Mariah Carey‘s iconic festive hit, All I Need For Christmas Is You, has received tens of millions of followers internationally with its feel-good lyrics and music video.
The 1994 observe shoots to the highest of the charts each Christmas – with Carey proudly dubbing herself ‘the Queen of Christmas’ and making an estimated $3million off the observe yearly.
Nevertheless, the fraught backstory to the observe means it has misplaced a contact of its festive sparkle – as Carey was slammed in December 2022 by the music’s co-writer Walter Afanasieff for allegedly ‘spinning a tall story’ about composing the observe as a toddler on a keyboard.
In 2018, Afanasieff additionally revealed the pair had fallen out in 1998 and subsequently hadn’t spoken for twenty years.
The pair first teamed up again in mid-1994 to compose tracks for a Christmas album – which might go on to turn into Carey’s compilation Merry Christmas – with Afanasieff telling the NYP in 2014: ‘Again then, you did not have loads of artists with Christmas albums.
Mariah Carey ‘s iconic festive hit, All I Need For Christmas Is You, has received tens of millions of followers internationally with its feel-good lyrics and music video
Nevertheless, the fraught backstory to the observe means it has misplaced a contact of its festive sparkle – as Carey was slammed in December 2022 by the music’s co-writer Walter Afanasieff (pictured) for allegedly ‘spinning a tall story’ about composing the observe as a toddler on a keyboard
The 1994 observe shoots to the highest of the charts each Christmas – with Carey proudly dubbing herself ‘the Queen of Christmas’ and making an estimated $3million off the observe yearly (pictured 1994)
‘It wasn’t a identified science in any respect again then, and there was no one who did new, massive Christmas songs.
‘So we had been going to launch it as type of an on a regular basis, ‘Hey, you realize, we’re placing out a Christmas album. No massive deal.’
Carey and Afanasieff recorded All I Need for Christmas Is You in August 1994 – with Carey adorning her dwelling with Christmas ornaments to get into the spirit of the festive season.
Each Afanasieff and Carey are equally credited for All I Need For Christmas Is You with no different writers or producers.
Final 12 months Afanasieff slammed Carey for claiming that she wrote the music as as a toddler on her Casio keyboard
Chatting with the Scorching Takes & Deep Dives podcast, Afanasieff claims that he and Carey created the music collectively shortly after collaborating on her blockbuster 1993 album Music Field.
‘We had been each on the identical web page about how we wrote All I Need For Christmas Is You, there was by no means any alternate story till in all probability 10 years in the past,’ he mentioned.
‘When she began to trace at the truth that, “Oh, I wrote that music after I was just a little lady!” However why weren’t you saying that for 12 or 13 or 15 years previous to that? So it simply form of developed in her thoughts,’ he continued.
In 2018, Afanasieff additionally revealed the pair had fallen out in 1998 and subsequently hadn’t spoken for twenty years. Mariah is pictured in 2010
‘She would not play something, she would not play keyboard or piano. She would not perceive music, she would not know chord adjustments and music concept or something like that. She would not know a diminished chord from a minor seventh chord to a serious seventh chord.
‘So to say that she wrote a really sophisticated chord-structured music along with her finger on a Casio keyboard when she was just a little lady, it is type of a tall story.’
When requested to clarify how the observe actually happened, Afanasieff mentioned that he and the diva got here up with it collectively whereas engaged on three unique songs for her then-upcoming Christmas album, Merry Christmas.
The pair had already beforehand labored on a lot of her studio albums collectively, together with Feelings and Music Field.
‘We had been holed up on this stunning dwelling that they had been renting, and it was {the summertime} and there was a piano,’ he mentioned.
‘So the writing of All I Need For Christmas is, I began taking part in a boogie-woogie, type of a rock,’ he continued, earlier than mimicking the sound of the music’s bassline.
Afanasieff mentioned that he was sitting on the piano taking part in, when Mariah chimed in and began singing ‘I do not need loads for Christmas.’
‘So on and on, and it was like a recreation of pingpong. I might hit the ball to her, she hits it again to me.’
Afanasieff mentioned that the diva was largely liable for the melodies and lyrics, whereas he did the music and the chords.
All I Need For Christmas Is You was launched in 1994 as a part of Mariah’s Merry Christmas album and went on to turn into one of the vital profitable vacation songs of all time
‘I’ve studied music, I’ve levels in music. I am an completed orchestrator and arranger. I educate music. I am not a schlump. I do not play by ear,’ he added.
He received the 1999 Grammy Award within the Document of the Yr class for producing ‘My Coronary heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion.
Mariah advised Billboard journal in 2017 that she got here up with All I Need For Christmas when she was ‘a child’, telling the publication: ‘I’m pleased with this music that I wrote mainly as a child on my little Casio keyboard.’
