"Touch My Body" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, taken from her eleventh studio album, E=MC² (2008). It was written and produced by Carey, along with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Crystal "Cri$tyle" Johnson and Terius "The Dream" Nash, and was released as the album's lead single on February 12, 2008. Lyrically, the song features a double message, with the first describing sexual fantasies with her lover, while also jokingly warning him against recording or releasing information regarding their rendezvous.
The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, with many highlighting the song's light pop melody and hook; however, it also garnered some backlash from certain music reviewers, who felt the song did not properly represent the singer's acclaimed 5-octave vocal range. "Touch My Body" became Carey's eighteenth chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100, making Carey the solo artist with the most number one singles in United States history, surpassing the record held by Elvis Presley. Additionally, it gave Carey her 79th week atop the chart, tying Presley for most weeks at number one. Throughout Europe, the song also achieved high charting, peaking within the top five on the charts in Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Carey performed "Touch My Body" on several live televised events and programs, debuting it on Saturday Night Live as a two-piece performance. Similarly, Carey opened the Good Morning America "Summer Concert Series" on April 25, 2008, singing the song, as well as two other singles from E=MC². Similar renditions took place at the season premiere party of The Hills, as well as a mash-up of the song with "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" at the Teen Choice Awards. Aside from reprising performances of the British programs The Sunday Night Project and The Paul O'Grady Show, and German talent show Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the song was included on the set-list of Carey's North American Angels Advocate Tour, held throughout 2009 and 2010.
The song's music video was directed by film-maker Brett Ratner, who had previously worked with Carey on five other music videos. It follows around a story revolving around a computer employee's fantasy as he visits Carey's home. As he fixes her computer, he enters a fantasy in which the pair perform several activities together, including pillow fights, laser tag, Guitar Hero, slot cars, and frisbee throwing, all while Carey shows off her figure in several revealing outfits. The music video won in the category of "Best Comedic Video" at the 2008 BET Awards, and won the "MTV Video Vanguard Award" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. Additionally, the video was nominated for "Best Female Video" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
Read more about Touch My Body: Background and Release, Composition, Critical Reception, Chart Performance, Remixes, Live Performances, Cover Version, Track Listings and Formats, Credits and Personnel, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words touch and/or body:
“For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the
coffin—I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the
coffin.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“They threw off their clothes, and he gathered her to him, and found her, found the pure lambent reality of her for ever invisible flesh. Quenched, inhuman, his fingers upon her unrevealed nudity were the fingers of silence upon silence, the body of mysterious night upon the body of mysterious night, the night masculine and feminine, never to be seen with the eye, or known with the mind, only known as a palpable revelation of living otherness.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)