Mariah Carey's debut nearly slipped past the executive who signed her
At an industry party in 1988, a backing singer's demo tape was snatched out of another executive's hand by Tommy Mottola. He played it in his limousine, rushed back inside, and found she had already gone home. A week later he tracked her down, and her debut album went on to top the charts for eleven weeks.
In 1988 Mariah Carey was 19, newly moved from her mother's house on Long Island to a small Manhattan flat, juggling jobs and shopping a four-song demo she had written in high school with Ben Margulies. Her break came through singer Brenda K. Starr, who hired her as a backing vocalist, heard flashes of an extraordinary voice and took her to the gala where Mottola, then heading Columbia's parent company, grabbed the tape. She signed with Columbia in December 1988. Mottola saw in her a rival to both Whitney Houston and Madonna.
He surrounded her with established hitmakers, among them Narada Michael Walden, Ric Wake, Rhett Lawrence and Walter Afanasieff. Carey and Margulies had written more than fourteen songs and hoped to produce the record themselves, which the label would not allow, though seven of their songs made the album. Walden found her shy but strikingly professional; Lawrence recalled her returning to the studio a week after finishing a song just to fix one line. Love Takes Time was written as the album was being mastered in May 1990 and added so late that early copies left it off the liner notes.
Columbia released the album on June 12, 1990. Critics admired her voice and technique more than the songwriting, but buyers had no doubts. It spent eleven straight weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, went nine times platinum in the United States and seven times in Canada, and has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.
The singles made history. Vision of Love, the lead release, is regarded as one of the finest debut singles by a woman. Love Takes Time, Someday and I Don't Wanna Cry all followed it to number one on the Hot 100, making Carey the first act since the Jackson 5 whose first four singles all topped the American chart.
Source: Mariah Carey (album)
