The song was well received by contemporary music critics, many of whom praised Carey's large spanning vocal range, as well as its gospel influence that they felt was missing on most of "Music Box". Aside from its critical acceptance, the song achieved strong worldwide chart positions and peaked at number twelve on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, but became her first charting single to miss out the top-ten. Additionally, it peaked at number five in Canada and topped the singles charts in Finland. The song attained a top-twenty peak position in Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.