Two years later, she advised a extra detailed model of the story to Cosmopolitan journal, however didn’t say that she was a toddler when she wrote it.
‘I simply sat down, adorned just a little tree and placed on It’s A Great Life and tried to get into that temper,’ she mused.
‘Then I sat on this small room with a keyboard and began doing little melodies and stuff. I used to be going over all of the issues I take into consideration at Christmas time that make me comfortable and flip it round and make it right into a love music.’
She repeated this story within the Amazon Music documentary ‘Mariah Carey is Christmas: The Story of ‘All I Need for Christmas Is You’ in 2019.
‘I used to be residing on this home, upstate in New York. Really, I placed on It is a Great Life downstairs. You could possibly hear it all through the home,’ she shared.
‘And I went into this small room and there was just a little keyboard in there. And I began taking part in. And I am a horrible piano participant, proper? Typically it’s going to be like a contented accident.’
She then talked about Walter, though her model of occasions differs to his, as she mentioned that she then ‘acquired within the studio’ with him, implying that she had began the music on her personal with out him, whereas he claims that they got here up with it collectively on the home whereas engaged on her Christmas album collectively.
The hitmaker is pictured within the music video for All I Need For Christmas Is You
Afanasieff has publicly pushed again in opposition to Carey’s model of occasions a number of occasions over time, and because of this he claims that the diva’s followers have trolled him on social media
‘After I acquired into the studio with Walter A, we got here up with loads of totally different concepts to make it really feel like a traditional,’ she mentioned.
Afanasieff has publicly pushed again in opposition to Carey’s model a number of occasions over time, and because of this he claims that the diva’s followers have trolled him and his spouse on social media.
‘Mariah has been very great, constructive and a power of nature. She’s the one which made the music successful and he or she’s superior,’ he advised Selection in 2019.
‘However she positively doesn’t share credit score the place credit score is due. In consequence, it has actually damage my popularity, and because of this, has left me with a bittersweet style in my mouth.’ he continued.
‘As a result of right here it’s, such a beautiful, enormous occasion for me, but my life is being threatened on the Web, as a result of Mariah followers are accusing me of stealing from her.’
In 2018 he revealed the pair had fallen out and ‘hadn’t spoken in 20 years’, saying: ‘The explanation we stopped working collectively was primarily as a result of she and her husband, who was the chairman of Sony Music, acquired a divorce. And I used to be underneath an unique contract with him. So, she left the constructing, she wasn’t even on the label anymore, however I couldn’t go and work along with her as a result of he would not let me. So she discovered that to be just a little little bit of a slap within the face
‘Singers like Mariah, Celine, Whitney [Houston], Barbra [Streisand], they’re all very insecure creatures.”
“For those who begin engaged on a music with one other singer, the jealousy comes out. They’re very, very jealous individuals. So, I used to be working to place meals on my desk. I can not solely work with Mariah, I’ve to work with different individuals, and I feel that was a little bit of an issue ‘trigger I used to be working, at the moment, with Celine [Dion], and there was a woman named Lara Fabian, too. So, I don’t know, we simply parted methods.
‘She would not prefer to acknowledge different individuals. It appears to be an issue with singers. For those who see a singer speaking about one thing that they wrote, they are going to in all probability say I wrote the music after I was 12 years previous, or, here is one other music I wrote.
‘It would not matter what number of interviews she’s achieved or when she’s on stage, she’ll by no means ever say “here is the music that I wrote with Walter”. She’s made it her modus operandi [to neglect to mention his name when discussing the song]. We wrote the music collectively, my identify is 50%, her identify is 50%, we’ve equal shares.’
The 1994 music spent 9 weeks on the primary spot on the Scorching 100, and have become the primary music to have led at primary at 4 totally different occasions.
The catchy tune initially topped the Scorching 100 in 2019, then once more in 2020, earlier than making one other return in 2021, and it was again but once more in 2022.
The festive music additionally has the longest span from a music’s first week at primary on the Scorching 100 to 3 years, from December 2019 to December 2022.
Persevering with to interrupt data, the brand new prime spot additionally prolonged Mariah‘s document for the longest span of an artist rating at primary on the chart – over 32 years – from her first week in 1990 along with her debut single Imaginative and prescient of Love.
The hit – which discusses Mariah’s longing to be with a liked one for the vacation – additionally broke the vacation music document as nicely.
Talking concerning the beloved observe in 2020, Mariah admitted it was ‘type of an accident’.
She advised the LA Occasions: ‘After I did that first Christmas album, “Merry Christmas,” it was fairly early in my profession.’
‘However on this case, I used to be simply sitting there, arising with this melody, in a darkish home with a Christmas tree.’
