THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

822-Mariah Carey-All I Want for Christmas Is You.

1994-Number 2 single. It also reached Number 2 again in 2017, and 2018, and 2019, before finally becoming a UK Number 1 in 2020, and then again in 2022.

Best Bit-At 0.50. The last truly great Christmas song, (at the time of writing) and well worth it’s place amongst the acknowledged festive classics.

Mariah Carey was born on March 27th, 1969, in Huntington, New York, United States, with record sales in excess of 200 million she is one of the best selling artists of all time. Mariah’s name is derived from the song ‘They Call the Wind Maria,’ which is from the 1951 Broadway musical ‘Paint Your Wagon’ (see also best songs 990.) Her surname was adopted by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Núñez, after he emigrated to New York. Mariah’s mother Patricia, who was an Opera singer, and vocal coach, was disowned by her family after marrying a black man, Mariah is the youngest of three children. Due to her extensive vocal range, Mariah is often referred to as the ‘Songbird Supreme,’ and also mainly due to the unprecedented success of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You,’ she is also fondly called the ‘Queen of Christmas.’

The discography of Mariah Carey includes 15 studio Albums released between 1990-2018, and 87 singles issued between 1990-2022, she has also appeared on a further eight singles as a featured artist. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, 34 of her singles have reached the top 40, (plus a further one as a featured artist) with 19 of those tracks reaching the Number 1 spot. Mariah Carey is the only artist in Billboard chart history to reach Number 1 with each of her first five singles. In the UK, she has charted within the top 40 on 40 occasions, with three of those singles reaching Number 1.

‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was the first of three singles released from ‘Merry Christmas,’ which was the fourth studio Album by Mariah Carey, from October 1994, with worldwide sales in excess of 15 million, it it one of the best selling ‘Holiday’ Albums of all time. ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was co-written, and co-produced by Mariah Carey, and Walter Afanasieff, (see also best songs 220) who would continue to work alongside Mariah Carey through until the 1997 ‘Butterfly’ Album. Since the introduction of digital downloading in 2004,’All I Want for Christmas Is You,’ now re-enters the music charts without fail every Christmas, and at the time of writing it has surpassed $80 million in royalties. In America on Billboard, if finally reached Number 1 in December 2019, which was 25 years after it was first released, it has since topped that chart on a further two occasions, making it the only song to have been a Billboard Number 1 on three different occasions. In the UK, when it first went to Number 1 in 2020, it was spending it’s 70th week within that countries top 40.

Initially Mariah Carey didn’t want to record a Christmas Album, stating that it is normally done when an artist is coming to the end of their career. She was also worried that it might damage her ‘Hip-Hop’ credibility. When she saw the now-famous Album cover, with her dressed in a Santa suit, she said,’ What are you trying to do, turn me in to Connie Francis.’ When Mariah Carey, and Walter Afanasieff set out to write ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ in the summer of 1994, the idea was to write an uptempo Christmas track in the style of Phil Spector’s (1939-2021) (see also best songs 820-782-737-262-192-127-91 and 20) girl group productions, such as ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home,’) by Darlene Love (see also best songs 820.)

Speaking about Mariah Carey’s contribution to the songwriting process, Walter Afanasieff has said,’She created a lyric that probably, to this day, is the only uptempo Christmas love song. I think people like this positive love song because it’s interchangeable. Anybody can sing it to anybody. It’s about everybody, and it can only mean one thing from father to child, or mother to child, or wife to husband. It’s just, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’

Mariah Carey has said that as a child she was in love with Christmas, but it was always spoilt by ‘Volatile family members who couldn’t keep the peace for even one day.’It was from my little girl’s spirit and those early fantasies of family, and friendship, that I wrote ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You. Think of how it begins: ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding … the delicate chimes are reminiscent of those little wooden toy pianos, like the one Schroeder had on Peanuts. I actually did bang out most of the song on a cheap little Casio keyboard, but it’s the feeling I wanted the song to capture. There’s a sweetness, a clarity, and a purity to it. It didn’t stem from Christian inspiration, although I’ve certainly sung and written from that soulful and spiritual perspective. Instead, this song came from a childlike space; when I wrote it, at 22 years old, I wasn’t that far away from being a child.’

‘I won’t make a list and send it to the north pole for Saint Nick. I won’t even stay awake to hear those magic reindeer click.’