On this day in 2005, Mariah Carey held the #1 and #2 spots on the Hot 100 with “We Belong Together” and “Shake It Off.” By the time 2005 rolled around, Mariah Carey had gone from being the most successful music artist of the 1990s to not having had a genuine hit in 5 years apart from a guest spot on a Busta Rhymes track. If expectations for her 2005 release The Emancipation Of Mimi were shaky, it was with good reason. Little did anyone know that Carey would release her biggest and most influential song in a decade with “We Belong Together.”

Mariah Carey thought she had completed her album, The Emancipation of Mimi, but L.A. Reid sent her to work with Jermaine Dupri some more because he felt the album lacked a big record. One of the songs that came out of that time was “We Belong Together.” After hearing Carey sing the song, Reid said, “That’s the one we’re looking for.”

Second

“We Belong Together” was released as the second single from The Emancipation of Mimi, and the track found Carey continuing her habit of fusing pop and urban music in a way that created its own genre. Lisa Lopes of TLC famously credits Carey with creating ‘hip-pop,’ but the ballad style of “We Belong Together” gave hip-pop a new twist.

As Pop Journalism‘s Robert Ballantyne wrote in naming it the top song of 2005, on the surface “We Belong Together” seems like a trademark Mariah ballad. There’s a piano intro, a plaintive melody and vocal, and lyrics about a man Mariah can’t get over. But as Ballantyne points out, “at the eight-second mark, all preconceptions get thrown out the window when that hip-hop beat kicks in.” The song is fueled by an 808-styled kick and hi-hat, thus integrating the sleek syncopations of hip-hop styled R&B.

Add in the lyrical references to Bobby Womack and Babyface, and Mariah’s rapid-fire vocal part (which Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly says is “so devastating you get the urge to create turmoil in your own relationship just to have an excuse to play this track”), and “We Belong Together” perhaps becomes the single that best combines Mariah’s gifts as a music artist. Kalefah Sanneh writes in New York Times that the song “seems simpler than it is,” and Johnny Loftus of the Metro Times Detroit notes the “classic sensibility” of the song and states it makes for “perfect pop/R&B songwriting.” It’s also, as Sal Cinquemani of Slant says, “as innovative as Mariah’s been in years.”

Jon Caramanica of the New York Times pointed out that Mariah “learned how to game the system with songs that appear to have multiple tempos all at once, languorous vocals set against steady beats” so that she had “slow records masquerading as fast.” Rivers Cuomo of the rock band Weezer noted something similar when he talked to Pitchfork about “We Belong Together” being one of his favorite songs of 2005. Cuomo noted that the song has a lot of lyrics and the vocal feels conversational, yet “there’s a great, catchy melody there.”

In naming it one of the best songs of the decade, Popdose noted that Mariah and producer Jermaine Dupri “found a midway point” between classic R&B and a contemporary feel. Stylus called Carey’s performance “evocative,” Rich Juzwiak has called the song “ingenius,” and musician Matt Nathanson dubbed it “a perfect song” to VH1. It’s no wonder Carey won the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the song, and “We Belong Together” won the Grammy for Best R&B Song and was nominated for the overall Song of the Year.

Success

Great and innovative songs can be overlooked, though, especially by artists who haven’t had the favor of radio and consumers in years. This wasn’t the case with “We Belong Together.” It became huge in 2005 and spent 14 weeks total at #1 on the Hot 100. Media sources ranging from New York Times, Metro Times Detroit, Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune ran articles anointing “We Belong Together” the song of the summer in 2005, and it became a record-breaker.

“We Belong Together” broke the BDS record for audience impressions at radio multiple times. It became the most-listened to song ever in a week, a record it would hold until 2013 when it was surpassed by Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” “We Belong Together” would end up spending 16 weeks at the top of the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Billboard named it the Song of the Decade. As Stylus said in naming “We Belong Together” one of the best singles of the year, when the song came on the radio, “none of us dared to change the station.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLUMsb8vOxU

Influence

Another mark of a great single is often its influence. After the ascension of “We Belong Together,” critics began noting songs that were created in the same mold (i.e. pairing a pop ballad sensibility with a hip-hop beat). Slant magazine mentioned songs by artists ranging from Jessica Simpson to Christina Milian to Ne-Yo being in the “now-popular ‘We Belong Together’ mold.” Katharine McPhee told VH1 her own song “Each Other” reminds her of “We Belong Together,” and Amazon.com said Paula DeAnda’s top 20 hit “Walk Away” is “like a lost track” from [The Emancipation of Mimi].

