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HONEY
"Honey" was the first single of Mariah's album "Butterfly" and released
in August 1997. Especially for this album, Mariah measured
herself a new look. She was sexier than ever. The public got its first
taste of the new, freer Mariah when the video for "Honey" premiered
on MTV. As it was meant to do, it turned heads. Suddenly, Mariah
was grown up, Agent M, very sexy, showing a lot more of herself - in
more ways than one: in action escaping from a mansion, riding a jet
ski while evading the pursuing thugs, and ending up on a beach safe
in the arms of a hunk. This was, for the first time, Mariah as a babe.
Not only that, but the music was different. "Honey" went all the way into
hip-hop, further than Mariah had ever gone before, thanks to Puffy
being at the controls. Apparently, he had been given a free rein to do
his magic - magic that already produced two consecutive number 1
singles, "I'll be missing you" and "Mo money mo problems".
About "Honey" Mariah says: "Puff and I wanted to work together,
making the first single. We were doing all sorts of things, so I already
had a few songs I liked, but it wasn't quite exactly wat I was looking
for. The original idea for 'Honey' is based on the song 'Body rock' by
Treacherous Three. He let me hear it on the phone, and my reaction
was: This is it. So I wrote 'Honey' referring to that song, and we worked
together at Puffy's house."
The idea for the video had been entirely Mariah's. "It was my
whole concept," she said. "Director Paul Hunter and I talked about it
for a while, and collaborated on it." Shot during the summer in Puerto
Rico, "It was a grueling process, I'm not going to say it was easy. I got
up at 3 am every day, and worked until 9 in the morning the next day
- for four hours in a row, swimming in my Gucci pumps. I can't say that
I really jumped off the roof, but I did dive into the pool. And I did wear
and swim in those pumps, and I was not happy."
It all seemed innocent enough, another video with a story line,
plenty of spy overtones, and action. But there were people eager
to read a lot more into it, a subtext of Mariah escaping the controlling
grip of Tommy Mottola. Even Walter Afanasieff, who was loyal to
both Mariah and Tommy (his employer), called it "the most incredibly
coincidental thing that you could put out. Everything in the video is
‘Fuck you, Tommy'."
Mariah, however, insisted that that simply was not the case.
There was no slight to Tommy intended in the video, and the people
who thought there was were just imagining things. Even so, a few
insisted that the video was a parody of the way she'd been treated.
And what was Tommy's reaction? "Tommy loves the video," a spokesperson
said, "and says it's the best yet from Mariah. With its clothes
and sensuous looks, it was certainly racier than any video she'd
made before. "I don't really think the video is overly sexual," Mariah
contested. "But for me - I mean people used to think I was the nineties
version of Mary Poppins."
Wether the "Honey" video was controversial or truly innocent was
irrelevant to most of the people who watched it on television. Or to
those who rushed out the week of the single's release and gave
Mariah something that had never been achieved before - her third
single to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number 1. Its importance
went well beyond its chart placing, however. "Honey" was the record
that gave Mariah hip-hop credibility. Before that, she'd been seen as
a pop singer with R&B tendencies, someone who might have liked
hip-hop, but who wasn't really a part of the scene. "Honey" changed
that perception, and even those who'd once dismissed Mariah as a
wannabe were forced to take a second look.
To be fair, a good deal of this success had to do with Sean
("Puffy") Combs' production, but the song had originated with
Mariah, after she'd worked with rapper Q-Tip, from A Tribe Called
Quest. "They had an idea and they asked me to come in and produce
the record," Combs said. So far it seemed so good. But he wasn't allowed
in the studio when Mariah was doing her vocal takes - an odd
situation for a producer. "A lot of people feel I'm overbearing," Combs
explained, "so I wasn't allowed there. I'm trying to work on that. I'm
such a perfectionist, sometimes I don't give people the chance to
breathe. Mariah recorded 'Honey' until she thought it was perfect, like
a hundred times. She gave me a hundred tracks to choose from."
