Background and Recording
Following the weak commercial success of Glitter (2001), her debut release under Virgin Records, Carey suffered an emotional and physical breakdown, followed by an extended hospitalization. During this period, Carey's older label, Columbia records, planned to release a compilation album of her biggest hits, titled Greatest Hits (2001). As they had one more album to release from Carey under her old contract, they began assembling content for its release. Though still signed to Virgin, Carey composed a charity single in which all proceeds would go towards helping rebuild America, following the terrorist attacks. Consequently, she re-recorded her 1993 song "Hero", and made a medley of it with a single from Glitter, "Never Too Far". The song features a different instrumental introduction, and begins with the first verse and chorus of "Never Too Far", and blends into the bridge of "Hero". Several writers for the medley are credited, with Carey having written "Never Too Far" with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and the latter with Walter Afanasieff. Aside from Jam and Lewis, Randy Jackson assisted Carey in the song's production. In an interview with MTV, Carey described the single and its conception:
"I started doing different charity events where I did a combination of 'Never Too Far' and 'Hero'. We made it into a medley and put them in the same key and made it work. People responded really well to it. It's been interesting for me, since the events of September 11, the way people have been playing 'Hero' and really even talking to me about 'Never Too Far', 'cause that song is also about loss. I figured that it would be a nice thing to do, to put them both out for Christmas. There's also an unreleased track on the B-side, which is called 'There for Me' which kind of has the same sentiment. The proceeds from 'Never Too Far' and 'Hero' and 'There for Me' are going to go to the Heroes Fund, and it's going to benefit police officers' families, relief workers' families."
Read more about this topic: Never Too Far/Hero Medley
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