And then a hero comes along and ranks all of Mariah Carey’s cover songs
I ranked every single song Mariah Carey has ever covered in her twenty-plus years career. You’re welcome.
For our last lunchtime poll, Sam and I were trying to decide between Mariah Carey’s cover of “The Beautiful Ones” and the original version by Prince. That turned out to be a bust, as we both straddled that fence and clung onto it for dear life — although, we did both admit to a certain fondness for Mariah’s version with its many, many runs, but as children of the 90s, there’s an obvious bias.
It did remind me, however, of the many songs Mariah Carey has covered in her career, all of which are fantastic, and are, therefore, calling out for someone to attempt the herculean task of ranking each and every one of them. You might even call this exciting undertaking a list, and people who know me well, should know that nothing excites me more than the prospect of making a list. Except for maybe a raffle.
So here we are. A ranking, from worst to best, of all the songs Mariah Carey has covered throughout her career — although, I’d like to point out that there’s no such thing as a bad Mariah Carey song. There are just ones that aren’t as good as others, so this is really a ranking of the less good songs through to the most amazing ones.
Before I begin, I’d also like to discuss the ground rules. Excluded from this list are any Christmas or holiday-themed songs that were included on Carey’s 1994 Christmas album Merry Christmas, as well as the 2010 follow-up Merry Christmas II You, because dear lord, no. I’ll do a lot of things in service of a good list, but I won’t do that. I’m also not including any recordings of traditional songs, such as “America The Beautiful”, live performances of other people’s songs, or songs that sample other songs — such as Carey’s “How Much”, which samples 2Pac’s “Me and My Girlfriend”. To qualify the song had to be originally recorded by another artist, and then later covered and released by Mariah Carey. That means you won’t see “When You Believe” on this list because, even though another cast recording of the song was used in the film The Prince of Egypt, the official soundtrack version was Carey’s duet with Whitney Houston.
Now, let’s make it happen 🎶🎶
14. “Open Arms” (originally by Journey)
There’s nothing wrong with this cover. It’s a perfectly nice, fine cover, and it fits fine with Carey’s still kind-of-adult-contemporary sound at this point. And, of all the songs Mariah Carey has covered throughout her career, I guess it makes sense — Randy Jackson, a longtime collaborator of Carey’s, was Journey’s bassist for a time, as was the drummer who had played on most of her albums up to this point. I also appreciate that she chose this lesser known (or perhaps better forgotten?) single off the band’s inexplicably popular album, Escape, rather than the insufferable “Don’t Stop Believin’”. And like I said, it’s fine, it’s nice, it’s fine. She did a good job. Perhaps my ambiguity stems from it’s placement on the Daydream album. It’s sandwiched between “One Sweet Day”, one of the sweetest songs about a dead person and my future funeral song (friends, loved ones: take note), and “Always Be My Baby”, which features the single greatest use of do do do do dos in a pop song ever, in the history of recorded music. Now, sandwiching a kind of nothing song between two outstanding ones is normally a good move, because it gives you time to reflect on how wonderful the last song was before your aural senses are blown again, but in this case it’s just kind of a downer. Given that, with the exception of “Always Be My Baby” and the “Daydream Interlude”, the remaining tracks are all ballads, you do have to wonder why “Open Arms” was necessary, especially when there are almost no situations in life that are helped by a Journey song.
13. “One More Try” (originally by George Michael)
Most of Carey’s work following the phenomenal The Emancipation of Mimi and the outrageously infectious follow up E=MC² has been kind of chequered, recalling the dark days of those twin flops Glitter and Charmbracelet, although the latter was exponentially better than the former, yet still not a Mariah Carey firing on all cylinders. When you think about Carey’s most celebrated work, nearly all of it was produced amid personal and professional turmoil (her early albums during an unhappy marriage to Tommy Mottola, the last two albums of the 90s following their divorce; while The Emancipation was recorded in the midst of intense professional humiliation after Virgin Records bought her out of a contract, rather than risk releasing another one of her albums). The clear low points in her discography are almost always produced during moments of personal and professional highs, and this album — the first since the birth of her twins — is a definite low, despite that you want, so badly, for it to be a high, even if that means Carey has to be miserable as a result. This cover, like “Open Arms”, is just fine, but it’s nothing to write home (or a blog post) about.
12. & 11. “Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” (originally by Cherrelle) / “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” (originally by Indeep)
Is it cheating to combine the rankings of two songs from Glitter, the soundtrack album to the laughably awful movie of the same name? Perhaps, but I almost always forget that these songs even exist, a memory lapse I’m sure MC suffers, too. Ostensibly, Carey covered both “Didn’t Mean” and “Last Night” because Glitter, the movie, needed music from the early 80s to help ground it in that period, which was important, given that, to look at anything in Glitter — be it the costumes, the hairstyles, the props — you’d have no idea it was supposed to be set in 1983, if it hadn’t been for the crawl that told you so at the beginning; crawl that probably would have served the movie far better if it had done so in a fashion that recalls the opening of Star Wars: “In a galaxy far, far away, someone thought the following events represented human life in the year 1983…” Don’t get me wrong, Glitter, the movie, is infinitely enjoyable to hate-watch, which is made all the more so, thanks to both songs, although I generally enjoy “Didn’t Mean” more than “Last Night”. “Last Night” feels weirdly out of place in Glitter, due to the Busta Rhymes and Fabulous rap parts, which I didn’t think was a particularly common thing in music at this point in the 1980s. Actually, I didn’t think it was until Run DMC’s remix of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” in 1986 that melding rap with other genres became a thing. But this is what I’m saying about that movie being grounded in literally nothing but fairy dust — or, ahem, glitter.
10. “I Still Believe” (originally by Brenda K Starr)
The only thing Brenda K Starr’s “I Still Believe” had going for it in 1987 was the great sense of fashion she displayed in the song’s music video:
Other that that, it was just your standard adult contemporary pop song that wasn’t helped by Starr’s okay-but-not-great vocals. But here’s a fun fact: deep beneath the high-end 80s production, you can hear the breathy backup vocals of a then-unknown Mariah Carey, who worked as Starr’s backup singer in the late 1980s.
Years later, in Glitter, Carey’s character Billie Frank would work as a backup singer for an infinitely less talented singer, named Sylk, who’s producer would use Billie Frank’s vocals in place of Sylk’s in a Milli Vanilli-type of thing that Frank ultimately exposes in typical Mariah Carey fashion.
That’s not to say Carey didn’t enjoy and appreciate the time she worked with Starr, because I believe she did. It really just speaks more about the general ridiculousness of Glitter, which, for all intents and purposes, was supposedly a semi-autobiographical look at how Carey got her start in music, though in this case, ‘semi’ is very much the operative word.
On her decision to record “I Still Believe”, Carey told Entertainment Tonight in 1998:
I’m really glad that I got a chance to remake the song “I Still Believe”, because the album is called #1s and this is the first song that I sang as a professional singer. I would go on the road with Brenda. I was a little skinny kid with no money that she took under her wing and she was so nice to me. I auditioned to be her backup singer and she hired me and she used to bring me clothes and food, and she really took care of me like a big sister. A lot of people wouldn’t have done that. The main thing was that she believed in me and it’s really hard to get people to listen to your tapes. She was always real cool and helpful and supportive. I always loved this song. When I sing it now, it reminds me of those times.
9. “Sweetheart” (originally by Rainy Davis)
I don’t know about this song. It’s catchy, it has rap bits, it’s a cover of a song from 1986 by the more interestingly named Rainy Davis. Technically, this isn’t a Mariah Carey cover song, per se, given that it was recorded for the debut solo album of Jermaine Durpri, Carey’s producer and the guy who founded Kris Kross (he’s also worked with TLC, Usher and Janet Jackson, to name a few). I listen to it when I listen to Carey’s #1s album, because it opens the disc and immediately precedes “When You Believe” the duet she recorded with Whitney Houston for The Prince of Egypt soundtrack, which is phenomenal and amazing and always makes me want to cry a little bit, especially now.
