Mariah Carey In The Charts - January 1996 Issue

Mariah Carey
In The Charts - January 1996 Issue

Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970 in New York to an interracial family of black Venezuelan engineer and Irish opera singer. Her family had been the subject of many hate crimes and her siblings were harassed many times because of the mixed composition of the family. Things took a turn for the worse, and when Mariah was three years old, her parents divorced. Since then, Mariah lived with her mother in Long Island, having to move around frequently and living under difficult circumstances.

Mariah's musical talents were noticed at a very early time in her life. At age 2 1/2 she would surprise her mother by singing along her parts for her operas. By age 4, she started to receive voice lessongs from her mother, and she kept on singing all along throughout her young days. Mariah credits her mother for being very supportive of her dreams to become a musician.

By her high school years, she was determined to be a singer. Every night, she would go out to Manhattan to meet some musicians and hang out with them all night, catching up sleep the next morning and missing her classes. Because she was absent from her classes very often, she earned the nickname of Mirage. The teachers of her high school say that she was indifferent to the academics and the only thing that seemed to occupy her mind was becoming a singer. Once comedienne Whoopi Goldberg, hosting the annual Presidential Gala at Ford's Theatre (site of President Lincoln's assassination), jokingly referred to Mariah as "Pariah Carey," and that remark seems to describe humorously the kind of situation that Mariah was in during her high school years, with virtually no involvement with school and concetrating on her musical efforts. At this time she also started to write her own songs and make demo tapes, inching her way toward her dreams.

When she finished high school at age 17, she moved into a Manhattan apartment with two friends, and the hardships of this time period is described in an exaggerated form in "Make It Happen."

She worked many odd jobs, and the story of her quitting her beauty salon job after her boss gave her an arbitrary name of "Echo" is famous. Soon she found that singer and friend Brenda K. Starr needed a backup singer, and she decided to take that job instead, starting her professional music career.

In November 1988, Brenda took Mariah to a party, where Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola happened to be at. Mariah slipped a demo tape into the hands of Tommy, who took it without much interest. Tommy was listening to the demo tape in his limo and was extremely impressed with Mariah's singing. This was exactly what he wanted when his first priority as the new Sony executive was to find a viable competition to Arista's Whitney Houston. Tommy returned to the party to find Mariah, but she was gone, so he left a message on her phone. Soon the deal was signed, and Mariah's music career was taking off.

By June 1990, Mariah's self-titled debut album, ci-produced with Ben Margulies, was out, along with her first single, "Vision of Love." Vision of Love, a song describing her own achievement of the dream of becoming a singer. Her incredible voice and range caught people off-guard, sales were tremendous, and Mariah became a major star overnight. Love Takes Time, recorded and added to the album at the very last minute, followed Vision of Love to the top of the Billboard charts. "Someday," written from a point of a little girl being rejected by her favorite boy, and "I Don't Wanna Cry," also topped the charts, and within a year of the debut album's release, Mariah established herself as a major force in the pop music industry.

Mariah quickly followed upon the success of her debut album by releasing "Emotions" in August 1991. "Emotions" the title track topped the charts again to let Mariah score Billboard #1's with her first five singles, a eat unmatched by anyone else. But by this time, critics and many fans were being tired of Mariah's excessive use of high notes in this album, and sales dropped off, with the subsequent two singles failing to capture the #1 spot on the Billboard charts. Critics also started to flame her as the "female Michael Bolton," drawing parallels to Michael Bolton's almost complete reliance on high notes and falsettos.

But Mariah's subsequent albums once again proved Mariah's talents and won even more fans and respect. "MTV Unplugged EP" was recorded off her March 1992 MTV Unplugged session, and it proved some false rumors, such as Mariah's high notes being a product of studio manipulation, completely wrong. Mariah secured attention of many people who had not taken her initial success seriously, and she also was gathering serious international recognition.

"Music Box" released in 1993, sold over 24 million copies of "Music Box." "Merry Christmas" followed in November 1994 to celebrate that year's huge success for Mariah and keep the fans happy for Christmas.

Mariah's newest effort, "Daydream," represents her maturing as an artist, with more thoughtful lyrics and a stronger emphasis on her R&B roots throughout the album. This strong R&B feel ended up winning over even the most skeptical critics.




Thanks to Kerry from Mariah Carey Collection for the scans.