Mariah Carey - "Oh Santa!"
16 years ago Mariah Carey released her first Christmas album Merry Christmas, and it included the instant standard, "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Now she is releasing her second Christmas collection Merry Christmas II You, and it includes the stellar single "Oh Santa!" This easily could be one of the top new Christmas tracks of 2010. Upbeat, cheerful, and thoroughly Mariah Carey, pop radio should jump on this throughout the holidays.
A cheerleader chant, jazzy verse and chorus, chiming bells, handclaps, and a trademark melismatic extravaganza near the end all make this Christmas tune a classic Mariah Carey recording. Lyrically it is all a request of Santa Claus to bring a lover back as the ultimate Christmas gift. It is a simple, common Christmas song sentiment, but in the hands of Mariah Carey and her collaborators Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox is a deliriously perky introduction to the season.
The album Merry Christmas II You will feature four new songs in total. "Oh Santa!" sounds effortlessly breezy and hearkens back to classic Mariah Carey music. There is nothing self-consciously contemporary. The song would be perfectly at home on an old-fashioned Christmas television special. The hint of competition with the desired boyfriend's new girlfriend gives the song just the amount of sass and spunk that is needed to keep things interesting. Mariah Carey attacks the vocals with perfect spirit for the holidays.
The first Merry Christmas collection has sold over five million copies and the song "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has sold over a million downloads. Those might be steep numbers for Mariah Carey to consider in the current sales environment, but holiday albums have been some of the biggest sellers in recent years. This also may be just the ticket to pull Mariah Carey out of the sales doldrums of last year's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel collection which has just barely reached gold sales status in the US. (About.com)
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