Mariah Carey remains the undisputed queen. Christmas: ‘You Are All I Want For Christmas’ debuted this week on the Billboard Hot 100, the most successful singles chart in the United States. No wonder that. Since it was released as part of the ‘Merry Christmas’ LP in 1994, concise pop christmas song. Although at first not everyone believed that he would succeed. First of all, because she appeared right at the peak of the diva’s greatest popularity. Especially a year after seeing the light of their third studio album, “Music Box”, which sold 28 million copies thanks to “Hero” or “Without You”, a version of the ballad popularized by Welsh band Badfinger in 1970.
One of those who voiced his reluctance was Walter Afanasieff, co-writer and co-producer of the anthem, Carey’s regular collaborator from 1990 to 1998. In an interview with ‘Billboard’ to mark its twentieth anniversary in 2014, he said: “Because back then, There weren’t many artists with Christmas albums.. It was not a known science at all, and there was no one who did amazing new things like this. To think that it would go to number one, that a record would increase sales… we had no idea.” And he added: “For me it’s kind of cosmic event It happens every five billion years. Thousands of original Christmas carols have been written over the past two decades. But somehow, “You’re All I Want For Christmas” was that song. We feel lucky to be the last person to enter the canon of Christmas. Then the door slammed shut. It just closed.”
Tommy Mottola, the then CEO of Sony along with her husband, was the one who encouraged her to start ‘Merry Christmas’. After the success of ‘Music Box’ he refused to do so because he saw the strategy as: one step back in your career. Still, he accepted. Originally the album would only contain versions of famous Christmas carols. However, at the request of Mottola himself, Carey and Afanasieff got together in 1993 to compose a piece that mimicked Phil Spector’s characteristic soundscape.
Afanasieff detailed on Billboard: “I started playing some ‘rock’n’roll’ on the piano and doing ‘boogie-woogie’. left hand. This inspired Mariah to come up with the following tune: “I don’t want much for Christmas.” And then we started singing and playing along with this ‘rock ‘n’ roll ‘boogie’ and that quickly became the epitome of what would become ‘You’re All I Want for Christmas’. In the summer of 1994, after the two had completed the lyrics, they recorded the song in a New York studio decorated with Christmas lights.
Now the star shares a slightly different version on how it was created. He has declared many times to be the exclusive author of the lyrics. That is, Afanasieff composed alone while playing the piano, not with accompaniment. He last said he was at ‘Parade’ in December 2021: “I started typing on a DX7 or Casio keyboard I had in a small room in the house I live in, outside of New York. I wrote everything that came to my mind. Anything that reminds me of Christmas, that makes me feel festive, and that I want other people to feel too.”
As expected, Afanasieff was very hurt. “Every year at this time I have to defend myself because a lot of people don’t believe I’m a co-author. He’s the one who made the song a hit, that’s great. But it’s clear does not share credit with others. As a result, it greatly damaged my reputation and left a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth. “Even though it was a great event for me, my life online is in danger because Mariah’s fans are accusing me of stealing from her.”
Controversies aside, there is one thing that cannot be denied:’You’re All I Want for Christmas’ is still a goldmine. For the song alone, Carey earned an average of $2.6 million to $60 million a year between 1994 and 2016, according to estimates by The Economist. And every time it’s reproduced on a streaming platform, it gets a penny on the dollar. He won the lottery a long time ago.
Source: Informacion
Brandon Hall is an author at “Social Bites”. He is a cultural aficionado who writes about the latest news and developments in the world of art, literature, music, and more. With a passion for the arts and a deep understanding of cultural trends, Brandon provides engaging and thought-provoking articles that keep his readers informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings in the cultural world.