It wasn't meant to be a tribute, but Mariah Carey's recording of "Without You" turns out to be an ironic reminder of the artistry of Harry Nilsson, the man who had a No. 1 hit with the song 22 years ago. Carey's remake debuts on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart next week at No. 53, just a week after Nilsson died of a heart attack at age 52. It's the first-ever remake of one of Nilsson's 10 chart entries to return to the Hot 100. It was also Nilsson's biggest hit, spending four weeks at the top of the chart. While he wrote most of his own hits, like "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" and "Me and My Arrow," Nilsson also covered other writers' tunes, like Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" and Pete Ham and Tom Evans' "Without You."[1]

 

Harry Nilsson would turn in his grave if he heard this insipid rendition of his standard. Bereft of any feeling and lacking the vocal dynamic's of Nilsson's original[2], smart marketing will none the less heighten the assumption that Carey is one of the world's greatest songstresses. The tragedy is that after relentless exposure on commercial radio - as is almost guaranteed - more people will associate this song with Carey than with the person who really made it famous.[3]

 

Mariah Carey ( mə-RY-ə; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Songbird Supreme", Carey is known for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style, signature use of the whistle register, and diva persona. An influential figure in popular culture, she was ranked as the fifth-greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023. Carey rose to fame with her 1990 self-titled debut album and became the only artist to have their first five singles reach number one in the US, from "Vision of Love" to the title track of her second album, Emotions (1991). She achieved international success with the best-selling albums Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995). The remix to "Fantasy", with Ol' Dirty Bastard, introduced her new image and hip-hop-inflected sound, which she later embraced on Butterfly (1997) and Rainbow (1999). With eleven consecutive years of US number-one singles, Carey was named by Billboard as the Artist of the Decade. Following a career decline, she made a comeback with The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), her 21st-century bestseller. Carey's life and career have received widespread media coverage. She has been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas" due to the enduring popularity of her Christmas music, particularly Merry Christmas (1994), one of the best-selling holiday albums. Its lead single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", is the longest-running number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 and the best-selling holiday single by a woman. Outside of music, she co-founded the youth program Camp Mariah in 1994; starred in films such as Glitter (2001), Precious (2009), The Butler (2013), and The Lego Batman Movie (2017); and served as a judge on American Idol (2013). Her 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, reached number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. Carey is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with estimated sales of over 220 million records. She has the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of a solo artist (19), a female songwriter (18), and a female producer (15), spending a record 101 weeks atop the chart. "One Sweet Day" and "We Belong Together" were ranked by Billboard as the most successful songs of the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Grammy Global Impact Award, 10 American Music Awards, 19 World Music Awards, 14 Billboard Music Awards, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, and an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. One of the highest-certified artists in the US, Carey has four diamond certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America.

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