All I Want for Christmas Is You

In an interview with Billboard, songwriter and producer Walter Afanasieff explained how the song came about, he said:It was always the same sort of system with us. We would write the nucleus of the song, the melody primary music, and then some of the words were there as we finished writing it. I started playing some rock ‘n’ roll piano and started boogie woogie-ing my left hand, and that inspired Mariah to come up with the melodic ‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas.’ and then we started singing and playing around with this rock ‘n’ roll boogie song, which immediately came out to be the nucleus of what would end up being ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’ That one went very quickly: It was an easier song to write than some of the other ones. It was very formulaic, not a lot of chord changes. I tried to make it a little more unique, putting in some special chords that you really don’t hear a lot of, which made it unique and special. Then for the next week or two Mariah would call me and say, ‘What do you think about this bit?’ We would talk a little bit until she got the lyrics all nicely coordinated and done. And then we just waited until the sessions began, which were in the summer of ’94 where we got together in New York and started recording. And that’s when we first hear her at the microphone singing, and the rest is history”.

Songwriter/s: Mariah Carey – Walter Afanasieff

Label: Columbia

Chart Rankings:
UK – 2
US – 11
Germany – 13
In the UK, the song reached number 2 on the Official Charts Company and topped the UK R&B Charts. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it Double Platinum for sales over 1.2 million copies. In the US, it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, reached number 9 on the US Mainstream Top 40 and topped the US Holiday 100 charts. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it Gold for sales over 3.2 million digital downloads and Double Platinum for 2 million ringtone sales. The song also topped the charts in Hungary, Japan and Portugal. ‘All i want for Christmas’ reached the top 10 charts in several countries around the world including Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain Sweden and Switzerland. In Australia and Canada it was certified Triple Platinum, and in both countries Italy and Japan it was certified Double Platinum. In Denmark, New Zealand and Spain it was certified Platinum. while in Japan it sold over 1.1 million copies and was certified Million. Worldwide, ‘All i want for Christmas’ sold over 14 million copies.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Mariah Carey was 25 years old when she released this song.

Cover Versions: Duet (Justin Bieber & Mariah Carey – Shania Twain – Olivia Olson – My Chemical Romance – The Cheetah Girls – Agnes Carlsson & Mans Zerlmerlow – Miley Cyrus – Same Difference – John Mayer – Suemitsu & the Suemith – Whitney Duncan – Alexandra Burke – Dave Barnes – Big Time Rush – Lady Antebellum – Jessica Mauboy – May J. Newboys – Nota – Bowling for Soup – Michael Buble – Glee (Amber Riley) – Tiffany Alvord – Demi Lovato – Ariana Grande – Cee Lo Green – Quietdrive – Atomic tom – The Electrical Fire – Jim Brickman – Fifth Harmony – The McClymonts – Idina Menzel – Tal Wilkenfeld – Batfoot! – Paula Arenas – Ali Brustofski – Steve Grand – Chase Holfelder – Kylie Minogue and Mumford & Sons – The Girl and the Dreamcatcher – Saara Aalto – Cosmic Girls – Steve Grand – Karmin – She & Him – Straight No Chaser – The Darcys – The Dollyrots – Other amateur artists covered this song on Youtube.