Mariah Carey’s Music Box LP (1993) revisited with co-writer Walter Afanasieff | Return To The Classics (PART II)
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“’Dreamlover,’ for instance, was a song that Mariah was doing on the side,” says Afanasieff. “She had a particular need for up-tempo records and more of a cutting edge sound. I won’t say I was only the balladeer, but the more softer, melodic, more ballad and songs like that I was at the helm with her for those records. She would always have this little area of her album where David Cole and Robert Clivilles would be featured. Unfortunately, it was just a one shot type of deal from my understanding of it. A gentleman named Dave Hall produced the song. He was this up and coming producer, writer, track guy in the New York area.
“She went off and wrote ‘Dreamlover’ with Dave. I had nothing to do with the writing or even the initial production of the first draft, but when the song was delivered to the record company Tommy Mottola and Columbia Records decided the record needed a little bit more something to it. In their opinion, it was a little too dark and a little unexciting I guess to put on the radio in its form. So they gave it to me and I added a few little bits and pieces to it. I added a Hammond B3 organ to it to make it bounce a little bit better and I added some drums to replace some of the drum parts. I remixed it and added some sprinkles and sparks on it. It was very nice to be involved on that song and I got to be listed as a co-producer on it.”
“Dreamlover” landed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts, #2 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and #9 on the UK Singles Chart and it helped to engineer success for Music Box after its release.
Carey’s second single from the album was the iconic “Hero” and Afanasieff tells a fascinating story of how the song came together with assistance from Tommy Mottola.
“One of my favorite stories of the Mariah Carey era was when I was asked to write a song for a film that was being finished in Hollywood that Sony/Columbia Pictures was putting out,” says Afanasieff. “Being intertwined with Sony Music you’re sort of connected to the company next door which is Sony Pictures. So a lot of times Sony Pictures calls upon Sony Music to produce the music for the movie, which is a pretty standard procedure. They asked me if I would come in and screen a movie called “Hero” which was a Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia movie.
“At this particular time, they asked Gloria Estefan to sing this song and they asked me to write and produce a song for the movie. I was carrying this bit of information in my head when I came to New York City to work with Mariah on her album. We were getting together to do some writing for her album. One day, while we were at Right Track Studios I told her about this project I was working on and asked her if she wanted to write this song with me. I told her it was pretty cool and the concept of the movie. I started playing the piano part at the beginning of the song and she asked me, ‘Is that your idea for it?’ I told her, ‘Yea, this is what I’ve been working on for it.’ She goes, ‘Yea, that’s really pretty. Let’s try it.’ So we sat there and tried it.
“Within the next two hours we had the bulk of the song done. She started to not be Mariah Carey, the singer, she started to become the songwriter for someone else. She wasn’t really worried about it being for her and her style. She just came out of the box and we wrote “Hero.” At that time, Tommy Mottola walked in and asked us what we were doing. We told him we just wrote this song for the movie “Hero.” He said ‘Let me hear it.’ and after he heard it he looked at us and he said, ‘There’s absolutely no way you’re giving that song to that movie. This is your song, Mariah.’
“She said, ‘What? I’m not going to sing this song. This song is not for me. This isn’t what I want. This isn’t my style.’ He told her, ‘No, trust me. If you put this song on your album and put this out, it’s genius. This will be one of your biggest songs I promise you.’ She said, ‘I don’t want to. This isn’t who I want to be. I want to be less smaltzy. I want to be less pop and less ballad driven.’ He said, ‘Trust me. You have to record this song.’ So she ended up recording it herself. We didn’t give it to the movie and I didn’t write anything for the movie. Low and behold it was one of the biggest hits of her career.”
“Hero” peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts, #5 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and #7 on the UK Singles Chart and it generated more success for Carey.
The next single to follow “Hero” was “Without You,” which was a remake of the popular 1970 hit written by the British rock group, Badfinger. Afanasieff spoke on how strong the response was for it in Europe.
“The song that she loved and wanted to do a remake of was “Without You” by the British rock group Badfinger and remade by Harry Nilsson,” says Afanasieff. “Mariah was always influenced by the Beatles, George Michael, Stevie Wonder and many other artists. “Without You” was a personal favorite of hers.
“I wanted to get closer to the version that I believed the integrity of the song belonged to which was the Harry Nilsson version because it had the power, the piano and the big sound. I went to work on our version of the track and Mariah came in and slayed her vocal and it turned out pretty powerful. At that time, I think there was a climate in the world especially from Europe because you have to understand there were other girls out there in the mid-’90s like Celine Dion who were really raising the bar. Europe loved the song “Without You” and then it caught on here in the US.”
“Without You” peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts, #7 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart and #1 on the UK Singles Chart.
The fourth single to be revealed to the public at large would be the Babyface and Daryl Simmons produced song entitled, “Never Forget You.” “Never Forget You” peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and #7 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Chart.
I actually like how calm and smooth Music Box is. It allows you to really appreciate Mariah's voice. It's not overly produced like a lot of her songs on the first two albums. It's mature, it's classic, it's Celine! I mean Mariah