As autumn leaves began to fall, international superstar Mariah Carey put the finishing touches on MERRY CHRISTMAS II YOU, her second career album of holiday tunes. Highlighting the long-awaited new album is a brand new recording of Mariah’s all-time standard, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
In addition to traditional yuletide fare – “The First Noel,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “O Come All Ye Faithful” and more – MERRY CHRISTMAS II YOU also contains four original songs composed by Mariah, including the new single, “Oh Santa,” and many more surprises for the fans. Producers on the new album include American Idol’s Randy Jackson, multi-platinum hit-making producer Jermaine Dupri, James Poyser (acclaimed producer for Aretha Franklin, The Roots, Lauryn Hill and more), and five-time Oscar nominee and Grammy/Tony/Emmy award winning composer Marc Shaiman.
Since it was first released, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” written by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, has become one of the essential musical hallmarks of the holiday season, and continues to set sales records each year. The song hit #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Recurrents chart every year from 2005 to 2008. After ringtones began to be charted in 2006, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” hit #1 for the next three consecutive holiday seasons. It became the first seasonal Mastertone to be certified RIAA gold (2006) and RIAA platinum (2007), and is ranked as the top-selling seasonal ringtone of all-time. “All I Want For Christmas is You” was the featured single from Merry Christmas, which has sold over 12 million to date.
MERRY CHRISTMAS II YOU is Mariah Carey’s 13th studio album, and follows up her worldwide multi-million-selling Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel (released September 2009), her multi-platinum E=MC² (2008), and worldwide 10 million selling The Emancipation Of Mimi (2005). The Emancipation Of Mimi generated three Grammy awards (including Best Contemp-orary R&B Album), two #1 singles, and countless more honors during its 18-month chart stay. Soundscan’s biggest-selling album of 2005, Mimi featured “We Belong Together” (Grammy winner for Best Female R&B Vocal and Best R&B Song) and “Don’t Forget About Us,” Mariah’s 16th and 17th #1 career singles respectively. They tied one of the most enduring chart records in Billboard Hot 100 history, Elvis Presley’s 17 #1’s.
Three years later, Mariah surpassed Elvis when “Touch My Body” (from E=MC²) became her 18th #1 Hot 100 hit. “Touch My Body” spent two weeks at the top, Mariah’s 78th and 79th cumulative career weeks at #1, which tied Elvis’ long-standing all-time high of 79 weeks at #1, as calculated by Billboard. Mariah is now positioned as the only active recording artist in the 50 years of the Hot 100 (which began in 1958) with the potential to surpass the Beatles’ all-time high of 20 #1 hits. The success of E=MC² brought total sales of Mariah’s albums, singles and videos to more than 200 million worldwide, distancing her even further from the pack as the top-selling female recording artist in history.
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