Ken Foote Holiday Songs: Mariah Carey
What better way to kick off the 2018 holiday season than with what has become one of the most popular holiday songs and a staple of radio station Christmas music "format flips."
Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970 in Greenlawn, LI, NY… some sources have her birth year as 1969) has been one of the most prolific pop music singers for nearly three decades. From 1990 through mid-2008, she has charted 38 hits on the American Billboard charts, with 18 of them being #1 hits. She has sold more than 200 million records worldwide. She has won five Grammy Awards, 19 World Music Awards, 10 American Music Awards, and 14 Billboard Music Awards. In addition, she is an active philanthropist with various causes.
One of today's most popular contemporary Christmas songs is "All I Want For Christmas Is You." For "greatest hits" or AC radio stations that flip to all-Christmas music for the months of November/December, this song is definitely on the playlist. This song charts every holiday season since it was released in 1994. In 2017, it hit #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became her 28th Top 10 Hit in the Hot 100. Later, she released a children's book based on the song and an animated family film based on the book in 2017.
The song was recorded in August 1994 and released on November 1st of that same year. Written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasief and running 4:01 on the Columbia label, the lyrics go like this:
"I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
And I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas treeI don't need to hang my stocking
There upon the fireplace
Santa Claus won't make me happy
With a toy on Christmas DayI just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas
Is you
You, baby"
Let's get the Holiday season started!