Mariah Carey – Vision Of Love

Released on May 15, 1990, “Vision Of Love” was Mariah Carey’s first single. The song debuted at #73 in America, but two months later, in August, spent four weeks at the #1 spot. The orchestral ballad showcased Carey’s outrageous vocal range and the video provided a great look at the singer, with lots of close-ups. Carey built off the song’s success and became the top-selling female artist of the ’90s.

Seventeen-year-old Mariah Carey was working as a waitress to support her budding music career when she met the song’s co-writer, Ben Margulies. She needed a keyboard player for a recording session of a different song and – although he was mainly a drummer – Margulies offered his services. The pair hit it off and they started writing songs together. Margulies also played drums on this track.

This won the 1990 Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Carey also won the Best New Artist Grammy for that year – a far better choice than the previous winner, Milli Vanilli.

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Mariah Carey - Vision Of Love

Mariah Carey - Vision Of Love03:27

This was also a #1 hit on the R&B chart for two weeks in August 1990.

Mariah sang this on the October 27, 1990 episode of Saturday Night Live.

In 1992, Mariah performed this as part of her MTV Unplugged special, which led to its inclusion on the accompanying live EP.

Video on the top is Live at The Arsenio Hall Show.

And this is a statement from a person at that recording: “I was in the audience for this. Every person was plastered to the back of their seats, riveted by this performance. We heard two songs – the audience went absolutely nuts. Arsenio’s intro was into the camera, but the audience could not hear it. We asked all around fellow audience members “who IS that?!?!?” – and nobody knew. We had to go home, turn on the TV that night and watch the full show to learn that the singer’s name was “Mariah Carey.” I never witnesses such a remarkable phenomenon before or since.”

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