Photo by Wax Poetics
Audio By Carbonatix
If you’re a Mariah Carey superfan and looking for an early holiday present, this might be the chance of a lifetime. As the Queen of Christmas defrosts for the season, the mystery around a long-rumored demo tape from her early days has finally been cracked, and in true Florida fashion, it has Miami ties.
Back in December 1988, Carey attended a holiday party at Media Sound in New York with singer Brenda K. Starr. She brought with her two demo tapes featuring seven original tracks written with collaborator Ben Margulies. One tape famously ended up in the hands of Tommy Mottola, then head of Columbia Records, who signed Carey soon after. The other? That one went to legendary Miami-based producer Arthur Baker.
After the party, Baker, Carey, and Starr headed to Baker’s Shakedown Sound studio, where he gave the demo a listen. “The first three songs are all hits,” Baker recalls in a video shared on Wax Poetic’s Instagram. “I’m like, holy shit. I thought, she writes like Madonna. She sounds like Whitney. I’ve discovered gold.”
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Baker tucked the tape away, until recently. Wax Poetics shared the news that Baker had partnered with the platform to auction the unearthed demo on December 2. The tape includes seven tracks that would go on to form the DNA of Carey’s self-titled 1990 debut album, a record that would produce four #1 singles and launch one of the most iconic careers in pop music history.
In an April 1992 interview with Young & Modern, Carey recalled the hustle behind those early songs:
“I would waitress until one in the morning, work in the studio until seven or eight, sleep a few hours, and do it again. I was really determined… And I prayed every day.”
The rediscovered demo features the following tracks:
- “Here We Go Around Again”
- “All in Your Mind”
- “Alone in Love”
- “Hypnotized”
- “Someday”
- “Vanishing”
- “Vision of Love”
Ben Margulies and Chris Toland helped shape the tape’s sound. “The songs were primitive in demo form, but all the elements are there, the hooks, the vocals, the chords,” Toland said.
So, how can you get your hands on this piece of pop music history? Head to the online auction hosted by Wax Poetics. Bidding starts December 2. And if you are in Miami and want to hear more stories from the man himself, you can catch Arthur Baker at the Miami Book Fair this weekend, where he will be presenting his new book titled Looking for the Perfect Beat: Remixing and Reshaping Hip-Hop, Rock and Rhythms.
