"the roof" was chosen as the third single from "butterfly", receiving an airplay-only release. because of conflict between carey and her record label at the time, sony music entertainment, it was only given a commercial release in europe, while "breakdown" was released throughout oceania. in the uk, the song peaked at number 96 during the week of april 4, 1998. "the roof" stayed in the uk singles chart for one week before falling outside the top 100. in the netherlands, it performed weakly as well, peaking at number 63 while spending five weeks fluctuating in the single top 100.