1994 - Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas is an album by American singer Mariah Carey, released in the United States on 1 November 1994 by Columbia Records. It is a holiday album featuring both cover versions and original material, and it is the biggest selling Christmas album of all time. It was released at what was the peak of the initial stretch of Carey’s career, between Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), her two best-selling albums to date.
Chart performance
Merry Christmas debuted at number thirty on the U.S. Billboard 200 with 45,000 copies sold in its first week; it peaked at number three in its fifth week with 208,000 copies, but its sixth week (when it was at number six) was its most successful week of sales, with 500,000 copies sold. It remained in the top twenty for eight weeks and on the Billboard 200 for just thirteen weeks, but it has re-entered the chart three times; it peaked at number 149 the first time, at 115 the second and at 61 the third (it has spent a total of twenty-seven weeks on the Billboard 200). As of 2005 the album had sold almost five million copies in the United States and about sixteen million copies worldwide. It has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA.
Several singles were released from the album, but most were on a strictly promotional basis in the U.S. to help boost sales of the album. The first, “All I Want for Christmas Is You“, was a radio airplay hit in the U.S. and sold well in countries where it was given a commercial release. The second, “Miss You Most (at Christmas Time)” (whose video was directed by Diane Martel) was less popular on U.S. radio, as was “Joy to the World” (which had been considered for a full single release), though the latter was a top forty hit in Australia. Fourth single “Jesus Born on This Day” was only promoted to Christian radio outlets in the U.S., and a video was not commissioned for it, though it was given a limited release in Sweden and some other markets. “O Holy Night” was released in 1996 as a promotional single for the album, and again in 2000 with a video accompanying it.
Carey’s former label Sony re-released Merry Christmas on 25 October 2005 (see 2005 in music). The anniversary edition is a DualDisc CD consisting of the original album with exclusive videos and two additional tracks, including “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (anniversary mix), which was included as a CD single with the DVD of the 1970s film Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town. Merry Christmas re-entered the Billboard Top Comprehensive Albums chart at number 136 and peaked at number one on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums chart. On multiple occasions following its original release, the album has reached number one on Billboard’s Top Comprehensive Albums and Top Holiday Albums charts. As of December 2005, its run on the former has lasted eighty weeks, and on the latter 130 weeks. The track “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)“, a cover of the Darlene Love song, had sold 39,990 digital downloads as of late 2006.
Track listing
[edit] Standard version
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DualDisc version
- Disc 1 — audio
- “Silent Night”
- “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
- “O Holy Night”
- “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
- “Miss You Most (at Christmas Time)”
- “Joy to the World”
- “Jesus Born on This Day”
- “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”
- “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing/Gloria (in Excelsis Deo)”
- “Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child”
- “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
- “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (anniversary mix) – 2:45
- Disc 2 — DVD
- “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (anniversary mix)
- “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
- “Miss You Most (at Christmas Time)”
- “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (So So Def remix)
- “Joy to the World” (celebration mix)
- “O Holy Night”
- “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (black-and-white version)
- “Joy to the World”
Charts, sales and certification
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