Mariah Carey - Merry Christmas (LP)

Label: Columbia – 88875127161, Legacy – 88875127161, Sony Music – 88875127161
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Red
Country: Europe
Released: Oct 23, 2015
Genre: Funk / Soul, Pop
Style: Contemporary R&B, Vocal

 

Merry Christmas is the fourth studio album by American singer Mariah Carey, and her first Christmas album. Released by Columbia Records on October 28, 1994, at the peak of the initial stretch of Carey's career, between Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), the album features cover versions of popular Christmas songs in addition to original material. Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff, with whom she wrote all of the original tracks, as well as producing Carey's interpretations of the covered material. Three singles were released from the album, of which "All I Want for Christmas Is You" went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time and the best-selling Christmas ringtone in the United States.

Critical response to the album's contemporary Christmas theme was mixed. Some music critics complimented the "gospel and soul-inflected" vocals and even called it "Carey's best record" to date. Re-released on multiple occasions in various formats since its debut, the album has sold 5.7 million copies in the United States as of December 2019 and has been certified 8x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Internationally, it reached number one in Japan, Latvia, and Lithuania. It achieved top-ten in 16 additional countries including Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.