Cover for Mariah Carey’s single, “All I Want for Christmas is You”
This week’s Featured Lyrics are to “All I Want for Christmas is You”, by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff. We’re posting lyrics of hit songs so that our songwriters can study them to see how winning songs are constructed. Of course a lot depends on the melody, the rhythm and the artist as to whether or not the song will sell… and whether or not it is in the right place at the right time!
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“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a song performed by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey. She wrote and produced the song with Walter Afanasieff. Columbia Records released it on November 1, 1994 as the lead single from her first holiday album and fourth studio album, Merry Christmas. “Christmas” is an uptempo love song that includes bell chimes and heavy back-up vocals, as well as use of synthesizers. The song’s lyrics declare that the narrator does not care about Christmas presents or lights; all she wants for Christmas is to be with her lover.
Two music videos were commissioned for the song: the song’s primary music video features grainy home-movie-style footage of Carey, her dogs and family during the holiday season, as well as Carey dressed in a Santa suit frolicking on a snowy mountainside. Carey’s then-husband Tommy Mottola makes a cameo appearance as Santa Claus, bringing Carey a gift and leaving on a red sleigh. The second video was filmed in black and white format, and features Carey dressed in 1960s style in homage to The Ronettes, alongside back up singers and female dancers.
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In the years since its original release, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has been critically lauded and has become established as a Christmas standard; it was once called “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon” in The New Yorker, and continues to surge in popularity each holiday season. The song was commercially successful, topping the charts in Hungary while reaching number two in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, and the top 10 in several other countries.
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With global sales of over 14 million copies, the song remains Carey’s biggest international success and the 11th best-selling single of all time. As of 2013, the song was reported to have earned $50 million in royalties.
Background and writing
Following the success of the singer’s 1993 career best-selling album Music Box, Carey and her management at Columbia Records began devising ideas and strategies for subsequent projects. Carey’s then-husband, Tommy Mottola, head of Columbia’s parent label Sony Music Entertainment, began mapping out possible follow ups for the singer during the pinnacle years of her career. During initial discussions regarding the thought of doing a Christmas-themed album with Carey and her writing partner of over four years, Walter Afanasieff, fear arose that it was not commercially expedient or wise to release holiday music at the peak of one’s career, as it was more often equated with a release towards the end of a musician’s waning career. Afanasieff recalled his sentiments during initial discussions for a holiday record: “Back then, you didn’t have a lot of artists with Christmas albums. It wasn’t a known science at all back then, and there was nobody who did new, big Christmas songs. So we were going to release it as kind of an everyday, ‘Hey, you know, we’re putting out a Christmas album. No big deal.'” Ultimately, with Mottola’s persistence and Carey’s initiative to be a “risk-taker” as Afanasieff put it, the song and its parent album, Merry Christmas, began taking form in early-mid 1994. Recording for the album began in June, while the Carey-Afanasieff songwriting duo penned “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in late-August. Often referencing herself a festive person and demonstrating a usual penchant for her love of all things Christmas, Carey began decorating the home she shared with Mottola in upstate New York (which also came equipped with a personal recording studio) with Christmas ornaments and other holiday-inspired trinkets. In doing so, Carey felt she could capture the essence and spirit of what she was singing and make her vocal performance and delivery more emotive and authentic. The songwriting pair carved out the chords, structure and melody for the song in just a quarter of an hour. . . . . . . . . . .
It was always the same sort of system with us. We would write the nucleus of the song, the melody primary music, and then some of the words were there as we finished writing it. I started playing some rock ‘n’ roll piano and started boogie woogie-ing my left hand, and that inspired Mariah to come up with the melodic [Sings.] ‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas.’ And then we started singing and playing around with this rock ‘n’ roll boogie song, which immediately came out to be the nucleus of what would end up being ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’ That one went very quickly: It was an easier song to write then some of the other ones. It was very formulaic; not a lot of chord changes. I tried to make it a little more unique, putting in some special chords that you really don’t hear a lot of, which made it unique and special.
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Afanasieff flew back to California where he finished the song’s programming and production. Originally, he had a live band play the drums and other instruments with the thought of giving it a more raw and affective sound. He was unhappy with the results of the recording and subsequently scrapped the effort and used his original, personal arrangement and programmed all the instruments heard on the song (with the exception of the background vocals) including the piano, effects, drums and triangle. . . . . . . . . . .
Read more at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_I_Want_for_Christmas_Is_You
Lyrics to “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
I don’t want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don’t care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I don’t need to hang my stocking
There upon the fireplace
Santa Claus won’t make me happy
With a toy on Christmas Day
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you
You baby
Oh I won’t ask for much this Christmas
I won’t even wish for snow
And I’m just gonna keep on waiting
Underneath the mistletoe
I won’t make a list and send it
To the North Pole for Saint Nick
I won’t even stay awake to
Hear those magic reindeer click
‘Cause I just want you here tonight
Holding on to me so tight
What more can I do?
Baby all I want for Christmas is you
You you you baby
Oh all the lights are shining
So brightly everywhere
And the sound of children’s
Laughter fills the air
And everyone is singing
I hear those sleigh bells ringing
Santa won’t you bring me the one I really need?
Won’t you please bring my baby to me?
Oh I don’t want a lot for Christmas
This is all I’m asking for
I just want to see my baby
Standing right outside my door
Oh I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
Oh, baby all I want for Christmas is
You baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
All I want for Christmas is you baby
Songwriters: Walter Afanasieff and Mariah Carey [These people are also given writing credit on this website but no mention of them was found in the on-line biographies of the song or of Mariah: Arthur Baker, Robert Allen, Aasim Bey Bambaataa, John Robie, Emil Schult, Ellis Williams, Ralf Huetter. They may have been studio musicians who made suggestions to improve the song in either the lyrics or the melody.]
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Spirit Music Group
For non-commercial use only.
Data from: LyricFind
https://www.bing.com/search?q=lyrics+to+all+i+want+for+Christmas+is+you&pc=MOZI&form=MOZSPG