djzyonseven
The first time I heard Mariah Carey sing Vision of Love, she completely blew me away. 🎤
The range, the control, the gospel feeling, and those unbelievable high notes.
The way she moved through the melody like her voice had no ceiling.
I did not fully understand everything I was hearing yet, but I knew I was hearing somebody special.
Not since Whitney Houston first came on the scene had a singer knocked me off my feet like that.
Whitney had already set the vocal bar somewhere above the clouds.
Then came Mariah Carey with this brand new voice, and I remember thinking…
Okay, who is this woman, and where did that voice come from? 😮
Little did I know that this was a voice I would come to love and appreciate for decades.
Vision of Love was released in 1990 as the first single from Mariah Carey, her self titled debut album.
She wrote the song with Ben Margulies, one of her earliest songwriting partners.
Rhett Lawrence and Narada Michael Walden produced the recording.🎹
The song sounds romantic, but Mariah has also connected its message to gratitude and finally seeing her dream come true.
You can hear that feeling in the way she sings it.
It does not sound like somebody simply performing a pretty ballad.
It sounds like testimony.
Like she had been waiting on that moment, praying for it, and finally watched the door open. 🙏🏾
Before the world knew her name, Mariah Carey sang background vocals for Brenda K. Starr.
Brenda saw something in her and took her to a music industry party in 1988.
That night, Mariah’s demo tape made its way into the hands of Tommy Mottola, who was then the head of Columbia Records.
Mottola listened to the tape after leaving the party and was so impressed that he reportedly turned around to look for her.
Mariah had already left, but he eventually found her, and that demo helped lead to her recording contract.
She would go from singing behind Brenda to later becoming one of the biggest voices in music.
I love that part of the story.
The video for Vision of Love kept things simple.
Mariah sang inside a large cathedral-style room near a tall window while the camera focused on her face and performance.
There were no fancy dance routines or unnecessary distractions.
Honestly, none were needed.
The voice was the special effect.
Vision of Love became Mariah’s first number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for four weeks.
At the 1991 Grammy Awards, she won Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
That debut did not just introduce her.
It announced her. 🏆
And of course, Vision of Love earned a permanent place in my own soundtrack.
It lived on the mixtapes I made for family and friends throughout the 1990s and beyond.
Whenever I was putting together slow jams, classic R&B, soul, or songs built around real vocals, Mariah was going to be somewhere in that mix. 💽
All these years later, it still sits comfortably on my Spotify playlist of classic R&B and soul slow jams, exactly where it belongs.
Some songs sound good for a season.
Other songs grow with you.
Vision of Love has been growing with me since the first time that voice stopped me in my tracks.
More than three decades later.
It still does. 🦋
DJZ7
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