Perhaps the most direct evidence of the influence “We Belong Together” came from co-writer Johnta Austin. Austin told Billboard that he was called by Jimmy Iovine to create a song “in the same lane of ‘We Belong Together’” for Mary J. Blige. The result was perhaps the biggest hit of Mary J Blige’s career: “Be Without You.” Cinquemani was thus correct when he wrote for Slant, if not for “We Belong Together,” “there wouldn’t be [Mary J. Blige’s] “’Be Without You.’” Rivers Cuomo has even acknowledged that “We Belong Together” was a big inspiration for Weezer’s 2008 song “Heart Songs.” Whether or not “We Belong Together” was the first song of its kind, it’s obvious that its success led to the creation of similar songs. However none that followed have been able to match the success of Carey’s song.

It seems pretty clear that “We Belong Together” is not only a quality single and a popular one, but that it led to a mini-trend in music. As Cinquemani stated in naming it one of the best singles of 2005, “Mariah’s finally got her own anthem.”

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The year was 1995. Mariah Carey was undoubtedly one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, and the 90s it-girl. She debuted in 1990, and already amassed eight #1 hits in just 5 short years. Not a year went by without her having a #1. She even released a Christmas album, in 1994, that yielded a new Christmas classic, “All I Want For Christmas is You.” In the fall of 1995, Carey was once again poised for yet another slay session. This time, it was on a much larger scale.

She was also a married woman now, married to the head of her record label. Unfortunately, he was very controlling not only of her personal life but in regards to the sound of her music too. Her image, so far, was one that of a sugar-sweet, pop balladeer with a fantastic voice. Her songs were safe and all very “girl next door.” Her music had R&B and even semblances of hip-hop inspiration, but Mariah wanted more of that. Much more.

Rewind

Carey grew up on Long Island, in close proximity to New York City, during the 1980s. This was the time and place, the when and where, hip-hop exploded. She listened to stations like 107.5 WBLS and 103.5 KTU that helped introduce young New Yorkers to hip-hop. She also grew up on gospel, classic soul and R&B records from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. However, if you listened to her catalogue thus far, those influences were hinted at, but stifled. There were hints throughout (such as the sample on “Dreamlover”) of her love of hip-hop, but it was not allowed to flourish. Until 1995.

Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly “allowed,” but she did it anyway. For Daydream she enlisted Atlanta based hip-hop/R&B producer Jermaine Dupri to work on the album, yielding “Always Be My Baby,” but more significant was what she did with the album’s lead single, “Fantasy.”

For the album version of “Fantasy,” she worked yet again with “Dreamlover” producer Dave Hall (who had worked with Mary J. Blige and other big names in R&B and hip-hop). They created the perfect amalgamation of hip-hop, pop and R&B. Truly, it was Mariah’s “Fantasy.” The track samples The Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love,” which itself was a legend in the hip-hop community, for its significance in helping hip-hop become more mainstream.

Genius sample

“Genius of Love” was released in 1981 by the Tom Tom Club, and because of its beat and inclusion of “rap” style delivery, it was an immediate hit in hip-hop circles in New York. The beat was immediately put into use as a break beat, and then, a sample for hip-hop’s biggest, up-and-coming names: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (“It’s Nasty,” 1982) and Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde (“Genius Rap,” 1981). All three songs were competing hits, and helped hip-hop become more mainstream.

By sampling such an iconic hip-hop track, Mariah was able to connect with fans of both pop and hip-hop, and at the same time prove that she’s not just some girl trying to fit in with the latest trends. She really knew her shit, and sampling “Genius of Love” for “Fantasy” was proof of that. However, in case anyone had any doubts, she made one more important decision.

In 1995, Bad Boy Records was on the rise. Led by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, the label was a massive force in making hip-hop part of pop music through artists like the Notorious B.I.G. and Ma$e, among others. Unsurprisingly, Puffy eventually became a sought after producer… however, from the “pop world,” it was Mariah Carey who got to him first.