The combination of Mariah and Puff Daddy seemed to be magical,
and there was no denying "Honey" had exactly what the charts
were looking for, even if it seemed like a fairly radical departure for
Mariah from the music for which she was known. But it was really
the product of a woman who now felt in a position to express herself
more freely. With its samples of "The body rock" by Treacherous 3 and
"Hey DJ", on top of Q-Tip's drum programming, Stevie J's keyboards,
and additional vocals from Mase and The Lox, this was a Mariah no
one had had a chance to hear before: very sexy, very sassy, very contemporary.
Like all of Combs' productions, "Honey" sounded dense, but
there was a lot of space within the sound. "I don't know where I got
the idea about honey and love, but I like it," Mariah said.
This hit not only made her the first artist to have three singles
go straight in at number 1, but it also gave her the most number 1
hits of any female solo artist - twelve - one ahead of both Madonna
and Whitney Houston. And it put her in a fourth-place tie with the
Supremes for the most Number 1 singles, behind only Michael Jackson,
Elvis Presley and the Beatles. She was now in very prestigious
company. And, essentially, it made her a classic pop-era singer, not
that she wasn't one already.
"Honey" only lasted at Number 1 for two weeks, but somehow that
didn't matter. Its impact had been made, and the "new" Mariah had
been announced. So when her album "Butterfly" appeared on September
16, it too entered the chart in the top position.
| CD-SINGLES |
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5" CD-single from Argentina (2227)
2-000340
promo
collection Luc Baumgartner
Tracklisting:
1. Honey
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
3. Honey (Smooth Versin With Intro)
4. Honey (Smooth Version No Intro) | |
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5" CD-single from Australia (1142)
SAMP 942
promo
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (Smooth Version With Intro)
2. Honey (Smooth Version No Intro)
3. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
4. Honey (LP Version) | |
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 |
5" CD-single from Australia (0322)
664747 2
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
|
 |
5" CD-single from Austria (0323)
664781 1
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix) | |
|
 |
5" CD-single from Austria (0324)
664781 2
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
|
 |
5" CD-single from Austria (3217)
664781 2
promo
collection Stefano Veneziani
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental)
This CD-Single is exactly the same as item 0324, but on the back cover is a
stamp saying "promotion only - not for sale". | |
|
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5" CD-single from Brazil (1452)
899.410
promo
collection Daniela Rezende Carbone
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Classic Mix)
3. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD) | |
|
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5" CD-single from Brazil (1141)
899.411
promo
collection Renato Magalhães Rocha
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
|
|
5" CD-single from Canada (0320)
44K 78665
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
|
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5" CD-single from France (1665)
664781 1
collection Jennifer Njo
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix) | |
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3" CD-single from Japan (0330)
SRDS 8333
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix) | |
|
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3" CD-single from Japan (2656)
SRDS 8333
promo
collection Andy Ariyanto
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
This CD-Single is exactly the same as item 0330, but on the back cover is a
sticker saying "not for sale" and on the single is a stamp saying "sample". | |
|
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5" CD-single from Mexico (1258)
PRCD 97076
promo
collection Marcel Trupia
1. Honey
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
3. Honey (Smooth Version With Intro)
4. Honey (Smooth Version No Intro) | |
|
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5" CD-single from South-Africa (0327)
CDSIN 212 I
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
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5" CD-single from Taiwan (2335)
S-P08
promo, without back cover
collection Rob Fredie
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
3. Honey (Smooth Version With Intro)
4. Honey (Smooth Version No Intro) | |
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5" CD-single from the UK (0325)
665019 2
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Smooth Version With Intro)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD) | |
|
|
5" CD-single from the UK (0326)
665019 5
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Classic Mix)
3. Honey (Morales Club Dub)
4. Honey (Mo' Honey Dub)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
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5" CD-single from the UK (3218)
665019 5
promo
collection Stefano Veneziani
