Columbia 53205
Producers: Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasieff, Dave Hall, Babyface, and Daryl Simmons
Track listing: Dreamlover / Hero / Anytime You Need a Friend / Music Box / Now That I Know / Never Forget You / Without You / Just to Hold You Once Again / I’ve Been Thinking About You / All I’ve Ever Wanted
December 25, 1993
8 weeks (nonconsecutive)
With 1991’s “Emotions,” Mariah Carey made chart history by becoming the first artist to have her first five singles go to Number One on the Hot 100. On the Top Pop Albums chart, however, Carey was falling just short of the mark. Emotions, her second album, peaked at number four, while The MTV Unplugged EP, released in June of 1992, climbed to number three on the album chart, and yielded another Number One single — a cover of the Jackson Five’s “I’ll Be There.” Yet it took Music Box to put Carey back on top of the album chart.
For Music Box, Carey turned to several big-name producers, including Robert Clivilles and David Cole of C+C Music Factory fame. When working with the different producers, “each situation had its own vibe,” Carey says. “So we went from one mood to an entirely different mood on Music Box.”
Since Music Box was Carey’s third studio album, she was becoming more seasoned as a vocalist. “In a lot of ways, Music Box let me let loosen up a lot more and be myself vocally. I really let go on a lot of performances and didn’t scrutinize everything as much as I used to do. I didn’t do things over and over again. Instead, we went with some of my performances of things and really tried to get the authenticity there.”
Music Box, like Carey’s previous efforts, was a virtual hit-fest. The album’s first single, “Dreamlover,” which contains a sample of the Emotions song “Blind Alley,” hit the top on September 11, 1993, and “Hero,” the second single released from the album, hit the top of the Hot 100 on Christmas Day, the same day that Music Box went to Number One. A Thanksgiving-night NBC Television special helped push Music Box to the top in its 15th week on the chart.
The third single released from Music Box was “Without You,” a cover of song Nilsson took to Number One in 1972. “I was in a restaurant in Florida and I heard it being played,” Carey says. “I hadn’t heard it for a really long time, since I was a little girl. I thought it would really add to the album. So did it, but I really tried to keep it as close to the original as I could.” Carey’s version made it to number three, good enough to push Music Box, which fallen from Number One twice by that point, back to the top for a third time on March 5, 1994.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 25, 1993
1. Music Box, Mariah Carey
2. Doggy Style, Snoop Doggy Dogg
3. Vs., Pearl Jam
A. Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Meat Loaf
5. Lethal Injection, Ice Cube