Remix Fantasy

For the “Fantasy” Remix, Mariah teamed up with Puff Daddy. They stripped the album version of its pop production, and make it more distinctly hip-hop in sound. She even (on her preferred version of the remix) removed the bubbly chorus from the original. Instead, they replaced it with the “I’m, in, heaven… with my boyfriend…” refrain interpolated from “Genius of Love.” The result was a sparsely produced, but unmistakably hip-hop track, with a melodically infectious and vocally jaw-dropping R&B-inspired pop vocal from the pop music “it girl” of the 1990s. The lyrics, penned by Carey of course, were relatable, catchy and the makings of yet another hit.

Me and Mariah…

And she didn’t stop there. Mariah had one last trick up her sleeve. This, perhaps, was the most controversial: she wanted to get Ol’ Dirty Bastard, of the Wu-Tang Clan, to feature on the track. And she did. In 2015, such a notion doesn’t seemed far-fetched (especially for Mariah, given the number of rappers she’s worked with now), But then, in 1995, it seemed damn near scandalous.

Her label, her husband… they gagged. But, somehow, they let it happen. All the soccer moms were probably taken aback quite a bit, too. However, fans of R&B, hip-hop and the like were floored. Never before had the genre (hip-hop) been embraced in such a big way by a “pop star.” And, that September, Mariah Carey and “Fantasy” forever changed the face of “pop music.”

It’s true, she didn’t invent the rap/sung collaboration, but she pioneered it and made it mainstream. She made it work. Dare we say, she “made it happen” – and it was an undeniable hit. The song was #1 everywhere, on every chart. It even became the first song by a female artist to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sure, Billboard did not credit O.D.B. but undoubtedly the remix helped keep the song at #1 for 8 weeks.

Legacy

Since 1995, there have been countless songs by pop and R&B singers, featuring guest appearances from hip-hop artists, and vice versa. Sure, we could sit here and name them all, but it’s unnecessary. You’d be hard pressed to turn on the radio today and not find an example of Mariah and O.D.B.’s impact.

Not many big names have attempted to cover the song, perhaps because of the near impossible-to-replicate vocal arrangements, but it’s formula has been copied time and time again. Still, one notable cover of the song does exist. At the 2012 BET Honors, Kelly Rowland performed “Fantasy” alongside Wu-Tang’s Raekwon – at Mariah’s request:

Twenty years later, “Fantasy” is a bonafide classic. It’s a favorite among fans, non-fans, of the Diva herself, her peers and those she has inspired. “Fantasy” is indeed the exemplary song that married pop/R&B and hip-hop and changed the musical landscape from then-on.  It has the perfect hip-hop sample. It has a quintessentially quotable verse from an iconic hip-hop artist And, it has an impeccable vocal performance from the Empress of the 1990s.

So, today, press play on “Fantasy” (the remix, Mariah would prefer). Strut around (or, roller skate, if you wish), try your best to sing along to those impossibly-high belts, do your best O.D.B. impression, and try your luck at some break dancing. When you’re done, come back here to watch the music videos. Or watch Mariah slay it live at Madison Square Garden in 1995. And, remember, hip-hop and Mariah, they “go back like babies and pacifiers” … “Ol’ Dirt Dog’s no liar”!

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Mariah Carey found huge success with her debut album, largely due to ballads that showcased her phenomenal voice. When it came time to release her follow-up album (Emotions), Carey had several goals in mind. One was to create an album that had more of a Motown influence, and another was to set-up a career with longevity. The first single from Carey’s second album was the title track “Emotions.” In an interview for the The Washington Post, Craig Seymour mentioned to Carey that “Emotions” was important in establishing her as more than a ballad singer, and in fact her lead singles for the next 10 years would be more uptempo in nature. Carey is a great crafter of pop songs and is responsible for many ’90s pop gems that also incorporate other styles of music.