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Classic Mix)
3. Honey (Morales Club Dub)
4. Honey (Mo' Honey Dub)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental)
This CD-Single is exactly the same as item 0326, but on the back is a sticker
saying "property of Sony Music - promotional copy - not for sale". | |
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5" CD-single from the USA (0328)
CSK 1489
promo
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
3. Honey (Smooth Version With Intro)
4. Honey (Smooth Version No Intro) | |
|
|
5" CD-single from the USA (0329)
CSK 2927
promo
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (Smooth Version) | |
|
|
5" CD-single from the USA (0319)
38K 78648
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix) | |
|
|
5" CD-single from the USA (0321)
44K 78665
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
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| VINYL SINGLES |
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12" vinyl maxi-single from Holland (1331)
XPR 2362
promo
collection Peter Bozoski
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix)
3. Honey (Smooth Version With Intro)
4. Honey (Smooth Version No Intro) | |
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12" vinyl maxi-single from Holland (0333)
XPR 2367
David Morales / Satoshi Tomiie Remixes
promo, double pack
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (Classic Mix)
2. Honey (Morales Club Dub)
3. Honey (Morales Dub)
4. Honey (Mo' Honey Dub) | |
|
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12" vinyl maxi-single from Holland (0332)
664781 6
double pack
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
4. Honey (Morales Club Dub)
5. Honey (Classic Mix)
6. Honey (Morales Dub)
7. Honey (Mo' Honey Dub)
8. Honey (Classic Instrumental)
9. Honey (So So Def Radio Mix featuring Da Brat & JD) | |
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7" vinyl single from the UK (2015)
665019 0
promo
collection Luc Baumgartner
Tracklisting:
1. Honey
2. Honey (Remix) | |
|
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7" vinyl single from the USA (0334)
38-78648
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox) | |
|
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12" vinyl maxi-single from the USA (1205)
CAS 3311
promo
collection Sean McDonough
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (Def Rascal Anthem)
2. Honey (Rascal Dub)
It was sent out as a supplement to the commercial mixes on September 24, 1997.
It comes in a generic black sleeve, but there is a very unique promo sticker on it. | |
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12" vinyl maxi-single from the USA (3243)
ND-3576
promo
collection Wojciech Sichniewicz
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (Puffy Remix)
2. Honey (L. P. Mix)
3. Honey (Smooth Mix with Intro)
4. Moob of steel (L. P. Mix)
5. Zoom (L. P. Mix)
6. Give it up (L. P. Mix) | |
|
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12" vinyl maxi-single from the USA (1143)
44X 78665
double pack
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
4. Honey (Morales Club Dub)
5. Honey (Classic Mix)
6. Honey (Morales Dub)
7. Honey (Mo' Honey Dub)
8. Honey (Classic Instrumental)
9. Honey (So So Def Radio Mix featuring Da Brat & JD) | |
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| CASSETTE SINGLES |
|
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cassette single from Australia (1146)
664747 8
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
|
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cassette single from Japan (2932)
no catalogue number
promo
collection Michael Merino
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix) | |
|
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cassette single from Malaysia (0317)
664781.4
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
|
 |
cassette single from the UK (0318)
665019 4
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox) | |
|
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cassette single from the USA (1144)
38T 78648
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox) | |
|
|
cassette single from the USA (1145)
44T 78665
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox)
3. Honey (Classic Mix)
4. Honey (So So Def Mix featuring Da Brat & JD)
5. Honey (Classic Instrumental) | |
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| VIDEO SINGLES |
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video single from Australia (0331)
664747 5
parental guidance recommended for persons under 15 years
collection Eric de Ridder
Tracklisting:
1. Honey (LP Version)
2. Honey (Bad Boy Remix featuring Mase & The Lox) | |
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| SHEET MUSIC |
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sheet music from Australia (1837)
MS03383
Zomba Music Publishers Limited
collection Sharon Zagame | |
|
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sheet music from the UK (1372)
AM950807
Music Sales Limited
8 pages
collection Alberto Amoretti | |
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sheet music from the USA (1836)
HL00351662
Hal Leonard Corporation
collection Sharon Zagame | |
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