Music Box is the fourth album and third studio album by pop and R&B singer Mariah Carey. It was released by Columbia Records on 31 August 1993 in North America. The album comprises ballads primarily co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff — with whom she had previously worked on Emotions (1991) — and a few urban dance tracks. Other collaborators on Music Box include Babyface and Clivilles & Cole.

Lead single “Dreamlover” became Carey’s most successful single at the time of its release when it topped the U.S. and Canadian singles charts, and “Without You” became her first to reach number one in the UK and several other countries across Europe. Carey was nominated for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” for “Dreamlover” at the 1994 Grammy Awards; she received the same nomination for “Hero” at the 1995 Grammy Awards.

Chart performance

Music Box entered the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart at number two and ascended to number one fifteen weeks after its release, staying at the top for eight non-consecutive weeks. It remained in the top twenty for forty weeks and on the Billboard 200 for 128 weeks (more than two years), re-entering the chart three times. The album also reached number one on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and as of 2005 it had sold 7.15 million copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan,^[1] with an additional 0.74 million sold at BMG Music Clubs.^[2] Music Box was a large seller elsewhere because of its singles, and it topped the charts in Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Carey’s previous albums had performed well in Canada, but despite the success of “Dreamlover” there, Music Box peaked at number five. The album is Carey’s most successful album to date worldwide, and by 2005 it had sold approximately twenty-eight million copies.

Music Box yielded Carey’s seventh and eighth U.S. number-one singles, “Dreamlover” and “Hero”. “Dreamlover” spent eight weeks at number one and has become one of Carey’s most popular songs to date; it continued the trend of Carey’s debut singles from each studio album topping the U.S. Hot 100 (which lasted until the turn of the decade). “Hero” spent four weeks at number one, and it has arguably become one of Carey’s best known works. The album’s third and fourth singles, “Without You” (a cover of the Badfinger song) and “Anytime You Need a Friend“, respectively, were slightly less successful in the U.S. The former did not reach number one, but it became Carey’s first single to top the UK chart and was very successful worldwide, while “Anytime You Need a Friend” failed to make the U.S. top ten (Carey’s first single to do so).

Track listing

1. “Dreamlover” (Mariah Carey, Dave Hall) – 3:53
2. “Hero” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 4:19
3. “Anytime You Need a Friend” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 4:25
4. “Music Box” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 4:57
5. “Now That I Know” (Carey, Robert Clivillés, David Cole) – 4:19
6. “Never Forget You” (Carey, Babyface, Daryl Simmons) – 3:46
7. “Without You” (Peter Ham, Tom Evans) – 3:36
8. “Just to Hold You Once Again” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 4:00
9. “I’ve Been Thinking about You” (Carey, Clivillés, Cole) – 4:48
10. “All I’ve Ever Wanted” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 3:51

Non-U.S. editions

11. “Everything Fades Away” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 5:25

12. “Do You Think of Me” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 4:45

13. “Heroe” (Carey, Afanasieff) – 4:19

Charts, sales and certification