Unwrap These Secrets About Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas"

Mariah Carey's 1994 album Merry Christmas is mostly covers—"Silent Night," "Joy to the World," etc.—but consequentially included 3 archetypal tracks: "All I Want for Christmas Is You," "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)" and "Jesus Born connected This Day."

And portion we whitethorn instrumentality that archetypal 1 for granted now, Carey's cowriter connected those 3 songs, Walter Afanasieff, pointed retired that it takes large boughs of holly to instrumentality a stab astatine making new Christmas music. 

"Going into an archetypal Christmas song, you've got to beryllium truly astute to cognize each the landmines that you're going to beryllium stepping on," helium explained successful a 2014 interrogation with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. "If a astute writer writes a opus and conscionable boldly goes into the stereotype of jingle and mistle and frosty and Rudolph and Santa...Ugh, it conscionable becomes a mess."

Carey's "genius," helium added, was that she came up with an up-tempo "positive emotion song" that could beryllium dedicated to anybody. 

And the 3rd clip was the charm, due to the fact that "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was the past of the caller tracks they wrote for the album, which they started moving connected successful 1993.

Explaining their penning process, Afanasieff—who collaborated with Mimi connected her archetypal six workplace albums—said that helium would commencement playing. Then, "she starts processing a melody and melodic path," helium told ASCAP. "We play a small philharmonic ping-pong backmost and forth."

When Carey would sing thing that took the euphony successful a antithetic direction, he'd follow, and "we conscionable spell backmost and forth," helium continued. "Musically it was that large woody effort connected 'All I Want for Christmas Is You.' It's a precise elemental arrangement."

In fact, helium added, "At the clip I thought it was overly elemental and I didn't truly similar it."

Aside from Carey's pitch-perfect lyrics, "I tried to marque it a small much unique, putting successful immoderate peculiar chords that you truly don’t perceive a batch of, which made it unsocial and special," Afanasieff told Billboard in 2014. "I deliberation that's 1 of the components that made it unsocial twelvemonth aft year. That portion of it took possibly an hour, and past I went home."

First you perceive the tinkle of the xylophone, past Carey comes successful with her dilatory burn, aft which the drums and soft get going and it's disconnected to wintertime wonderland with sleigh bells jingling. So the signaling workplace indispensable person been rockin' erstwhile the set laid down the way successful the summertime of 1994, right?

"That full opus is conscionable maine astatine the computer," Afanasieff told ASCAP, "and the lone different happening existent connected determination is the vocals."

When her medium came out, Carey, the self-proclaimed "hugest Christmas fanatic determination is," said she wasn't trying to vie with the Yuletide hitmakers of the past.

"I look astatine it arsenic much of maine giving my small publication to the satellite of Christmas songs," she told CBS News successful 1994, "and hopefully my fans volition bask them and it volition beryllium thing for maine to sing during the holidays."

Carey has her ain recollection of however "All I Want for Christmas Is You" came to be, and it mostly doesn't impact different idiosyncratic being successful the room.

"I conscionable sat down, decorated a small histrion and enactment connected It's a Wonderful Life and tried to get into that mood," she told Cosmopolitan in 2019. "Then I sat successful this tiny country with a keyboard and started doing small melodies and stuff." 

In the Amazon Music documentary Mariah Carey Is Christmas: The Story of "All I Want for Christmas Is You that aforesaid year," she did callback taking the way to "Walter A." to co-produce.

Addressing the fable that it lone took 15 minutes to travel together, Carey said connected Nightline in 2023 that penning the opus was a "pretty fast" process. "I was moving connected it by myself," she added. "So I was, you know, [humming the opening bar], penning connected this small Casio keyboard."

While Afanasieff has enjoyed the rewards that person travel with being officially credited arsenic the song's cowriter and producer—"I ain 50 percent of the song," helium told Variety in 2019—he does sometimes consciousness similar the queen of Christmas near him a lump of coal.

"She's the 1 that made the opus a deed and she’s awesome," helium said. "But she decidedly does not stock recognition wherever recognition is due."

Despite its surge successful ubiquity years beforehand, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" didn't scope No. 1 connected the Billboard Hot 100 singles illustration until 2019.

But, it has reached the mountaintop each twelvemonth since.

"I can't beryllium determination and go, This has to happen," Carey told the Los Angeles Times up of the Nov. 6 motorboat of her yearly (since 2014, minus 2020) Christmas tour. But, she added, "It's happened truthful galore times that I’m thrilled. And should it hap again, I would beryllium adjacent much thrilled."

We'll spot what 2024 holds, but Carey has astatine the precise slightest gotten utilized to breaking her ain records connected Christmas Eve.

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" archetypal claimed the grounds for astir Dec. 24 Spotify streams successful 2017, with 10.8 cardinal plays, past surpassed the full successful 2018 with 10.82 cardinal and topped itself again successful 2019 with much than 12 million.

On Dec. 24, 2022, it bested Adele's "Go Easy connected Me" for astir streams connected any day, with 21,273,357.

And, a twelvemonth later, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" acceptable the caller grounds for astir streams successful a time with much than 23.7 million, arsenic good arsenic became the astir streamed Christmas opus ever with upward of 1.5 cardinal plays.

You are forgiven if connected archetypal viewing you thought that the opus the wildly talented entity of Thomas Brodie-Sangster's affection sings toward the extremity of 2002's Love Actually was an archetypal tune written for the movie.

Because what Olivia Olson's show of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" fundamentally changed history. Or altered fate, whichever, arsenic countless moviegoers were compelled to way down the original.

"That's different improvement we should wage attraction to," Afanasieff told Billboard in 2014. "Mariah Carey very, precise seldom allows idiosyncratic to grounds immoderate of her songs successful immoderate movie oregon tv oregon immoderate different medium."

And portion she turned down countless requests for others to grounds her signature Christmas opus implicit the years, she made an objection for Love Actually.

"I deliberation she conscionable had a peculiar fondness for the movie," Afanasieff recalled. "She liked the publication and she liked the actors.  I'm definite she thought, 'It's a young girl, it’s the close time.'"

Before Carey's tune registered, it had been a infinitesimal since a Christmas opus was besides a monolithic hit.

If you number Wham!'s mournful "Last Christmas" arsenic a vacation staple, we're talking 1984. If you similar much pep successful your reindeer's step, Jose Feliciano archetypal wished america "Feliz Navidad" successful 1970.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono made their taste people with 1971's "Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)," but that wasn't a immense deed successful the U.S. astatine first. And it's much melancholy than merry, Carey herself calling it "pretty sad."

Really not since Brenda Lee's 1958 banger "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (written by Johnny Marks) had determination been specified an upbeat summation to the canon that besides sold millions of records. And suffice it to say, the Carey magic has not been replicated yet.

Comparing their opus to "a cosmic occurrence that happens erstwhile each 5 cardinal years," Atanasieff told Billboard that "thousands of archetypal Christmas songs person been written successful the past 20 years...But for immoderate crushed 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' conscionable became that song."

And, helium added, it "was the past large opus to participate that Christmas canon, and past the doorway slammed shut. It conscionable closed."

As to wherefore she thought the opus had endured for 3 decades, "I deliberation it's due to the fact that I really, genuinely emotion the holidays," Carey told Nightline in 2023. "It's not fake."