11/20/2006: "Setting The Holiday Standard"

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Mariah Carey always loved the Christmas season while growing up. As she told Billboard magazine in 1994, "I'm a very festive person and I love the holidays. I've sung Christmas songs since I was a little girl. I used to go Christmas caroling." If holiday albums from major stars weren't exactly rare in 1994, they weren't exactly the norm either. Still, few could have realized the success and influence Mariah would have with her 1994 release Merry Christmas. As Barry Schwarts wrote for Stylus magazine, Merry Christmas "transcends" the obligatory nature of the holiday album genre.

Going into the recording of her holiday collection, Mariah knew she wanted to do a few things. Mariah typically writes the songs she sings, but she recognized that writing original holiday songs is a risky proposition. As she told Billboard, "It was definitely a priority for me to write at least a few new songs, but for the most part, people really want to hear the standards at Christmas." Mariah also knew she wanted a more gospel feel for the project, so she brought in Loris Holland to co-produce a few tracks and to play the Hammond B-3 organ. Mariah's grandmother had taken her to church as a child, and Merry Christmas allowed her to combine her love for the holidays with her gospel roots. As J.D. Considine wrote in The Baltimore Sun, Merry Christmas is "the work of someone who genuinely loves this music."

Mariah has said she was more free with her vocals on this project and didn't worry about getting every line perfect. Critics took notice of this freedom and spirit immediately. Billboard said her "voice is a malleable marvel of emotion and range," and Steve Morse of The Boston Globe wrote that the holiday collection "features the most unbridled singing of her career." Considine noted that "the album's real strength is the conviction she brings" to songs that could be corny, and Jeremy Helliger of People went as far as to say, "crooning Christmas carols seems to be [Mariah's] calling." Barry Schwarts of Stylus calls the songs and performances "undeniably brilliant."

While Mariah's singing was deservedly praised, it is also notable that some of the new songs Mariah wrote for the collection have enjoyed their own success. The three original holiday songs Mariah wrote for the album are "All I Want For Christmas Is You," "Miss You Most (At Christmastime)," and "Jesus Born On This Day." While "Jesus Born On This Day" has gained some notoriety in Christian and gospel circles (having been covered by Avalon, Norman Hutchins, Morris Chapman, and Clay Aiken), it is "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that has become a holiday season standard. As Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in New Yorker, with the "charming" song, Mariah "co-wrote one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon." Chuck Klosterman went so far as to write in Spin that "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is, "Definitely the best Christmas song since 'Christmas Wrapping' (the Waitresses), possibly the best Christmas song since 'Jesus Christ' (Big Star), and arguably the best Christmas song since 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' (various artists)." Praise like that shows how widespread the love for "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is considering the magazine usually has little use for an artist like Mariah.

In fact, acts ranging from My Chemical Romance to Shania Twain and even The Cheetah Girls have covered the track, further showing its mass appeal. Film director Richard Curtis made sure to use "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in his film Love Actually because he said it puts him in a good mood when he hears it. Fanoe pointed out, "It's a modern Christmas classic that's infiltrated pop culture as much as any of the 'classic' Christmas carols." Helliger may not have realized just how prescient his comment that "the frisky girl-group jubilance of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'...makes it as good as any of the classics that surround it" was when he wrote it.

This sort of praise came as a surprise to Mariah. As she told Marie Claire, "Nothing against Casio, but I wrote 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' on my little Casio keyboard! I never knew it would turn into the hit it is!" The hit is clearly modeled after Phil Spector's trademark wall-of-sound style. Mariah and co-producer Walter Afanasieff use harmonies, bells, tympanis, and a fast pace to inject the track with what Roch Perisien of All Music Guide calls "exuberant fun." Perhaps Rich Juzwiak said it best when he wrote for Slant that "'All I Want For Christmas Is You' is totally a classic. A lot of people think it's a cover, which I think is a testament to its success." The song harkens back to 60s-era Spector while still appealing to modern sensibilities.

Keeping all of that in mind, it's no surprise that Merry Christmas and its songs have been commercial juggernauts. Merry Christmas has been certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA, which places it among the top 3 holiday albums of all-time in the U.S. It has also sold over 12 million copies worldwide, making it possibly the top-selling holiday album of all-time. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" continues to do extremely well each holiday season, and it even topped the Download Songs chart in 2005. It was also among the 10 most-played holiday songs during the 2005 holiday season. Other tracks from Merry Christmas have also made the Download Songs chart and received significant airplay. The ubiquitous success of the collection has surely encouraged other artists to record holiday albums as well. As Sal Cinquemani of Slant writes, "Ever since Mariah Carey's multi-platinum Merry Christmas, celeb-Christmas albums have become obligatory rites of commercial passage.” While it may have been common for artists to record a holiday song or two for a compilation album, it wasn't until the mid-90s that it became common for major artists to release full-length holiday albums. It is also now commonplace for AC radio stations to play holiday music 24/7 during the holiday season, which wasn't something that was done in the early 90s.

It is becoming a running theme in the short life of these blogs to highlight the impact Mariah has had on music. Her influence isn't necessarily something Mariah gets a lot of credit for, but it's also not something that can really be denied. Even if you simply enjoy Merry Christmas for the fun, committed collection that it is, the effects of its creation are noticeable every holiday season.