Mariah Carey (album)

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Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey cover
Studio album by Mariah Carey
Released June 12, 1990 (U.S.)
July 17, 1990 (U.K.)
Recorded January 1990
Genre Pop, R&B
Length 46:27
Label Columbia
CK-45202
Producer Mariah Carey, Rhett Lawrence, Ric Wake, Narada Michael Walden, Ben Margulies, Walter Afanasieff, Tommy Mottola (executive)
Professional reviews
Mariah Carey chronology
Mariah Carey
(1990)		 Emotions
(1991)
Singles from Mariah Carey
  1. "Vision of Love"
    Released: May 15, 1990
  2. "Love Takes Time"
    Released: September 09, 1990
  3. "Someday"
    Released: December 21, 1990
  4. "I Don't Wanna Cry"
    Released: April 25, 1991

Mariah Carey is the debut album by American singer Mariah Carey, released in the United States on June 12, 1990 (see 1990 in music) by Columbia Records. Although sales were initially slow, it made Carey a star in her home country and yielded four number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with the album itself spending eleven weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. The RIAA certified Mariah Carey Gold on August 7, 1990 & 9x platinum on December 15, 1999, denoting 9 million shipments in the United States. It is Carey's third best-selling album in the U.S. after Daydream (1995) and Music Box (1993). It is also noted that promotion and production of this album made Carey's debuts one of the most successful and extensive Columbia undertook. Worldwide, the album has sold an estimated 18 million copies.

Contents

[edit] Writing and recording

Tommy Mottola and other Sony/Columbia executives believed that Carey had high potential to be the next big superstar, so her debut album was carefully co-ordinated by a panel of executives, and as a result it was deemed unwise for Carey and Margulies to produce. Mottola and the committee wanted a debut album with a more contemporary sound (much like Whitney Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston, which many critics called Carey out for making her album too similar to) that would cross over and appeal to both the R&B and mainstream music markets.

The committee enlisted some of the top producers of the time to produce the songs that Margulies and Carey had written, and to produce and co-write new material with Carey herself. The producers included Rhett Lawrence, Ric Wake, and Narada Michael Walden, and only six of the nearly twenty songs that Carey and Margulies had written made the album initially.

To boost sales in Australia Sony Music released a limited double disc edition of the album with live versions of tracks, exclusive interviews, and "questions and answers" session.

[edit] Reception

In order to raise her profile before the release of Mariah Carey, Carey performed three songs, in front of an invitation-only audience at an intimate soirée. She made her television debut on The Arsenio Hall Show, and Columbia Records arranged for her to perform "America the Beautiful" at the NBA National basketball finals. Carey was also asked to go on tour, but she refused as she suffered from severe stage fright at the time.

Mariah Carey entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at number eighty and entered the top twenty in its fourth week. It reached number one in its forty-third week, and stayed there for eleven consecutive weeks — to date, the longest stay at number one in Carey's career. It remained in the top twenty for sixty-five weeks and on the Billboard 200 for 113 weeks, and it was certified nine times platinum by the RIAA on December 15, 1999. It is one of the best-selling debut albums in the country, and by March 2006 it had sold over nine million copies in the U.S.[1] It was also the best-selling album of 1991 in the United States, according to Billboard.

Mariah Carey was moderately successful for a debut album outside the U.S. It experienced most success in Canada, where it topped the charts for a week and went seven times platinum. The album peaked within the top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia; in the former country it spent thirty-six weeks in the top seventy-five, and in the latter it went five times platinum. Its success in Brazil and across continental Europe was limited. As of November 2005, the album had sold approximately 18 million copies worldwide. [2]

The singles released from Mariah Carey were unsuccessful in most music markets but became very popular in the U.S., making Carey a star there. "Vision of Love" became the first of many Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits for Carey, and topped the charts in Canada, Brazil, and New Zealand. "Love Takes Time" reached number one in both the U.S. and Canada, but was only a moderate success in other markets and in some, such as the UK, it failed. "Someday" became another number one for Carey in the U.S. but only reached the top five in Canada, and elsewhere it had little impact. "I Don't Wanna Cry" tied Carey with The Jackson 5 as the act to have their first four singles hit number-one in the U.S., but it had minimal success in other markets except Canada, where it peaked within the top ten. "There's Got to Be a Way" was released in some European countries such as the UK, where it missed the top forty. A fifth single, "Prisoner", was scheduled for release in the U.S. after "I Don't Wanna Cry", but because of the impending release of Carey's second album Emotions, it was used only as a promotional single.

Mariah Carey was nominated for the 1991 Grammy Award for "Album of the Year," while "Vision of Love" received nominations in the categories of "Song of the Year", "Record of the Year" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". Carey won for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" and also received the award for "Best New Artist". The "Album of the Year" award was given to Back on the Block by Quincy Jones, Julie Gold won "Song of the Year" for "From a Distance" by Bette Midler, and Phil Collins won "Record of the Year" with "Another Day in Paradise".

[edit] Track listing

 Audio samples:
  1. "Vision of Love" (Carey, Ben Margulies) – 3:30
  2. "There's Got to Be a Way" (Carey, Ric Wake) – 4:53
  3. "I Don't Wanna Cry" (Carey, Narada Michael Walden) – 4:48
  4. "Someday" (Carey, Margulies) – 4:08
  5. "Vanishing" (Carey, Margulies) – 4:12
  6. "All in Your Mind" (Carey, Margulies) – 4:45
  7. "Alone in Love" (Carey, Margulies) – 4:12
  8. "You Need Me" (Carey, Lawrence) – 3:51
  9. "Sent from up Above" (Carey, Lawrence) – 4:04
  10. "Prisoner" (Carey, Margulies) – 4:24
  11. "Love Takes Time" (Carey, Margulies) – 3:49

[edit] Chart performance

Chart Peak
position		 Certification
Australia 6
Canada 1 7x Platinum
New Zealand 4
Germany 24
Hungary 35
Italy 24
Japan 13
Netherlands 5
Sweden 8
United Kingdom 6 Platinum
United States 1 9x Platinum

As of March 2007, the album has sold 22 million units worldwide.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2006)
  1. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha. "On Top: Mariah Carey’s record-breaking career". The New Yorker. April 3, 2006.
  2. ^ Album Mariah Carey
Preceded by
To the Extreme by Vanilla Ice		 Billboard 200 number-one album
March 2 - May 17, 1991		 Succeeded by
Out of Time by R.E.M.
v • d • e
Mariah Carey
Studio albums
Compilations
Live
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