Mariah Carey Greatest Hits

Mariah Carey Overview

This is a review of Mariah Carey greatest hits and how she became famous and popular with her music. She was born on March 27, 1970 in N

A Color Phote of Marich Carey
A Color Phote of Marich Carey

orthport, New York. Mariah’s mother was an accomplished opera singer and vocal coach. When Mariah’s parents divorced in 1973, she went and lived with her mother. From a young age Carey excelled in her music. She demonstrated the usage of whistle register (the highest resister of the human voice), and began to master it with her mother’s training.

When she was in high school, she developed a relationship with Gavin Christopher whom they shared musical aspirations. They began writing and composing songs together in Carey’s senior year. Their first composition was “Here We Go Round Again”. She began working as a waitress to pay rent. They finally completed a four song demo tape and attempted to pass it on to music labels, but met with failure every time. Shortly thereafter, she was introduced to Brenda K. Starr.

Music Career

It was during her friendship with Starr that Carey got noticed. Carey accompanied Starr to a record executive’s gala, where she handed her demo tape to Tommy Mottola, who was head of Columbia Records.  On his way home he was listening to the demo tape and after the second song, he turned around to find Carey. She was gone and took two weeks to find her and singed her at once to a contract. They began working together mapping out her debut to mainstream music.

45 RPM Single One Sweet Day By Mariah Carey
45 RPM Single One Sweet Day By Mariah Carey

She worked on her first album titled “Mariah Carey” and eventually reached #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart in 1991. The album yielded 4 number one songs with her first one being “Vision Of Love” which was #1 for four weeks. The album was a huge success selling over 15 million copies. She became the first artist since the Jackson 5 to have her first four singles to chart at #1. She was now well on her way to success. She added one more song at #1 with her next album release “Emotions” also was a single and it hit #1, in 1991, making it five songs in a row at #1. The next two singles reached the top ten. She followed those with three more #1 hit songs, making it a total of eight of her first ten songs to go to number 1 on the Hot 100 chart.

Billboard Success

Mariah Carey had a total of 18 #1 songs to top the charts, which ties Elvis at #2 of all-time. She also had 28 top 10, 34 top 20, and 38 top 40 hits. She also had 16 top 10 albums. Her number one songs spent a total of 79 weeks at the top of the charts, which makes her #2 one behind Elvis Presley with 80. Her best song was “One Sweet Day” and it spent 16 weeks at the number 1 position in 1995, a record until broken by the Goo Goo Dolls with their song “Iris” in 1998, which spent 18 weeks at #1.

She has won a Grammy “Best New Artist” in 1990.

Billboard ranks Mariah Carey as the #1 artist from 1990-1999, #20 from 2000-2009, and the #5 artist of all-time from 1955-2010.

Marich Carey Auld Lang Syne Album Cover
Marich Carey Auld Lang Syne Album Cover

Complete List of Mariah’s #1 & Top Ten Hits

  1. Vision Of Love – August 4, 1990 #1 (4)
  2. Love Takes Time – November 10, 1990 #1 (3)
  3. Someday – March 9, 1991 #1 (2)
  4. I Don’t Wanna Cry – May 25, 1991 #1 (2)
  5. Emotions – October 12, 1991 #1 (3)
  6. Can’t Let Go – November 16, 1991 #2 (1)
  7. Make It Happen – February 22, 1992 #5
  8. I’ll Be There – June 20, 1992 #1 (2)
  9. Dreamlover – September 11, 1993 #1 (8)
  10. Hero – December 25, 1993 #1 (4)
  11. Without You – January 29, 1994 #3 (6)
  12. Endless Love – September 10, 1994 #2 (1)
  13. Fantasy – September 30, 1995 #1 (8)
  14. One Sweet Day – December 2, 1995 #1 (16)
  15. Always Be My Baby – May 4, 1996 #1 (2)
  16. Forever – June 29, 1996 #9
  17. Honey – September 13, 1997 #1 (3)
  18. My All – May 23, 1998 #1 (1)
  19. I Still Believe – February 6, 1999 #4
  20. Heartbreaker – October 9, 1999 #1 (2)
  21. Thank God I Found You – February 19, 2000 #1 (1)
  22. Loverboy – June 23, 2001 #2 (2)
  23. I Know What You Want – March 8, 2003 #3 (3)
  24. We Belong Together – June 4, 2005 #1 (14)
  25. Shake It Off – July 30, 2005 #2 (6)
  26. Don’t Forget About Us – December 31, 2005 #1 (2)
  27. Touch My Body – April 12, 2008 #1 (2)
  28. Obsessed – July 25, 2009 #7

Mariah Carey had a total of 47 singles make the Hot 100 Pop chart. Her last single on the chart was “Up Out My Face”, #100 for one week. Her last top ten and top forty hit was “Obsessed” #7 in 2009. Her single of longevity is “We Belong Together” in 2005, was on the chart for 43 weeks.

Adult Contemporary Chart #1 & Top Ten Singles

Below is a complete list of all of Mariah Carey’s number one and top ten singles on the Adult Contemporary chart. The number one songs will be in bold and the weeks at #1 & #2 in (), the date the song debut at #1 for #1 hits and top ten hits will be the date the record first appeared on the Hot 100 chart.

  1. Vision Of Love – August 4, 1990 #1 (3)
  2. Love Takes Time – October 27, 1990 #1 (1)
  3. Someday – January 26, 1991 #5
  4. I Don’t Wanna Cry – June 8, 1991 #1 (1)
  5. Emotions – August 31, 1991 #3
  6. Can’t Let Go – January 18, 1992 #1 (3)
  7. I’ll Be There – July 11, 1992 #1 (2)
  8. Dreamlover – August 14, 1993 #2 (8)
  9. Hero – October 30, 1993 #2 (5)
  10. Without You – February 5, 1994 #4
  11. Anytime You Need A Friend – May 28, 1994 #5
  12. All I Want For Christmas Is You – December 24, 1994 #6
  13. Fantasy – September 9, 1995 #8
  14. One Sweet Day – December 30, 1995 #1 (13)
  15. Always Be My Baby – March 23, 1996 #2 (4)
  16. Forever – July 6, 1996 #2 (6)
  17. When You Believe – November 14, 1998 #3
  18. I Still Believe – January 30, 1999 #8
  19. All I Want For Christmas Is You – December 25, 1999 #10 [Reissue of hit #12 in 1994]

All told, Mariah Carey had 6#1’s, 19 Top 10, 24 Top 20, 26 Top 40 hits. She is ranked as the #21 artist of all-time on the Adult Contemporary chart from 1961-2001.

One Sweet Day #1 (16 Weeks)



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Mariah’s album The Essential Mariah Carey (2 CD)The Essential Mariah Carey 2 CD's contains most of her #1 hits and a total of 28 song tracks with fourteen on each CD.

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