Music Box
From Mariah Carey Wiki
Music Box is the fourth album and third studio album by American singer Mariah Carey, released in the United States on August 31 1993 by Columbia Records. Carey co-wrote and co-produced all of the tracks on the album, her co-writers/producers being Walter Afanasieff, Clivilles & Cole, and Babyface. It is largely composed of ballads such as "Hero" and "Anytime You Need a Friend", with a few up-tempo songs including "Now That I Know" and "I've Been Thinking About You". Carey was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for lead single "Dreamlover" at the 1994 Grammy Awards, losing to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".
Music Box entered the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at number two and ascended to number one fifteen weeks after its release, where it stayed for eight non-consecutive weeks. It remained in the top twenty for forty weeks and on the Billboard 200 for 128 weeks (more than two and half years), making three separate re-entries. It also topped Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts and proved to be a huge success worldwide, reaching number one in the UK, Australia and Japan. It was certified ten times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 1997, making it Carey's first diamond-selling album. It is her most successful album to date worldwide, and has sold around 30 million copies.
Music Box yielded Carey's seventh and eighth U.S. number-one singles: "Dreamlover" and "Hero". "Dreamlover" spent eight weeks at number one and has become one of Carey's most popular songs to date, continuing the trend of all Carey's debut singles from each studio album topping the U.S. charts (which would last until the turn of the decade). "Hero" spent four weeks at number one, and has arguably become one of Carey's best known works. The album's third and fourth singles, "Without You" (a cover of the Badfinger song) and "Anytime You Need a Friend", were slightly less successful in the U.S. The former did not reach number one but it became Carey's first single to top the UK charts and was very successful worldwide, while "Anytime You Need a Friend" failed to make the U.S. top ten (Carey's first single to do so).
[edit] Track listing and credits
- U.S. edition
Released on August 31 1993. All songs co-written and co-produced by Mariah Carey; names of other writers and/or producers are in brackets.
- "Dreamlover" (Dave Hall, Walter Afanasieff) — 3:53
- "Hero" (Afanasieff) — 4:19
- "Anytime You Need a Friend" (Afanasieff) — 4:25
- "Music Box" (Afanasieff) — 4:57
- "Now That I Know" (Robert Clivillés, David Cole) — 4:19
- "Never Forget You" (Babyface, Daryl Simmons) — 3:46
- "Without You" (Ham, Evans) — 3:36
- "Just to Hold You Once Again" (Afanasieff) — 3:59
- "I've Been Thinking About You" (Clivillés, Cole) — 4:48
- "All I've Ever Wanted" (Afanasieff) — 3:51
- Non-U.S. edition
- 11 "Everything Fades Away" (Afanasieff) — 5:25
[edit] Charts
| Country | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S | 1 (8 weeks) |
| New Zealand | 1 (13 weeks) |
| Netherlands | 1 (12 weeks) |
| Austria | 1 (11 weeks) |
| Germany | 1 (11 weeks) |
| UK | 1 (6 weeks) |
| Switzerland | 1 (1 week) |
| Australia | 1 |
| Finland | 1 |
| France | 1 |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Japan | 2 |
| Italy | 2 |
| Norway | 3 |
| Sweden | 3 |
| Hungary | 4 |
| Canada | 5 |
