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Daydream is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, released on October 3, 1995 by Columbia Records as the follow-up to Carey's commercially successful 1993 album Music Box and 1994 holiday album Merry Christmas. Daydream was slightly different from Music Box, as it leaned increasingly toward R&B and hip hop and less pure pop sound. A decision which came from Carey but was not well-received initially by her record label.

Nevertheless, mostly critics praised the slightly differences of sound from her previous records, some proclaiming Daydream as her best album. In terms of sales, Daydream exceeded all the expectations - eventually becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. Reaching 10 million copies in the United States - and over 25 million worldwide - Daydream is Carey's second album to have achivied diamond status in the U.S. Daydream was listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in their Definitive 200 Albums of All Time as the 116th most influential and popular album in history.

Background

Carey's third studio album, Music Box (1993) was a commercial success and her fourth studio album, the holiday collection Merry Christmas (1994) also achieved this feat. The period between Merry Christmas and Daydream was a transitional time to Carey, period protagonized by the widely reported tension in Carey and music executive Tommy Mottola marriage.

From the beginning, Mottola - who was the then-president of Sony as well, which owns her then-label - always tried to control everything on Carey's musical career - was Mottola who had the producers and songwriters to work on her sound and he even decided which song could be worked in the studio. Carey confessed that she never tried to change this situation because " used to be insecure and cautious, and so would listen to what the people said." But, once they got married, she realized that Mottola's possessiveness was beginning to affect their personal life as well. With the course of the time, the tension between the couple began to increase - as stated in a Vanity Fair article, the couple "began to argue at the drop of a hat."

The tensions had its peak when she announced that she would take her music in a new direction when recording her fifth studio album, Daydream. Carey had a better involvement in the album's process than in her previous albums, spending more time working in the studio. "I went into this phase of recording, recording, recording and doing it really fast," she told Time. "This time, I had more time, and I focused more on what I wanted to do." Carey wanted to incorporate pieces of others genres to her songs—including hip-hop and rap—claiming these styles were missing in the early albums. However, she stated the initial reaction of her record label was not positive to this decision: "Everybody was like 'What, are you crazy?'. They're very nervous about breaking the formula."

Recording

One of early choices to appear on the album was the slightly uptempo "Fantasy." The song samples Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love," an idea which came from Carey. Mottola instantly approved the song, but struggled when Carey proposed the track would also be produced by rapper Sean Combs, as well would feature rap over the song by Ol' Dirty Bastard from gangsta rap group Wu-Tang Clan. Even he acknowledged the value of rap, it was not his favorite kind of music, and could change drastically the safe and profitable music of Carey.

From there, Carey started to have a different way to work on her album: she would not hide anything she was doing, but she would not claim details if Mottola did not ask. During the writing sessions of Daydream, that produced the track "One Sweet Day," Carey decided the song would be a duet with the R&B/soul group Boyz II Men. When hearing the song, the group were excited, and coincidentally, they were working in some lyrics which could notch perfectly in the song's arrangement. Once again, Mottola had a negative reaction to this decision. Though Carey had tried to impact a different side of the marriage, claiming "as far the music goes," she and Mottola were still very much in sync.

Music

Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine observed that Daydream positioned Carey directly between urban R&B and adult contemporary music. As stated by Time, Daydream started an evolution which continued with Butterfly (1997) - toward more R&B and hip-hop and less pure pop sound. "One Sweet Day" is one of the exceptions of this move, as it saw gospel shadings found in previous records such as "Make It Happen."

The album saw a new artistic maturity of the singer, featuring a consistently strong selection of songs, with its lyrics being significantly more stronger and smarter than previous, showing the matureness of Carey also in her songwriting. As Carey got credit for writing or co-writing all the songs in this album (excluding the cover of Journey's "Open Arms"), the lyrics reflected some personal issues of her life which she was going trough.

Release and reception

Daydream was released on October 3, 1995 in the United States and sold 224,000 copies in its first week of sales. However, the album moved 760,000 copies during the Christmas week of 1995 - the fourth biggest one-week sales for a female performer (as of December 2005). Having shipped 10 million copies in the U.S., the RIAA certified the album diamond. Daydream is one of the first sixty-two albums to have achieved the diamond status.

The album's lead single "Fantasy" debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Carey the first female artist and just the second performer ever to accomplish the feat. "One Sweet Day" was chosen as the follow-up and, despite repeating the previous feat of debuting at number 1, it spent sixteen weeks at the top of the chart, holding the record for the longest run at number 1 of all time. "Always Be My Baby" did not debut at the top, but eventually become the third song of Daydream to reach number 1 in the U.S. "Forever" and "Underneath the Starts" were released as the fifth and sixth singles respectively in selected countries and "Open Arms" was released as a promotional single in some countries of Europe.

Daydream received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviews applauded the little changes of style from previous Carey releases, some of whom adding that it is her best record. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album 4.5 out 5 stars. Commenting about the insertion of other genres, Erlewine claimed, " certainly knows how to construct an album." Reviewing for the Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker published a positive (B) graded overview also talking about the changes. To Tucker, Daydream most resembles in its emphasis on R&B grooves. In other side, some critics felt the lyrics were a controlled exercise, with little emotion or heart. Carey's cover of Journey's "Open Arms" was panned in mostly reviews. Erlewine described it as "second-rate." According with Bill Lamb, the track seemed to be a uninspired song selection.