Carey worked with C&C Music Factory (Robert Clivilles and David Cole) for some of the songs on her second album, including the title track. Separately Carey and Cole came up with a groove inspired by the group The Emotions, whose biggest hit was “Best Of My Love.” Some critics denounced “Emotions” for sounding a lot like “Best of My Love,” apparently missing the point of the title of Carey’s song; Carey and Cole intended the song as an homage. Carey, Clivilles, and Cole set the ’70s disco groove in a ’90s house framework, thus bridging styles and decades.

“Emotions” definitely helped listeners see (well, hear) Carey as more than a ballad singer, and in a way it helped create its own template for Carey; future singles like “Dreamlover” and “Fantasy” are also perfectly crafted songs that mix genres and are unabashedly romantic in their lyrical content. In regards to “Emotions” specifically, Stylus‘ Andrew Untergerger calls it one of the “most blissed-out, utterly delirious” love songs anyone produced in the ’90s. Devon Powers of Pop Matters calls the track “one of the strongest of her early work,” noting that “each verse is peppy and playful.” SoulBounce echoes that description in calling the song a “joyful romp.”

“Emotions” makes heavy use of Carey’s famous whistle notes, but this time there is real purpose; as Entertainment Weekly’s Arion Berger wrote, Carey’s whistle notes on the song make emotional sense as they convey that Carey is “too overwhelmed to put her passion into words.” In the rush of infatuation and at a loss for words, she has nowhere to go but up. And in fact, in a 1991 live MTV performance of the song, Carey would hit a note so high it made the Guinness Book of World Records. Not surprisingly “Emotions” would also earn Carey a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. In a 2015 piece, Entertainment Weekly staff called the vocal “Legendary.” Jennifer Still of Bustle commented about listeners, “Don’t pretend you don’t try it every single time.” It’s no wonder it’s nearly a Vine rite of passage to post a video attempting the feat.

The music video for “Emotions” was directed by Jeff Preiss and conveys the joyous feel of the song as Carey and her friends “romp’ around town. The video also features color desaturation, presumably to give the video the raw feeling of a home movie.

Commercially “Emotions” was a big hit for Carey. The song went Gold, and it spent 3 weeks at #1. In getting to #1, the song helped Carey break a chart record as she become the first artist to have their first 5 singles hit #1 on the Hot 100. That record still stands.

Over 20 years since its release, the current generation of pop singers have shown the popularity of “Emotions” endures. Ariana Grande covered the song in a move that increased both her profile and her credibility as a singer. Jessie J performed the song several times, including at Rock in Rio in 2013, and also posted a video on Instagram of her lip syncing to the song. What it all proved in the end, though, is that no other singer has the combination of technical prowess and vocal presence of Carey.

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“Hero,” the second single from the 1993 album Music Box, is not among Mariah Carey’s favorites. It is, however, several million people’s favorite. The song may strike some as banal, boring and clichéd mainly due to its simplistic lyrics of looking inside your heart and not being afraid of what you are. Mariah herself has expressed dissatisfaction over the song repeatedly, so there ought to be very little doubt as to this song’s place in her heart (at the bottom, together with songs like “Prisoner”). Given all that, “Hero” remains an essential song in her stellar career.

I suppose if you were a music critic trying to write an insightful piece about a pop song on a pop album from a pop artist, attempting to explain the narrative behind a song like “Hero” would have required a massive feat of sarcasm reining in. It wasn’t too shocking then for Mariah to acknowledge the critics who denounced the songs’ merits (e.g. a song that saves lives) in favor of sparkly snark. But for the acknowledgement to come directly from her mouth, i.e., “Hero” as a ‘shmaltzy piece of garbage’, is enough to make a grown fan cry.

In Tommy Mottola’s memoir “Hitmaker: The Man and His Music,” Mariah’s ex-husband tells as much: Mariah is not crazy about her 8^th Billboard Hot 100 #1. He said she didn’t want to be seen with her friends, the gangsta rappers, hanging out in the backyard jamming to a song like “Hero.” At the time, Mariah was beginning to explore the boundaries of creative freedom, but control was then still too elusive to pursue.

But you don’t need to have read the Mottola memoir to know about Mariah’s feelings for “Hero.” If all 18 of her number 1 hits were her children (and they are), it would surprise no one that the child she adores the least is also one of the most successful and also one of the brightest. As a dutiful mother of such an outstanding child, she feels the need to dress this kid up in an assortment of grandiose outfits to show to her friends. It is, nevertheless, one of the children that brings home the most medals from school. It is the child that the teachers at school fawn over, and through no fault of that child’s own, too. The child is all grown up and its mother seems at peace.

