FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
Mariah Carey - Fantasy
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WHEN putting together…
songs for this feature, there is some criteria that I follow. I know it is subjective whether a song is a guilty pleasure or not, or whether that term doesn’t exist. There are artists and songs that some people feel hesitant to embrace, or they think that song is a bit of a guilty pleasure. In the case of Mariah Carey’s Fantasy, this is a song that, I think, is among the very best of the 1990s - but some feel that it is a bit cheesy or, as it is Mariah Carey, it is not that great. I feel Carey has released some terrific albums, and she is among the most influential artists we have ever seen. I shall get to that song but, on Friday, she released an album of rarities. It has been quite a busy week in terms of Carey news and, as this NME article explains, there was some plan in 1995 – when she released Daydream, the album from which Fantasy is taken – to release an Alt-Rock album:
“Mariah Carey has revealed further details of her secretly-recorded 1995 alt-rock album, ‘Someone’s Ugly Daughter’, which she released under the moniker, Chick.
The singer broke the news late last week on Twitter, in an extract shared from her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.
Carey captioned the post: “Fun fact: I did an alternative album while I was making [1995 album] ‘Daydream’. Just for laughs, but it got me through some dark days. Here’s a little of what I wrote about it in #TheMeaningOfMariahCarey.”
Carey shared further details about the release during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert earlier this week.
“I did it for laughs. [Alternative rock] was such a popular genre at the time,” Carey told Colbert.
“I was like, ‘Well, I have a full band here. Let’s just do something, and I’ll just make up some nonsense and sing it’.”
Carey also revealed that she designed the album art for the record. She kept the record under wraps for years and apparently created quite a stir with her label at the time.
“I did a video, and I want it to be released so bad. My plan was I was going to dress up in a costume and make a video and be unrecognisable and just release it and see what happened,” she recalled.
“But that got stifled by certain people at the label so I kind of had to abandon the project, but I’m kind of happy that at this moment that the fans are actually hearing it”.
It would have been interesting to hear a completely different-sounding album in 1995 because, when Daydream arrived that year, it got a lot of acclaim. The album, actually, is twenty-five today, and it is a favourite among many Mariah Carey fans. Some might say that the follow-up, Butterfly (1997), is a stronger and more commercial album, but Daydream was a definite step forward from Carey.
Alongside great tracks like Fantasy, there are the singles One Sweet Day, and Always Be My Baby. The Daydream album did incredibly well. It debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200, with 224,000 copies sold, staying at the top spot the following week with 216,000 copies sold; for a third consecutive week, it topped the charts with 170,000 copies sold. Daydream is an edgier and more confident album than anything she had ever released and, as it was her fifth album, it was the time to make the change. Daydream is a more personal album, and Carey’s songwriting broadened and sharpened – she wrote many of the album tracks solo and co-wrote the rest! I have heard many people write off songs like Fantasy without giving it a moment of thought, but I think it is one of the defining songs of the 1990s. The song was written by Carey and Dave Hall, both serving as primary producers alongside Sean Combs. The song heavily samples Tom Tom Club's 1981 song, Genius of Love, and incorporates various other beats and grooves arranged by the former. The lyrics are pretty simple – a woman fantasising about a man whom she feels it will be impossible to be in a relationship with -, and the vocal performance from Carey is among her most passionate and stirring. Fantasy became the second song in Billboard history (and the first by a female) to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100.
IN THIS PHOTO: Mariah Carey in 1995/PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Hutson/Redferns
Fantasy, to me, embodied so much of the spirit of the 1990s in terms of its sense of energy and optimism. Though the song tackles this sort of roadblock, Carey’s determination is clear, and she is putting her heart out there. Fantasy was a real revolution and development from Mariah Carey, and I think it influenced the rest of her career. I want to bring in a fantastic article from last month where Fantasy’s brilliance and legacy was discussed:
“Convivial and liberating in nature, Carey’s “Fantasy” exudes a spirit of artistic freedom and calls back to a time where innovation, like intense love, came at a whim. Here, the torrid summer energy presented on Tom Tom Club’s 1981 “Genius Of Love” is leveled-up for a new decade, decorated in Carey’s breezy emphatic metaphors of vigorous passion and a fiery backbeat that got even the most obstinate listener out of their seat.
Twenty-five years after Carey unveiled “Fantasy” as the lead single to her Grammy-nominated fifth studio album Daydream, the bouncy ‘80s-esque number continues to prove it has the stamina and formulaic sampling power to exert influence over a plethora of musical acts to follow. While it further broke new ground for rap and R&B — already introduced by a hip-hop soul queen — the infallible pop-R&B formula behind “Fantasy” is all too familiar.
Despite her label, Columbia Records, pushing Carey to continue with the palette of bonafide adult contemporary and pop that catapulted her career, she paired with famed R&B producer Dave “Jam” Hall to essentially reenvision her Music Box lead single “Dreamlover” from two years earlier.
Co-produced by Hall, “Dreamlover” was a slice of heavenly chart-topping perfection, drenched in the bubbly pop that Columbia pressed so hard. But its incorporation of thunderous kick-snare-bass interplay from Big Daddy Kane’s “Ain’t No Half-Steppin” gave it the energetic facade it needed to transcend urban radio.
While this undeniable crossover success at the forefront of “Fantasy” was a career milestone for Carey, as it relates to her getting a foot in the door, she proceeded to up-the-ante on the track’s potential. With the help of Columbia Records A&R Corey Rooney, and at the initial resentment of the label, she boldly ushered in rap heavy-hitter Ol’ Dirty Bastard to feature on the “Fantasy” remix after gaining an appreciation for his appearance on SWV’s “Anything” with Wu-Tang Clan. And with Bad Boy’s Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs behind the boards, they penned what would be the birth of the massive rap-sung hit.
It was a risky choice for Carey to fearlessly mix pop-R&B and hip-hop for a lead single, one that her label feared would tank her career. However, it applauds her bold intent to have full creative control over her work. In fact, it yielded successful results, as “Fantasy” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1995, making Carey the first female artist, and second overall, to do so. As well as Daydream subsequently becoming Carey’s second diamond-certified album, the elusive chanteuse’s impact on popular music reached new heights at the helm of the song’s major success.
A quarter of a century after Carey welcomed us to her hip-hop/pop-R&B concoction, “Fantasy” remains a vital stop on the trek of contemporary music. What started as an effort to gain creative control from a rescinding label transformed into an exuberant movement bringing forth the marriage of hip-hop and R&B for a new millennium”.
Maybe it was a school-yard attitude towards mainstream Pop and R&B at the time. Perhaps most of the boys were keener on Britpop and Rock, where artists like Mariah Carey were given a wider berth. Looking back, and it is a shame that there was this attitude and tribalism, and it is a shame that many people still consider songs like Fantasy to be a bit reserved for certain people. I think it is a remarkable track, and I think a lot of Carey’s catalogue should be reappraised – so many of her albums have gathered mixed reviews when they warrant so much better! Perhaps there was a general attitude in the 1990s that was dictated by coolness. Maybe Carey and artists like her were not seen as overly-hip but, actually, Fantasy is a really cool and popular track that hit the heart of many critics at the time. Many noted how Fantasy was a career-high; Carey was really developing as an artist, and others remarked how there is this great mix of bubble gum and uplifting with Gospel elements and some great production. It is a rich and endlessly giving song that you can whack on and get a great hit from! For those – myself included – who dismissed Fantasy back in 1995, and to anyone who writes it off now, listen back to it now and…
FEEL your troubles melt away.