Music Box ain't as bas as some lambs make it out to be, but it's obviously far from her best.
AYNAF, Without You, Music Box>>>
I think Hero gets too much hate too
Some monts ago I found a download link to the 1993 Thanksgiving Concert and watched it on the TV. It's flawless, she looks perfect, her stage presence is very good and her voice extremely beautiful
Mariah Carey’s Music Box LP (1993) revisited with co-writer Walter Afanasieff | Return To The Classics (PART III/END)
Quote:
The final single to be released from the album would be “Anytime You Need A Friend.” It showcased a pair of newcomers Kelly Price and Melonie Daniels on background vocals. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts, #22 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and #8 on the UK Singles Chart.
Afanasieff gives a glimpse into how the song was formulated.
“Mariah was a huminguous lover of gospel music and the church,” says Afanasieff. “We were always in the company of these wonderful singers reared in the church. Her background singers like Melonie Daniels and Kelly Price grew up in the church. We were messing around with the fact that we were going to do a gospel type song. We had done a couple of songs on her second album. One was called “And You Don’t Remember” that we wrote and it had that 6,8 churchy, gospel type sound. We wanted to do something like that again.
“Mariah also loved a song that she had on her first album called “I Don’t Wanna Cry.” The substance of “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and the gospel quality of “And You Don’t Remember” led this sort of melodic, melancholy theme that we wanted to bust out into some big harmony gospel singing type of chorus. This is how we came up with “Anytime You Need a Friend.”
“It was very much driven by me being at the piano. When I’m playing the piano I’m playing a million different things. When I would be playing the piano Mariah would say ‘What’s that?’ and I’ll say ‘Which one?’ and she would say ‘Yea, I like it.’ and then when I would go on and play a hundred more things and she would do the same thing. I would play the minor sad melody, the chord progression and the verse she would say ‘What’s that? I love that.’ Then she would figure out the theme of the song. It was a combination of what we did on “I Don’t Wanna Cry” and “And You Don’t Remember” alongside the beautiful singing her girls were going to provide. Mariah gave the world that sick female harmony almost choir sounding style of hers. She loved arranging and adding as many harmonies as possible.”
Afanasieff goes on to provide insight on how the final tracks of the album came together and his disappointment in a decision made by the record company regarding the final printed version of the album.
“Mariah was very influenced by George Michael and his album Faith,” says Afanasieff. “She asked me if I had a sound that she really loved, which was a special organ sound. I remember being at Right Track Studios and we scoured the city to find the keyboard that was used to create the sound on that one George Michael song that she really loved. So we came back to the studio with a bunch of keyboards and I tried to come up with the sound and it didn’t work out. I finally got a Roland Juno 106 synthesizer delivered and in that bank of organ keyboard sounds she said, ‘Yeah, that’s the sound I really love.’
“So we started playing around with me hitting these chords on this organ sound and I started to play a chord progression and she immediately started to go into this beautiful musical trance. She started singing lovely melodies of my chord changes on the keyboard. This the melody that is now the song called ‘Music Box.’ It was so beautiful that we added this little music box sound to it. It was all based on this keyboard that George Michael started using years before that influenced Mariah when she was a younger girl.”
“Music Box”:
“’Just to Hold You Once Again’ was a lyric that she wrote after the music was written and the feeling of the music inspired Mariah to put these words down. I had a very classical upbringing and an intense life of classical training, piano lessons and music school. So I’m a really accomplished musician and I’m extremely versatile when it comes to different music genres. As I said earlier, I would play a chord progression and Mariah would like it and we would go off on that vibe.
“And with ‘Just To Hold You Once Again’ we had these really cool chord progressions that made her go into a place of really missing someone, being sad and wanting to be with that person. She wrote this really beautiful lyric about how she would wish to hold that person one more time. A lot of people were quick to assume that she was lonely and sad. Just because someone wrote a sad song doesn’t mean that’s what they are. It was just a feeling that the song brought out. A good songwriter can get into the actual mood of the song. Mariah has such a gift for composing and song writing.”
“Just To Hold You Once Again”:
“We kind of did a song on every album that had a similarity to each other and it was a little wave that her and I caught on the first real big project we worked on together, which was the album Emotions. There was this chord progression we always liked to remind ourselves of. It was one of those times where we ended up writing a song that really was just a very comfortable place that we would always go into. It was something that naturally came out. There were a couple of songs that we ended up with. My favorite song from the Music Box album wasn’t on the US version, but it was on the international version of the album it was “Everything Fades Away.” It kind of broke my heart to be honest.
