“All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey

“All I Want For Christmas Is You” is a Christmas song in which legendary songstress Mariah Carey expresses the sentiment that despite the materialism usually associated with the holiday, the only gift she wants is to be in the loving personal company of the individual she has dedicated the song to.

INTRO

Here, Mariah outrightly states that she doesn’t “care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree”, thus shunning the aforementioned worldly aspect of this holiday season. Instead what she desires is spending quality time with the person she loves.

VERSE 1

She then states that this is more than just a craving but something she actually ‘needs’ to experience during the holidays.

CHORUS

Then Miss Carey lets this special person know that despite her previous elaborations, the extent to which she longs for his companionship is still outside of his comprehension. Thus she makes an appeal to this individual to make her “wish come true” by actually spending Christmas with her.

VERSE 2

Now Mariah points out that in addition to gifts, she’s not interested in any of the treats traditionally associated with Christmas. Instead she reiterates her anticipation of being with the person she loves. It is also during this stage of the song that she begins to make it clear that she is indeed talking to a lover as opposed to a family member or friend, as she references a mistletoe.

CHORUS

Now the singer shows exactly what type of companionship she is anticipating, as she is looking forward to spending Christmas in the “tight” embrace of her “baby”.

BRIDGE & VERSE 3

Although Mariah seems to have forsaken the Christmas spirit, during the bridge you can see she very much enjoys the overall holiday. However, once again she states the gift she desires the most is a visitation from her love, and this sentiment is repeated in the third verse.

CHORUS & OUTRO

Mariah ends the track by reinforcing that her only true wish for Christmas is having the undivided attention of her love.

Facts about “All I Want For Christmas Is You”

• Mariah Carey co-wrote and co-produced this Christmas hit single with Walter Afanasieff. Afanasieff (who is also known as Baby Love) is famed for being a long time collaborator of Carey. Aside Carey, he is also known for his collaborations with the likes of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, and Michael Bolton.
• Carey’s then record label, Columbia Records, released this song as a single on November 1, 1994. It was a promotional single from Carey’s fourth studio album titled Merry Christmas. The aforementioned album was also the first Christmas album of Carey’s career.
• Not long after its release, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” sold millions of copies around the globe. It went on to become one of the most successful singles of all time. Addition to that, the song is regarded as one of the best-selling Christmas songs ever.
• To date, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is the biggest international hit of Carey’s entire career. The song reached number 1 in several countries, including the Netherlands, Spain and Norway. It peaked at number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, it performed better, peaking at number 2.
• In 2011, Carey and Justin Bieber re-recorded this song as a duet. That version was titled “All I Want for Christmas for You (SuperFestive!). It appeared on Bieber’s album Under the Mistletoe.
• As of 2017, the song reportedly earned Carey somewhere in the region of $60 million. This whopping sum was from royalty earnings alone.

Besides Bieber’s version, are there any other cover versions of this song?

There are literally dozens of them! Since the song was released in the mid 1990s, numerous artists have covered it. Some of the most notable covers include the following:

• Shania Twain in 1998
• My Chemical Romance in 2004
• Miley Cyrus in 2007
• John Mayer in 2008
• Alexandria Burke in 2009
• Lady Antebellum in 2010
• Newsboys in 2010
• Michael Bubble in 2011
• Cee Lo Green in 2012
• Demi Lovato in 2012
• Ariana Grande in 2012
• The Electric Fire in 2013
• Fifth Harmony in 2014
• Kylie Minogue along with Mumford & Sons in 2015

I heard Mariah Carey wrote a book about this song? How true is this?

100% true! More than two decades after the song came out, Carey turned it into a book. In 2015, Carey published a children’s book based on this Christmas song. The picture book was given the same title as the song and released on November 10, 2015. The book tells the tale of a young girl wishing for nothing but a new puppy for Christmas. Carey wrote the story. The illustration was done by Colleen Madden.

“All I Want For Christmas” Finally Hits Number 1 in America

Since Carey released this classic back in 1994, it has remained popular, internationally. And finally, after two and-a-half decades, the track topped the Billboard Hot 100. Moreover in doing so, Miss Carey set the record for the longest duration of time, which happens to be 25 years, between a track being released and it reaching the summit of the Hot 100.

Tops UK Charts

In 2020, which is 26 years after releasing this classic, it finally topped the UK charts for the first time.

Spotify Success

• On 24th December, 2018, this Christmas classic was played as many as 10.8 million times on Spotify. This feat saw the song set a new record on that platform. Rapper XXXTentacion’s “Sad!” initially held that record with 10.4 million streams in just a single day.
• By Christmas of 2021, this classic Christmas song garnered over a billion streams on Spotify.

Performance on the Charts

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” was a #1 Hit in these countries:

In addition to the above, as of 2021, the song was also a top-10 hit here: