Merry Christmas (Mariah Carey Album)
Merry Christmas is the fourth studio album and first Christmas album by American singer Mariah Carey. Released by Columbia Records on November 1, 1994, the album features cover versions of popular Christmas tunes and original material. Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff, with whom she wrote all of the original tracks, as well as producing Carey's interpretations of the covered material. The album contains a contemporary holiday theme, and featured "authentic, gospel flavored background vocals."
The album features instrumentation from keyboards, bass guitars, drums, percussion and heavy backing vocals. After its release, the album received generally positive reviews and became a worldwide success. Critics praised Carey's uplifting and flavored vocals, as well as her skilled songwriting alongside Afanasieff. Singles were released from the album, being sent to different radio stations for promotional purposes.
Merry Christmas was released at the peak of the initial stretch of Carey's career, between Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995). The album produced the worldwide classic single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became the best-selling holiday ringtone in the US The album has sold 5,120,000 copies in the United States as of October 16, 2011 according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been certified five-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of five million copies in the United States. In Japan, Merry Christmas has sold over 2,500,000 copies and is the second best-selling album of all time by a non-Asian artist, behind only Carey's other release Number 1's. Merry Christmas has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling Christmas album of all time.
Read more about Merry Christmas (Mariah Carey Album): Background, Writing and Development, Composition, Critical Reception, Chart Performance, Film Adaptation, Track Listing, Album Credits
Famous quotes containing the words merry, christmas and/or carey:
“Ignorance ... is a painless evil; so, I should think, is dirt, considering the merry faces that go along with it.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better to do. The Christmas syndrome.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“One thing I am determined on is that by the time I die my brain shall weigh as much as a man’s if study and learning can make it so.”
—M. Carey Thomas (1857–1935)