The second single from the album "Music box" was the powerful and inspirational ballad "Hero", and just like "Dreamlover" it climbed to number 1. This gave Mariah a remarkable total of eight number 1 Billboard singles. Curiously, "Hero" wasn't originally intended as a song for Mariah to sing, let alone as a single. It was meant to be the theme for the movie "Hero", starring Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis.

"The people over at Epic Records were going to do the soundtrack for the film," Walter Afanasieff explained to Fred Bronson. "They wanted to have Mariah sing the theme to it, but they didn't really think they could because at that time you couldn't get near Mariah to do anything film-wise. So they wanted to try the next best thing, which was to have us write something."

The movie had been screened for Afanasieff, and he'd been advised that Gloria Estefan would probably sing the theme. This happened while he and Mariah were working on "Music box". "I went to New York and we were in the studio and came to a break. I was sitting at the piano and told Mariah about this movie. Within two hours, we had this incredible seed for this song, Hero. It was never meant for Mariah to sing. In her mind, we were writing a song for Gloria Estefan for this movie. And we went into an area that Mariah really didn't go into. In her words, it was a bit too schmaltzy or too pop ballady or too old-fashioned as far as melody and lyrics."

The two were still working on the song when Tommy came into the studio to meet Mariah. Hearing a rough take, he asked what it was and they explained it to him. "Are you kidding me?" he replied. "You can't give this song to this movie. This is too good, Mariah, you have to take this song. You have to do it."

And so, with some lyrical changes, making it very personal, that was what she did. Walter told the Epic soundtrack people that he'd been unable to come up with a song, and the movie' s theme, "Heart of a hero", ended up being written, recorded, and produced by Luther Vandross.

There were two versions of Hero: "a simpler performance on tape and a more difficult one, with Mariah singing out more. But we choose a happy medium. The song really calls for not anything really fancy. But she's always fighting the forces inside of her because she's her own devil's advocate. She wants to do something that's so over the top and use her talents and the voice she has. But she also knows she has to restrain herself and do what music really calls for."

The proceeds from the single, which stayed at number 1 for four weeks, were donated to the families of the victims of the shooting on the Long Island Rail Road, a commuter line Mariah knew well. On December 7, 1993, a man had gone on a shooting rampage on an evening train. Mariah had often taken the LIRR in her younger days, when she was still living on Long Island and working with Ben Margulies at Bedworks.

Around 1995, two claims popped up against Mariah in court, one from Christopher Selletti and the other from Rhonda Dimmie, who oddly claimed different things: Selletti says the lyrics to "Hero" were his, Dimmie said the music was hers. They had never met or even heard of each other, however.

CD-SINGLES

5" CD-single from Argentina (1109) 2-000135 promo collection Gilbert Chong Tracklisting: 1. Heroe (En Castellano)

5" CD-single from Australia (0962) 659858 2 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live) 3. Everything fades away 4. Dreamlover (Club Joint Mix)

5" CD-single from Austria (0967) SAMP 2619 promo Tracklisting: 1. Heroe (Espaņol)

5" CD-single from Austria (2484) 659734 1 collection Wojciech Sichniewicz Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live Version)

5" CD-single from Austria (0310) 659734 2 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Dreamlover (Def Club Mix Edit) 3. Dreamlover (Theo's Club Joint) 4. Dreamlover (Def Tribal Mix)

5" CD-single from Austria (0311) 659812 2 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Dreamlover (Def Club Edit) 3. Dreamlover (Theo's Club Joint) 4. Dreamlover (Def Tribal Mix)

5" CD-single from Brazil (0307) 44.007/2-659734 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live) 3. Everything fades away 4. Dreamlover (Club Joint Mix)

3" CD-single from Japan (0313) SRDS 8267 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Everything fades away

5" CD-single from Japan (0312) SRCS 6969 picture disc collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live) 3. Everything fades away 4. Dreamlover (Club Joint Mix)

5" CD-single from Mexico/USA (0957) 1-2571 promo collection Licinio Lisboa Tracklisting: 1. Heroe (Spanish Version)

5" CD-single from Spain / Austria (0309) 659734 1 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live Version)

5" CD-single from Spain (0958) 661337 1 collection Licinio Lisboa Tracklisting: 1. Heroe (Spanish version of "Hero")

5" CD-single from the UK (2003) XPCD 333 promo collection Marcel Trupia Tracklisting: 1. Hero

5" CD-single single from the UK (3117) no catalogue number promo collection Andy Hermawan Tjondrodihardjo Tracklisting: 1. Hero This single was released in October 2008 as a promo for The Ballads album.

5" CD-single from the USA (0965) CSK 5703 promo without picture sleeve collection Pascal Bellerose Tracklisting: 1. Hero (Live)

5" CD-single from the USA (0933) CSK 77224 promo collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero

5" CD-single from the USA (0308) 44K 77225 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live) 3. Everything fades away 4. Dreamlover (Club Joint Mix)

VINYL SINGLES

7" vinyl single from Holland (0314) 659734 7 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live Version)

7" vinyl single from Holland (0963) 659812 7 back cover different from 0314 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live Version)

12" vinyl maxi-single from Holland (0955) 659734 8 collection Marco Musolino Tracklisting: 1. Hero (Album Version) 2. Dreamlover (Theo's Club Joint) 3. Dreamlover (Def Tribal Mix) 4. Dreamlover (Def Club Mix Edit)

12" vinyl maxi-single from Holland (0964) 659812 6 collection Luc Baumgartner Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Dreamlover (USA Love Dub) 3. Dreamlover (Def Club Mix)

12" vinyl maxi-single from Holland (0964) 659812 6 promo collection Wojciech Sichniewicz Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Dreamlover (USA Love Dub) 3. Dreamlover (Def Club Mix) This promo is exactly the same as item 0964, but on back cover is a sticker saying "Property of Sony Music - demonstration only - not for sale".

7" vinyl single from the Philippines (2013) QCL45-20445 collection Luc Baumgartner Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Hero

7" vinyl single from Spain (0906) ARIC 250 1-side promo collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero

7" vinyl single from the USA (0966) 38-77224 collection Lucas Baumgartner Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Everything fades away

CASSETTE SINGLES

cassette single from Australia (0960) 659858 8 collection Licinio Lisboa Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live) 3. Everything fades away 4. Dreamlover (Club Joint Mix)

cassette single from Holland (3204) 659734 4 tracks repeated on both sides collection Wojciech Sichniewicz Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live Version)

cassette single from the UK (1740) no catalogue number promo collection Pascal Bellerose Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Dreamlover

cassette single from the UK (0304) 659812 8 tracks repeated on both sides collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Hero (Live)

cassette single from the UK (0305) 659858 4 collection Eric de Ridder Tracklisting: 1. Hero (LP Version) 2. Hero (Live) 3. Everything fades away 4. Dreamlover (Club Joint Mix)

cassette single from the USA (0959) 38T 77224 collection Licinio Lisboa Tracklisting: 1. Hero 2. Everything fades away

SHEET MUSIC

sheet music from Australia (1831) 36310 Warner Bros. Music Australia collection Sharon Zagame

sheet music from the UK (1739) 18989 Warner Chappell Music Ltd/Sony Music Publishing 5 pages collection Pascal Bellerose

sheet music from the USA (1056) HL00349530 Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation easy piano 8 pages collection Eric de Ridder

sheet music from the USA (1055) HL00353231 Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation piano - vocal - guitar 6 pages collection Eric de Ridder