Mariah Carey is a huge fan of hip-hop, according to Sean "Puffy" Combs, founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, who was asked by the artist to produce a couple of tracks for her Butterfly album. "She and [rapper] Q-Tip [of A Tribe Called Quest] had an idea and they asked me to come in and produce the record," says Combs. But his need for excellence kept him out of the one place you'd expect to find him. "A lot of people feel I'm overbearing, so I wasn't allowed in the studio when she did her vocals," he reveals. "I'm trying to work on that. I'm such a perfectionist, sometimes I don't give people the chance to breathe. So I've been banned from a lot of studios. Mariah [recorded "Honey"] until she thought it was perfect, like a hundred times. She gave me a hundred tracks to choose from."
Released as the first single from Butterfly, "Honey" was an instant hit, debuting at number one on the Hot 100. It was the sixth single to do so, and the third by Carey after "Fantasy" and "One Sweet Day." No other artist at this point in time had had even two singles debut at the top of the chart. "Honey" was also the single that broke Carey away from the pack. After "Always Be My Baby," she was in a three-way tie with Madonna and Whitney Houston as the solo female artist with the most number one singles on the Hot 100. All three women had collected 11 chart-topping hits, but "Honey" put Carey out in front with 12. It also put her in a tie for fourth place with the Supremes among all artists for the most number one singles, behind the Beatles (20), Elvis Presley (17), and Michael Jackson (13). And it made her label, Columbia, the first to amass 80 number one hits in the rock era.
"Honey" also added impressive chart statistics to Combs' resume. Along with Stevie J., it was his third consecutive number one on the Hot 100. It was only the third time in the rock era that a producer or production team had three chart-toppers in a row. George Martin gave the Beatles a hat trick in 1964 with "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," and "Can't Buy Me Love." And in 1978, Barry Gibb, Andy Galuten and Karl Richardson were the producers of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb and "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees. Sean and Stevie were responsible for producing "I'll Be Missing You," "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" and "Honey." The trio of hits gave the producers another first: they were number one for the whole summer of 1997. No other producer or producers had ever been responsible for the top song on the Hot 100 for an entire season of the year.
On a more personal note, "Honey" was Carey's first single after the June, 1997 separation from her husband Tommy Mottola, the president and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment. The track, like the rest of Butterfly, revealed a more confident, mature and openly sensual woman than had been heard on previous albums. "I've come into my own as an artist," Carey told Elysa Garder in the Los Angeles Times. "At this point I feel free enough to express what I'm really feeling, without using a smoke screen...It's definitely an evolution for me." That evolution included a change of manager and attorney, and an exploration into acting in films and television for the 27-year-old superstar.
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