Because “Hero” is such a precious child, it became one of her most frequently performed songs. According to its co-writer Walter Afanasieff, a more difficult version was recorded with Mariah doing things that probably would have made it an even more difficult song to sing. Due to some judicious choices by her then handlers, a relatively tamer version was unleashed to the public. We know Afanasieff wasn’t lying because in several performances of the song, Mariah can be seen exerting even more vocal acrobatics than what is heard on the single version such as in this showstopping performance in Tokyo:

The song has been re-recorded and re-released on several compilation albums. Most notable of these are the re-purposed version in 2001, “Never Too Far/Hero Medley” and a version with new vocals which appeared on The Ballads. It is a song that is so universal, you can substitute its actual meaning for every conceivable life event that calls for self-empowerment. The lyrics are deceptively simple, the way it ought to be. It is a song written to inspire courage in your own heart, and for a song that set out what it needed to do, maybe ‘look inside you and be strong,’ etc, are all that need to be said.

Musical legends such as Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston are remembered for their towering presence in the world of music. Their memory should not be reduced to a single song, a dance step, or a million-selling album, but in a brief moment of grief, when realization of their absence hits you in full force, that single unforgettable act of sheer artistry is all you can recall. When Whitney Houston passed away, we remembered her for her untouchable performance of “I Will Always Love You” and for Michael Jackson, it was “Thriller.” For Mariah, it could be “Hero.”

In the liner notes of #1 to Infinity, she has this to say about the song:

‘I guess this is the song that people associate with me the most. Over the years I’ve grown to love performing it. I sing it differently each time because I am singing it directly to people’s hearts.’

It seems Mariah finally realized the futility of resisting “Hero’s” charms, its resonance, its ability to touch the hearts of many. She finally learned that “Hero” is and always will be the song that anyone who has ever heard music will think of when they think of Mariah Carey, and that it is not an entirely bad thing if they do. When she wrote the above notes in her latest greatest hits album, perhaps she finally looked inside her heart and saw the truth, because, Lord knows, for her many fans who may be facing the world alone, “Hero” is one of the realest things Carey has ever written. And, while she may be singing to her audience, for many, the “Hero,” in fact, lies in Mariah herself.

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Rewind back to 1970, for a moment. The Jackson 5 are on fire. They’ve already scored 3 number one hits, and show no signs of changing that pace. Berry Gordy, the head of Motown Records, decides to take a risk, and depart from the upbeat bubblegum soul the group has been successful with, and crafts them a ballad. “I’ll Be There” quickly becomes another number one for the group, proving that they can achieve success with more than one sound.

Back to Mariah. She chose the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There”, which she chose to maintain as a duet and incorporated back-up singer Trey Lorenz as her singing partner for their show-stopping rendition. The two trade lines back and forth throughout, showcasing each their soulful vocal abilities. Trey momentarily steals the show with a falsetto high note that could be mistaken for a lower range Mariah whistle note, but Mariah retains central attention throughout.

In a rare occurrence at the time, the fans demanded the single release, and the label didn’t expect it. While covers are not strangers to the Hot 100’s crowning position, a live cover, with no accompanying studio version topping the chart is an extreme rarity. It is also only the eighth song to top the chart as performed by two different acts, joining songs such as “The Loco-Motion,” “When A Man Loves A Woman” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” which also hold the honor. While the song was a return to form for Carey after the underperformance of “Make It Happen,” it also marked Carey’s breakthrough outside of North America. The song cracked the top 20 of the charts in a number of European markets and would begin a trend of European interest in Carey’s non-composed recordings.

Over the years she has frequently incorporated the song into set lists for tours and live televised appearances, most notably performing it at the memorial service for Michael Jackson. She also gained two Grammy nominations for her performance, but in a noticeable trend at the Grammys, found herself leaving empty-handed. Despite the lack of a Grammy, the song remains one of her most well-known covers worldwide and helped propel her to yet another level of superstardom.

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