awards.-History:...

, Marie Carmen

Marie Carmen

Marie Carmen is the stage name of Marie-Carmen Aubut , a Canadian pop singer and musical theatre actor....

 and Céline Dion

Celine Dion

Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

.

The song was composed by Michel Berger

Michel Berger

Michel Berger , born Michel Jean Hamburger, was a very successful French singer and songwriter. He was a central figure of France's pop music scene for two decades both as a singer and as a songwriter for well-known French artists like his wife France Gall, Françoise Hardy and Johnny Hallyday...

. The original French lyrics were written by Luc Plamondon

Luc Plamondon

Luc Plamondon, OC, CQ is a French-Canadian lyricist.-Career:Plamondon has written for many artists, notably the Québécois singers Bruno Pelletier, Diane Dufresne, Robert Charlebois, Céline Dion, Ginette Reno, Fabienne Thibeault, Martine St. Clair, and Garou, as well as the French singers Julien...

, and the song was adapted to English by Tim Rice

Tim Rice

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...

. It is a ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 from the Tycoon soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

. On the single the B-side was a song entitled, "You Have to Learn to Live Alone", which was also featured on this soundtrack.

Although this single was not released in U.S., it was a hit in several countries (number 15 in UK) but especially in France where it climbed to number two, stayed for three months in the top five and totaled 31 weeks in the top 50.

Track listing

CD single

1. "The World Is Stone" — 4:30
2. "You Have to Learn to Live Alone" — 5:10

CD maxi

1. "The World Is Stone" — 4:30
2. "You Have to Learn to Live Alone" — 5:10
3. "Time After Time" — 4:01

Personnel

• Writing – Michel Berger, Luc Plamondon, Tim Rice
• Producing – Cyndi Lauper
• Arrangement – Cyndi Lauper, Peter Wood
• Mixing – Frank Filipetti
• Recording – Guy Gray

Source

Chart performance

Chart (1992)	Peak position
Colombian Singles Chart Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...	12
French SNEP Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry...  Singles Chart	2
German Singles Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	100
Irish IRMA Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:...  Singles Chart	16
Japan Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...  Hot 100	8
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	15

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified	Physical sales
France	Gold	1992	250,000	229,000