“Everything Fades Away”:
“Record companies always have their rules. They always feel like there’s too many songs on an album or not enough songs on an album or not enough of this kind of song on an album. It’s usually a decision made by a corporate mind and they’re usually wrong. “Everything Fades Away” one was of the favorites that many Europeans always say and I had wished it went on the American release. Because it didn’t make the American release we put the other song ‘All I’ve Ever Wanted’ on the album. It’s in that area of where it was a ballad type of song and it was really comfortable for us.”
The remaining two songs on Music Box were two infectious up-tempo songs produced by David Cole and Robert Cliviles, “Now That I Know” and “I’ve Been Thinking About You.”
Music Box peaked at #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart in the early winter of 1993 and it found its way back to the top of the charts three different times in three different countries (U.S., UK and Australia) and has went on to sell more than 32 million albums worldwide. The album has achieved multi-platinum status in 11 countries and landed at #26 on the Billboard End of Decade Album Chart in 1999 proving its staying power and effect on popular culture.
To this day, it’s regarded as the one of the greatest albums from the 1990s and remains the highest selling album of her career. This album earned a plethora of Grammy, American Music Award and Soul Train Music Award nominations. Music Box set the standard for other Pop infused R&B records for the remainder of the decade. It will continue to be a bellwether of what quality music should sound like for the coming generations of music fans.
Afanasieff speaks on his fond memories of working with Carey and creating Music Box.
“I was lucky enough to be involved 18 years ago with Mariah Carey to form a union to inspire, write and produce music that ended up on album called Music Box,” says Afanasieff. “It is now being hailed as a classic album because it sold so many records worldwide. It garnered so many beautiful songs and hits. It saved people’s lives and still does. When people hear “Hero” and someone is deeply troubled they’ll play the song and will be reminded that the hero is inside of them not anyone else. That message will stand the test of time.
“The album was a real masterpiece. It was a cumulative work of art that was due to an atmosphere where we enjoyed and challenged ourselves. Record companies today won’t even sign people let alone put out songs because some survey says it won’t sell or some 13 year old won’t download it on ITunes. I think we’re better than that and we deserve better than that.”
The title track may be one of my favorite Mariah records ever, its so beautiful
I think I remember reading somewhere that the title track was hardest for her to sing, because she was trying to sing in full voice whilst trying to use a hushed tone or something like that. I'm gonna try to find it.
P.S. Tigre, I'm glad this thread is already a hit, this will be so informational for the non-lambs..
when you tell me im the only one you need
sweet and tenderly and your love...
breaks away the clouds surrounding me
baby all i have i wanna give to thee...
oh baby...
Music Box is cute I prefer Daydream over it BUT Never Forget You, WIthout You, Music Box, Anytime You Need A Friend, and All I've Ever Wanted slay my soul.
I also love how her voice began transitioning from the Deep Throaty sound on her first two albums to the crystal clear, slightly airy sound on this album. I would say her voice sounded it's absolute best here(almost more than Daydream).
Music Box was responsible for what may potentially be in my opinion her best live performance ever.
Music Box as a whole is perfection. Not one dud track (even the schmaltzy ballad that is Hero is bearable (95% off the time)). The International bonus track Everything Fades Away is bliss.
Her Vision Of Love performance during this concert is one of her best without even using the Whistle. Someday and Make It Happen slayed too.
And can someone tell me what's so "Not her style" about Hero? Without You(while a cover) is in the same vein. I'd dare say Vision Of Love and Hero were her most important Number Ones until the end of the Daydream Era.
And can someone tell me what's so "Not her style" about Hero? Without You(while a cover) is in the same vein. I'd dare say Vision Of Love and Hero were her most important Number Ones until the end of the Daydream Era.
Good thing Tommy made her record it.
Oh she recorded it on her own but Tommy made her KEEP it. She was just going to give it away to Gloria Estefan.
Love these performances & her 1st appearance on Letterman.
Music Box is a great album with AC/Pop Mariah at her finest.
The only dud on the album is I've Been Thinking About You.
Plus Music Box is her best era in terms of remixes.
Anytime You Need A Friend & Dreamover Remixes are some of the best songs in her catalog.
Music Box & Everything Fades Away are my faves from the album.
As much as I naturally like to poke fun at this album, it seriously is one of my favorites.
Dreamlover alone is one of my Top 3 Mimi songs ever, and All I've Ever Wanted is perfection.
Music Box, Hero, All I've Ever Wanted, Everything Fades Away <3