Raiff Celebrates Mariah's 20 Years in Music: 1992

Posted by Raiff on Monday, 17-May-2010, 12:01PM EDT

As Mariah began the third year of her career, she saw continued success with her second album, Emotions, although not a massive out-of-the-gate success à la Mariah Carey at its peak. The second single from the album was "Can't Let Go," a ballad she wrote and produced with Walter Affanasieff. Though the song did well, it did not continue Mariah's streak of number ones, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100 on January 25, 1992.

On February 26, Mariah went to Los Angeles, CA for the 34th Grammy Awards, where she was nominated for two awards: Best Female Pop Vocal for "Emotions" and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Though she did not win either award, the nomination for Producer of the Year meant a lot to Mariah, who was pleased with having been allowed more creative control with the album. She was again asked to perform on the telecast, and she selected "If It's Over," a song she wrote with legendary singer-songwriter Carole King.

In 1995, Mariah recalled working with the famed musician: "I wrote with Carole King and that is something that I'm really proud of; just the fact that I collaborated with one of the most successful songwriters of... the pop era and someone that I grew up listening to... I think basically everyone did, whether or not people are aware of how many songs she's written... I was just really flattered when she actually reached out to me and wanted to write. And so we got together and we wrote 'If It's Over.'"

Though the song did not receive a proper single release during initial promotion of the album, it would later see release overseas from the MTV Unplugged album.

The third and final single from Emotions was another C&C Music Factory production, "Make It Happen." Mariah looked back fondly at the recording of this song in an interview with VH1: "My favorite memory about recording the song 'Make It Happen' is, I was working until about 3am for two nights in a row, kind of doing the vocal arrangement, doing the backgrounds with my friend David Cole... We were in the studio recording the vocals for that song. And I was doing the lead, and he was... asleep on the console. So I got to the part that goes, 'If you believe within your soul"... I got to that part, and he woke up out of a dead sleep and he was like "Yes, that's it! Stop! Just leave it! That's it!' So I always remember that when I hear that part." "Make It Happen" peaked at #5 on the Hot 100.

Towards the end of Emotions' run, the album did manage a respectable 3x Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.

With much criticism of being a studio artist (in the midst of the Milli Vanilli/'ghosting' scandals of the early '90s), Mariah and Sony Music were determined to shake that criticism and further prove her to be a legitimate artist. What other way to do that and with a global platform than to have an "MTV Unplugged" special dedicated to her?

While her seventh single kept her album going, Mariah took to the stage to showcase her songs and her voice. In March, she appeared on MTV Unplugged, an intimate show where she performed a handful of her hits and one new song in an acoustic setting.

Mariah selected four of her songs from Emotions as well as "Vision of Love" and "Someday." But when it was close to showtime, Mariah's management and the show's producers decided they wanted something more.

"The night before [the show] they came to me and said - they being my manager and various other people - that "MTV really wants you to do a cover song, because that's the thing that people do when they do this show," Mariah later recalled to VH1. "So I said ok, I've always wanted to sing 'I'll Be There,' and that's the song I'm gonna do.

"And actually, certain people from the record company weren't very into that idea, and I stuck to my guns and I did it. And then everybody was so happy about it that they wanted me to release it."

And so a seventh song was added to the setlist: A cover of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There," which Mariah sang with her backup singer and good friend Trey Lorenz. The song was so popular with the studio and home audiences that it was released to radio and as a single. It effortlessly flew up the airplay charts debuting at #4 in airplay and then spent an 8-week run at #1 only two weeks after debuting. Both feats were unprecedented at the time. "I'll Be There" also managed to peak at #3 on the single sales chart (her highest peaking single since "I Don't Wanna Cry" which resulted in the song spending two weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, her last since "Emotions").

Mariah's MTV Unplugged debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 and as "I'll Be There" became increasingly popular, the album reached and peaked at #3. MTV Unplugged eventually followed the same multi-platinum album trend off her first two albums. Internationally, "I'll Be There" was Mariah's biggest hit up to that point and MTV Unplugged went Platinum in more countries than its predecessors.

A home video of the show was also released, which included footage of Mariah's home movies, as well as the music videos for the three Emotions singles.

"When I did 'Unplugged,'" I never thought it was going to be an album or an EP by any means, I had no clue," Mariah later explained. "I just thought that it was a cool show and I wanted to do it. And nobody was releasing EPs from that or albums or anything at that point. So I went into it and I didn't really think about it too much, and I did it."

MARIAH QUOTES

"I always knew that I wanted to write and I always felt that I had it inside me to write. But starting out at a really young age people sometimes don't take you seriously and they want to give you material and what not but I kept going, pushing forward and I did. It's great to be able to sing what I write." Soul Train

"I've been very, very fortunate to have what's happened to me. From now on, all I really want to do is continue to grow as an artist and to just continue to putting out music and hope people that have supported me will stay with me. You can't always be number one, you can't always be winning every award. Just to be putting music out there and to be having some level of success has always been my goal." MTV News

"I don't let the diva persona control me. I mean, anybody can have success. It doesn't mean that you're talented. I just live my life day to day and I'm thankful every single day for what I have. I really don't have the time to go out that much and experience how well-known I am." YM

I was really determined, and that's a major key factor. You have to be determined and you have to have a certain amount of talent. Some people make it on sheer determination and luck. And I prayed every day." YM

"I could adapt to grown-up situations as well as being with kids my own age because my mother was more like a friend to me than a real parent. I mean she was a real parent of course but it wasn't like that sort of strict parenting that a lot of people have. She was really easy-going and she was fun to be around. She treated me as an equal." Ebony Jet Showcase

TV APPEARANCES