Mariah Carey, one of the biggest-selling stars of the 1990s, is very poorly served in terms of the UK number ones she scored in that decade. Just the one, in fact. This one.
Without You, by Mariah Carey (her 1st of four #1s)
4 weeks, from 13th February – 13th March 1994
And I have to say, as much as I have a soft spot for ‘Mariah’ the camp icon – the ‘Cribs’ appearance, the ‘I don’t know her’ meme, all that nonsense – the fact that she didn’t dominate the British charts in the same way she took over the Billboard Hot 100 can only be a good thing. Yes, she can sing. No question. She takes Nilsson’s 1972 #1, and sings the absolute bejeezus out of it.
At one point, towards the end of this track, she extends the I can’t give any more… line for a full sixteen seconds, in a display of aggressive melisma. I can barely hold my breath for sixteen seconds, let alone belt out a succession of different musical notes for that length of time, and in purely technical terms it is very impressive. And yet, it’s these sorts of vocal gymnastics that ruin the song.
The same charges that were laid out against Whitney Houston as she whooped and hollered her way through ‘One Moment in Time’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’, can be made against Mariah here. Technically good singing will only get you so far, if you don’t mean what you’re howling about. Not in every song – plenty of decent pop songs can be churned out half-arsed – but in a torch song like this, with such a heartfelt original to compare it to, the difference shows. (Nilsson’s version, of course, wasn’t the original, but it is the version to which everyone compared Carey’s.)
Another comparison I can make between Mariah and Whitney is that I’ve always enjoyed Carey’s poppier moments more than her monster ballads. ‘Fantasy’, ‘Dreamlover’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ are all solid nineties pop tunes. What we also have to take into account, before complaining about her endless stream of ballads, is that she was tied in to a pretty controlling contract, and a pretty nasty relationship, with her manager Tommy Mottola.
I was under the impression that Harry Nilsson had died when this cover of his most famous hit was at #1, and was going to make a cheap joke about his cause of death. Except he had died a month before, in January 1994, at the very young age of fifty-two. I assume that Carey’s cover was already recorded by then, and wasn’t intended as a tribute, even if it did in the end become one. She had already had eight chart-toppers in the US, though ‘Without You’ stalled at #3 over there.
Younger readers may be surprised to discover that Mariah Carey actually had a recording career beyond a certain Christmas song, the name of which I dare not type out in case I accidentally get it stuck in my head. In truly shameless Mariah fashion, she’s really lent into her ‘Queen of Christmas’ alter-ego in recent years and, even as I sit here in late October, I’m counting down the days until her annual assault on the charts, and on our ears…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Mariah’s over singing is in a different league to Whitney’s, and personally I think her voice isn’t as good on the more poppy numbers. I Want to Dance With Somebody is head and shoulders above anything Mariah’s done. She still beats the awful warbling of a certain French Canadian who we’ll unfortunately meet soon though
Yes, I Want to Dance With Somebody is top-level pop (if a little overplayed by this point). Mariah’s voice is probably ‘better’ on the ballads, but more listenable on her upbeat numbers. And I agree that Celine makes the other two sound restrained and subtle…
Ha. Speaking of divas…
Yep. Badfinger song. Good song.
There is only one Carey song I have ever liked…the first one I heard…Vision of Love. After that, I was done.
Actually got a soft spot for Mariah’s singing, but I agree that she’s at her best with the uptempo tracks. Also four number ones? I only know of Without You, Against All Odds and All I Want For Christmas Is You. I know AIWFCIY has had two runs at the top, but I would have though that the OCC would class it as one number one.
I did think about that when writing the post… I think because it left the charts and then returned in a separate ‘run’ I’ll count it as two different number ones. Same as how I’ll count George Harrison as having two number ones, and Baddiel/Skinner/Lightning Seeds as having three… Not sure if that’s what the OCC do. Though I’m aware that AIWFCIY might make #1 every year from now to eternity, and Mariah end up as the most succesful chart act ever, going by my metrics…
Rating: 3/5
I don’t hate this version. I know a lot of people do, but I don’t. It’s not amazing, but it’s a pretty faithful if overembellished rendition of the Nilsson version. I’ve heard way worse, and Mariah has done way worse too.
Mariah Carey, she like Whitney Houston and Madonna I’m conflicted on. Some of her songs are great, but there are a lot of her songs I find just okay or even flat out dislike. I do tend to like her more poppier songs too, especially ones where she leans into her hip hop influence. She was a massive hitmaker during the 90s and sold truckloads of albums, though for a lot of people my age (24) and younger, a lot of her hits aren’t as well-known besides a select few.
I thought she had more No. 1s in the UK. I actually read she recorded this track because she knew it would be a huge international hit. And sure enough, it was.
I do think it’s a shame that for someone with so many huge hits – even if a lot of them are pretty second rate – she seems quite content to live off her one Xmas song. Maybe she sees it as riding the wave, as people will get tired of AIWFCIY eventually… (they will, surely, right….?)
Michael Buble is the same, but then I’d be quite happy if the rest of his back catalogue were to be quietly forgotten, forever…
Mariah can do some strong stuff. Fantasy. Dream Lover. All I Want for Eternity Every Christmas. Emotions. But then there’s this. Just awful. Bragging about the size of your vocal range is no substitute for emotion, and if there’s one thing that is unforgiveable to me it’s adding 247 notes where the song sheet has one. Hit the note and bow out gracefully Mariah….
She has a hell of a voice…and she doesn’t get on my nerves the way Houston did… I don’t hate this version but it’s a song that Nilsson did as well as you can so it’s not a song I wanted to hear a cover of….if that makes sense?
Yeah, nobody needs to hear Mariah’s take on this. What we needed is for Chaka Demus & Pliers to have done a reggae version… : )
LOL…it would beat this! At least it woud be original. She basically competed against Nilsson…and you can’t win when he was the first one. I would like to hear someone cover it like Badfinger wrote it for once.
Now I’m happy for Badfinger’s family members for getting royalities.
She has been my fav vocalist and song writer for YEARS