Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas turns twenty! There is no singer quite as divisive as Mariah Carey, but one thing almost everybody agrees on is that ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is a modern christmas classic. As Merry Christmas turns 20, we take a look at why it was so successful. Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas has sold a staggering 15 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Christmas album of all time. Released at a time when Carey practically owned the Billboard charts, it was a move that shocked critics, but ultimately won them over with the album’s blend of pop, R&B and Christian gospel. In a shrewd move by Columbia – Carey’s then record label – three original songs, co-written by Carey & Walter Afanasieff were sent to radio to promote the release of the album. ‘Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) was sent to R&B stations, Jesus Born On This Day was sent to Christian stations, and ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ was sent to pop stations. With all bases covered, all that was left to do was to let the album work its Christmas magic. It’s undeniable that the lasting success of Merry Christmas owes much to ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ which has become as much a christmas standard as any other released before it. The track owes much to the ‘Wall of Sound’ style developed by Phil Spector and used on his 1963 album A Christmas Gift For You, and includes bell chimes, Beach Boys style harmonies and gospel backing vocals. Most people know the track’s accompanying video in which Carey frolics in the snow with Santa Claus, but she even went as far as to film a second video which embraced a 60’s theme, in black & white as an homage to The Ronettes, who appeared on Spector’s album. Carey, a lover of gospel music sounds incredible on the album, and it’s on the tracks that embrace that sound, complete with organs and full gospel choir, that the album really transcends its genre. Other highlights include a cover of Darlene Love’s ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ and an A Cappella version of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’, both of which showcase Carey’s diversity as a singer and producer. Afanasieff, Carey’s co-writer on Merry Christmas – and each of her studio albums preceding it – told Billboard that nobody expected the album to be as successful as it was. He said: “20 years ago, Christmas music and Christmas albums by artists weren’t the big deal that they are today. Back then, you didn’t have a lot of artists with Christmas albums; It wasn’t a known science at all back then, and there was nobody who did new, big Christmas songs. So we were going to release it as kind of an everyday, ‘hey, you know, we’re putting out a Christmas album. No big deal.’ To think of it as a single that’s going to No. 1, that’s going to drive an album…we didn’t have an inkling of that. That’s not what the time was. That’s what made it such a modern phenomenon.” The song’s inclusion on the hugely popular Christmas movie Love Actually has also helped cement the classic status ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ for a new generation. Afanasieff said of the film’s inclusion of the song: “Mariah Carey very, very rarely allows someone to record any of her songs in any film or television or any other medium. But Mariah did allow that little girl to sing it in Love Actually and that’s the only time she’s allowed it. Love Actually in the last 10 years has become one of the biggest Christmas movies. That in itself, in 10 or 20 years, will become even more of a Christmas classic, and that helps our song become embedded even more as a classic into our culture.” There’s no doubt that Merry Christmas is a modern day classic, and ‘All I Want For Christmas’ has managed what very few Christmas songs ever achieve, to enter a rather exclusive list of holiday standards. As the album turns twenty, we urge you to give it a listen and enjoy the stunning range of musical style and talent it offers. There may never be another album quite like it. Source: sotouk
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 11:30:00 +0000
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