The music industry took note of Carey's success—she won two awards at the American Music Awards for her solo efforts: Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist. Daydream and its tracks were respectively nominated for six categories in the 38th Grammy Awards. Carey, along with Boyz II Men, opened the event with a performance of "One Sweet Day," which was mightily applauded. In contrast, throughout the night, she was not called to the stage to receive even one Grammy. The cameras started to focus Carey, revealing the fact that become harder to her retain a smile. Her disappointment was becoming obvious. Although many critics proclaimed Daydream as the best album of 1995, she ended that night with no awards. Carey eventually was able to deal with this incident. "What can you do?" The singer asked. "I will never be disappointed again. After sitting through the whole show and not winning once, I can handle anything."

Track listing

Track listing

Chart performance

Personnel

• Mariah Carey - vocals, producer, arranger
• Walter Afanasieff - producer, arranger, programming, synthesizer, bass, keyboard instruments, moog synthesizer, drum programming
• Tristan Avakian - guitar
• Babyface - keyboards, background vocals
• Boyz II Men - vocals
• Terry Burrus - piano
• Dana Jon Chappelle - engineer
• Gary Cirimelli - programming, digital programming
• Melonie Daniels - background vocals
• Jermaine Dupri - producer, arranger, lead and backup vocals
• Mick Guzauski - mixing
• Dave Hall - producer, arranger, programming
• Jay Healy - engineer, mixing
• Loris Holland - organ, hammond organ
• Dann Huff - guitar
• Kurt Lundvall - enginner
• David Morales - bass, arranger, keyboards, programming, producer, bass synthesizer
• Kelly Price - background vocals
• Shanrae Price - background vocals
• Mike Scott - engineer
• Manuel Seal - producer, lead and backup vocals
• Dan Shea - synthesizer, bass, keyboards, programming, moog synthesizer, drum programming, synthesizer bass
• Andy Smith - engineer
• David Sussman - engineer, mixing
• Phil Tan - engineer
• Steve Thornton - percussion
• Satoshi Tomiie - bass, keyboards, programming, synthesizer bass
• Brian Vibberts - engineer
• Randy Walker - programming

See also

• List of best-selling albums in the United States
• List of best-selling albums worldwide

References

2. "Definitive 200". The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
3. Shapiro, p. 90
4. ^ Shapiro, p. 91
5. ^ Shapiro, P. 92
6. ^ Christopher John Farley (2001-06-21). "Pop's princess grows up". Time. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
7. "Mariah Carey Biography". People. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
8. ^ Shapiro, p. 93
9. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Daydream > Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
10. David E. Thigpen (1997-09-15). "Butterflies Are Free". Time. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
11. Shapiro, p. 95
12. ^ Jason Ankeny. "Mariah Carey > Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
13. "Biography - Mariah Carey". Wireimage. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
14. ^ Shapiro, p. 94
15. Neil Strauss (2005-05-30). "Blige leads Christmas surge; Carey passes 50 Cent". redOrbit. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
16. Neil Strauss (1995-11-30). "The Pop Life". Time. Retrieved 2009-04-05. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
17. "Search Results". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
18. ^ "Metallica, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, Green Day, No Doubt Among Top-Selling Artists Honored At Diamond Awards". MTV News. 1999-03-17. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
19. ^ "Mariah Carey Biography". NME. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
20. ^ Ken Tucker (1995-10-03). "Carey'd Away". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
21. Bill Lamb. "Mariah Carey 'Daydream'". About.com. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
22. "Mariah Carey Career Achievement Awards". Mariahcarey.com. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
23. ^ Shapiro, p. 96
24. Australian Albums Chart
25. ARIA
26. Austrian Albums Chart
27. IFPI Austria
28. Flandres Albums Chart
29. Wallonia Albums Chart
30. Canadian Albums Chart
31. CRIA
32. Dutch Albums Chart
33. NVPI
34. European Albums Chart
35. IFPI
36. Finnish Albums Chart
37. French Albums Chart
38. SNEP
39. German Albums Chart
40. IFPI Germany
41. Hungarian Albums Chart
42. Italian Albums Chart
43. FIMI
44. Oricon Albums Chart
45. RIAJ
46. Mexican Albums Chart
47. Amprofon
48. New Zealand Albums Chart
49. RIANZ
50. Norwegian Albums Chart
51. IFPI Norway
52. Polish Albums Chart
53. ZPAV
54. Spanish Albums Chart
55. PROMUSICAE
56. Swedish Albums Chart
57. Swiss Albums Chart
58. IFPI Switzerland
59. UK Albums Chart
60. BPI
61. U.S. Albums Chart
62. RIAA

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• Mariah Carey albums
• 1995 albums
• Columbia Records albums
• Albums produced by Walter Afanasieff
• Albums produced by Jermaine Dupri