| Wednesday 9 February 2005 |
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Albums of the 90's
Released late last year, "100 Best Selling albums of the 90s" by Peter Dodd, Justin Cawthorne, Chris Barrett and Dan Auty, (Amber Books, £9.99) contains a short article about each record featured, plus detailed information about track listings, writing and production credits, featured musicians and any Grammy nominations and/or number one singles received on either side of the Atlantic. It also features a full page picture of each album's cover.
The albums are ranked in order of sales, with the tallies made up of the combined platinum and multi platinum sales awards gained in either the UK or US. While this means that Mariah's huge sales in the likes of Australia and the Far East aren't credited, the book nevertheless confirms her status as one of the biggest acts of the decade and contains some very positive comments about Mariah's work, describing her as "the decade's pre-eminent R&B star" and reminding us that "with her impish looks and a seven octave voice, [Mariah's]… three biggest selling albums of the decade sold more than 30,000,000 copies between them".
These three albums are all ranked in the top 40 best sellers of the decade, purely on US and UK sales alone: 40. Mariah Carey
Albums sold: 9,300,000. Release date: May 1990. Number One singles: US (Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Someday, I Don't Wanna Cry). Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance- Vision of Love.
Mariah Carey's Debut album left little doubt that this young woman was going to be a major star. The 20-year-old's incredible voice and the fact that she co-wrote every track on the album made her stand out from the rest of the post-Whitney divas, and, despite a slow start, after 36 weeks of release, it reached Number One in the Billboard chart and won two Grammy awards.
A number of different producers took material Carey had written with song-writing partner Ben Margulies and created a polished, commercial sound: the record combined emotional, synth-drenched ballads, and catchy, upbeat soul-pop, Carey's weeping vocals dominating all. Opening track "Vision of Love" was Carey's debut single and her first Number One, a ballad with a doo-wop swing on which producer Rhett Lawrence makes good use of breathy backing vocals and lush keyboard sounds. The gospel-influenced "There's Got To Be A Way" and "Someday" were faster and catchy, while "You Need Me" had an edgier feel.
The album produced four number ones - "Vision of Love", "Someday", and the ballads "I Don't Wanna Cry" and "Love Takes Time". 28. Daydream
Albums sold: 10,600,000. Release date: October 1995. Number Ones: US (Fantasy, One Sweet Day, Always Be My Baby).
Mariah Carey's fourth album was probably the most successful at combining the three elements that made her the biggest-selling female artist of the decade: her amazing five-octave voice, the ballads for which she was well known, and the emerging R&B sound that would mark her subsequent releases. Lead-off track "Fantasy" became the first single by a female artist ever to debut at Number One on the Hot 100. It marked a new sound for Carey, her voice riding on top of a sample of Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" and an infectious multi-tracked chorus. "Always Be My Baby" had a 1960s pop feel, "Long Ago" continued the more beat orientated sound, while "One Sweet Day" (which spent a record-breaking 16 weeks at Number One) saw Carey team up with Boyz II Men, the biggest R&B group of the day.
Of course, it's the ballads to which her voice has always been best suited, and the likes of the dreamy "Underneath the Stars", "I Am Free" and the Journey cover "Open Arms" are classic Carey. 23. Music Box- Mariah Carey
Albums Sold: 11,500,000. Release date: August 1993. Number Ones: US (Dreamlover, Hero), UK (Without You).
Mariah Carey's third studio album marked a return to the top of the US album chart, a position she held for eight weeks. Much accused of "over singing", on Music Box Carey was clearly at pains to prove that she was capable of at least partial restraint. Her vocal pyrotechnics do inevitably-and quite rightly- explode from time to time, but she and song writing partner Walter Afanasieff produce a cohesive and, by her standards, more understated affair than usual. The more measured approach did little to dampen the interest of fans and her scale-vaulting prowess emerges unscathed on the big hits - "Hero" and "Dreamlover", where her emotive side is very much to the fore.
In fact, this release turned out to the best-selling album from the best-selling female artist of the 1990s. Obvious comparisons have been drawn between Carey, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion; all immensely gifted divas of the 1990s. However, where Carey had the edge was in the song-writing department - on Music Box, all but one of the ten track bears her name. She was also, in he early 1990s, at least, clearly savvy at picking the right collaborators, including a host of big name producers. Over all Mariah ranks 2 in the list of artists with the most albums in the top 100. Although she has the same number of entries as Celine (3), the authors rank her higher as Mariah's albums are placed higher overall than Celine's:
Garth Brooks (7)
Mariah Carey (3)
Celine Dion (3)
Shania Twain (2)
Backstreet Boys (2)
Dixie Chicks (2)
Boyz II Men (2)
Kenny G (2)
Pearl Jam (2)
Toni Braxton (2)
TLC (2) Additionally Mariah asserts her dominance in the list of albums containing the most number one singles:
Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey (4 US Number Ones)
Spice - Spice Girls (1 US Number one, 3 UK Number Ones)
Christina Aguilera - Christina Aguilera (3 US Number Ones, 1 UK Number One)
Daydream - Mariah Carey (3 US Number Ones)
Music Box - Mariah Carey (2 US Number Ones, 1 UK Number One)
No Way Out - Puff Daddy (2 US Number Ones, 1 UK Number One)
Baby One More Time - Britney Spears (1 US Number One, 2 UK Number Ones) Mariah's placing at no.23 with Music Box makes her the 13th highest ranked American and the 8th highest ranked solo artist. She contributes 3 of Columbia records' 10 entries in the 100 best selling albums of the 90s.
To put Mariah in the context of her rivals, the full top 40 best sellers list is as follows. Where albums have been certified to the same level allowance is made for the release date (so for instance the Smashing Pumpkins at no.39, released in 1995, had five years less to reach their total than Mariah's debut):
40. Mariah Carey - Mariah Carey
39. Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins
38. Big Willie Style - Will Smith
37. Spice - Spice Girls
36. Life After Death - Notorious BIG
35. Human Clay - Creed
34. Fly - Dixie Chicks
33. Dookie - Green Day
32. Lion King OST
31. Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
30. Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Em - MC Hammer
29. Nevermind - Nirvana
28. Daydream - Mariah Carey
27. Unplugged - Eric Clapton
26. Piece Of You - Jewel
25. Devil Without A Cause - Kid Rock
24. Crazysexycool - TLC
23. Music Box - Mariah Carey
22. Let's Talk About Love - Celine Dion
21. Titanic OST
20. II - Boyz II Men
19. Yourself or Someone Like You - Matchbox 20
18. Ten - Pearl Jam
17. Breathless - Kenny G
16. Forrest Gump OST
15. Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks
14. The Woman In Me - Shania Twain
13. Falling Into You - Celine Dion
12. Metallica - Metallica
11. Millennium - Backstreet Boys
10. Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
09. Ropin' The Wind - Garth Brooks
08. Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys
07. Supernatural - Santana
06. Double Live - Garth Brooks
05. No Fences - Garth Brooks
04. Cracked Rear View - Hootie and the Blowfish
03. Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette
02. The Bodyguard OST
01. Come On Over - Shania Twain (Mariah Connection)
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