8. “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” (originally by Thelma Houston)
The best-known version of this song is probably Diana Ross’, which she recorded for the 1975 movie Mahogany, in which she also starred. Ross, whose group the Supremes became the most successful female R&B group of all time until they were dethroned by TLC in the 1990s, is, by today’s standards, what you would call a traditional R&B singer. Her vocals are restrained, sometimes barely more than a whisper, albeit a sweet one, and although Ross is often considered the original diva, it’s not for her vocal theatrics — even at her most theatrical, on 1970’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, rather than belting, Ross spoke most of the passages. By 1998, when Carey covered “Theme from Mahogany” for her first singles album #1s, restrained is not how anyone would describe her vocals, and yet Carey does show remarkable restraint on this very faithful cover. The release of Carey’s #1s album, though not explicitly stated at the time, also drew a line in the sand between the records she made under the guidance of her husband and label chief, Tommy Mottola, and the records she would go on to make following their divorce and the greater creative control she gained over her work. It’s fitting, then, that Carey would include this cover on her #1s album. I’d probably rank it higher if I didn’t like Ross’ version so much.
7. “I Want To Know What Love Is” (originally by Foreigner)
I don’t know if this was a deliberate choice or if Mariah Carey actually struggles with this song (impossible! Her vocal range spans five octaves!), but where Lou Gramm’s voice remains powerful despite the impossibly high key, Carey’s voice, when she’s not performing some of the most ridiculously OTT vocal calisthenics — even for her — is all up in that whistle register, which I usually enjoy, so long as you’re also rewarded with some notes in her belting range. She doesn’t really deliver here, and although it’s very listenable — compared with the rest of Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel — mostly it just leaves you wanting to listen to the original. Also, Tina Arena (yes, Tiny Tina!) covered this song in 1997 for her sophomore album, In Deep, which Foreigner founder and lyricist Mick Jones also produced. So if not Foreigner, there are always other options.
6. “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” (originally by Def Leppard)
By her own admission, Mariah Carey is a big Def Leppard fan, which is something that amuses me to no end. I don’t know anyone who would freely admit to liking Def Leppard, unless in the context of naff 80s hair bands whose music you sort of don’t mind listening to during a spin class. The fact Carey still liked Def Leppard in 2001, and even owned a copy of their greatest hits album, Vault — which she was listening to when genius struck and she decided to cover “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” for her album Charmbracelet — speaks a lot to her own perceived naffness. After all, it wasn’t long ago that most people were still in the closet about being Mariah Carey fans. Charmbracelet isn’t an iconic Mariah Carey album — indeed, it was a dud, commercially — but I really enjoy it, and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” works perfectly with the quiet R&B grooves of that album. With this cover, Carey took what was a traditional rock ballad and did her own thing, rearranging it as a kind of R&B ballad, but this time it was Dave Navarro (!!!) on lead guitar, and every time I listen to it, I wonder what “Fantasy” would sound like if she and Courtney Love formed a supergroup.
5. “Endless Love” (originally by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross)
You know how there are songs that you think people just shouldn’t cover, like Prince’s “Purple Rain” or Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”, because they’re phenomenal just as they are, and there’s nothing anyone could change or bring to make them better — so just don’t? I used to think that about “Endless Love”, the brilliant, albeit vaguely schmaltzy, ballad that also served as the theme to the movie of the same name, which starred a young Brooke Shields and was the single most terrifying story of teenage love I’ve ever seen. Presumably, the point of the film was to educate parents about the dangers of opposing teenage love affairs? Or to warn teenagers about the dangers of teenage love affairs? I honestly have no fucking clue, except that a ballad as enjoyable as “Endless Love” — a song frequently played at weddings — didn’t deserve to score that load of trash. Of all the people who have covered this song (Whitney has had a go, Kenny Rogers has also, and, more recently, Lionel Richie remade it with Shania Twain), it’s Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross who do it the most justice. I can only assume that, like most young girls who were born in the 70s, Carey grew up listening to a lot of Diana Ross and the Supremes, because she totally nails Ross’ vocal parts, while still making it a Mariah Carey song.
4. “The Beautiful Ones” (originally by Prince)
Oh boy, this cover. I mean, anyone who has the audacity to cover Prince — and a song from his magnum opus Purple Rain, no less — had better know what they’re doing, and to her absolute credit, Carey really, really, really does. Sam and I discussed this song for our most recent lunchtime poll, and neither of us could choose between either Prince’s or Mariah Carey’s version because, while Carey’s strays from the original in terms of its arrangement and her vocals, it doesn’t stray far, which, perhaps, is precisely the approach everyone should take when attempting a cover. And while I don’t completely understand why Carey chose to include this cover on her Butterfly album, I do know that, like the rest of the world, she was a Prince fan. And is there any greater reason than that? I think not.
3. “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” (originally by Phil Collins)
There are some people who consider Genesis a prog-rock band. I don’t know any of these people personally, because they obviously have appalling taste in music if they can liken Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” to “Invisible Touch”. But then, there are also people who believe Meghan Trainor’s “No” is a fantastic feminist statement, even though that same feminist statement had already been far better articulated in TLC’s “No Scrubs” fifteen years earlier. So I’ve learned to pick my battles. And since I couldn’t stop Phil Collins from making music, or people from buying it and playing it in public spaces, I just tried my best to avoid it and anything else Collins so much as sidled up to — that ridiculous load of garbage “Sussudio” being top of my list, for one. The problem, though, was that I had a shameful weak spot for “Against All Odds”, which won a Grammy in 1985 and was nominated for an Academy Award for its use in the unspeakably bad movie of the same name. I literally just could not stop myself from listening to it, and that’s always a dangerous path to walk (one minute you’re listening to that one song you like on YouTube, the next you have all their studio albums, plus the Complete B Sides and Rarities Collection on CD and vinyl). So when Mariah Carey recorded “Against All Odds” in 1999, it was as if she had answered all of my prayers (but, curiously, none of my letters to Santa). What makes Carey’s version so great, though, is not just that Phil Collins isn’t singing it — that’s part of it, sure — it’s that on “Against All Odds”, while there may be plenty of breathy vocals, Carey gives you exactly what she didn’t on “I Want To Know What Love Is”: many, many, many notes in her belting range. It’s in moments like these that Mariah Carey absolutely shines.
2. “Without You” (originally by Badfinger)
During her ill-fated run as a judge on the twelfth season of American Idol, one contestant, rightly or wrongly, chose to sing “Without You” so that Carey would then have to provide feedback. Despite struggling to reach the low notes in the first verse, it wasn’t a bad job at covering Mariah Carey covering someone else, and Carey told her as much. But in doing so, Carey also alluded to how she thought Harry Nilsson, who recorded “Without You” in 1971, had also written it. Whether this was a momentary lapse or whether she genuinely thought Nilsson, who had been synonymous with the song until Carey’s version soared to the top of the charts in 1994 (it reached the third position of the Australian ARIA charts in the February, and stayed in the top twenty for the rest of the year), had written it, I don’t know, but it’s clear that she based her version on Nilsson’s. In fact, it isn’t until the vocals come in that you can tell the two apart, the arrangement and instrumentation are so similar. But that’s where the similarities begin and end because on “Without You”, Mariah Carey’s voice is simply, and I say this without hyperbole, breathtaking.
1. “I’ll Be There” (originally by the Jackson 5)
Mariah Carey first performed this cover of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” during her MTV Unplugged performance in 1992, and the song became a runaway hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Top 100. I didn’t hear Carey’s version of “I’ll Be There” until 1998, when I bought her first singles album #1s (mostly, I’ll admit, for the Ol’ Dirty Bastard remix of “Fantasy”, but also for her duet with Whitney Houston, “When You Believe”), and I was instantly taken with the lyrics that, to me, recalled the lyrics of “Hero”. I’d spend the next eleven years listening to that song, assuming it was a Mariah Carey original, until I saw her performing it at Michael Jackson’s memorial in 2009. At first I couldn’t understand why, when everyone else was singing Michael Jackson songs, she was there, singing one of her own, until it dawned on me that perhaps it had been a Michael Jackson song all along, which of course it was — or rather a Jackson 5 song. I adore Michael Jackson, and I have most of his albums as a solo artist, but I was never fond of the ballads he did as a young kid as part of the Jackson 5. I much preferred Michael singing ballads once he was older and his voice had matured — particularly his songs “Strangers in Moscow” and “Earth Song” from 1997’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future: Book I — so I never really delved into his Jackson 5 discography much, save for the big hits “ABC”, “I Want You Back” and, later, as the Jacksons, “Blame It On The Boogie”. Although “I’ll Be There” was a staple of Michael’s live performances, for me it’ll always be a Mariah Carey song.
