{"id":166913,"date":"2022-12-24T08:48:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T08:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mariah-careys-story-about-writing-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-is-humbug-co-writer-claims-deadline\/"},"modified":"2022-12-24T08:48:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T08:48:01","slug":"mariah-careys-story-about-writing-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-is-humbug-co-writer-claims-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mariah-careys-story-about-writing-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-is-humbug-co-writer-claims-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariah Carey’s Story About Writing ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ Is Humbug, Co-Writer Claims \u2013 Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tThe cowriter and coproducer of one of the all-time great Christmas songs \u2013 Mariah Carey’s \u201cAll I Want For Christmas Is You\u201d \u2014 can only go \u201cho, ho, ho\u201d when he hears her tell the tale of how the song came to be created. <\/p>\n

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\tCarey collaborator Walter Afanasieff, speaking to the Hot Takes & Deep Dives podcast, claims that Carey has invented an \u201calternate story\u201d on the song’s origin.<\/p>\n

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\tAfanasieff claims that Carey is saying she created the song as a young child, and it’s been bothering him.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cWhen she started to hint at the fact that, \u201cOh, I wrote that song when I was a little girl!\u201d But why weren’t you saying that for 12 or 13 or 15 years prior to that? So it just sort of developed in her mind,\u201d Afanasieff said. \u201cShe She does n’t play anything. She she does n’t play keyboard or piano. She she does n’t understand music, she does n’t know chord changes and music theory or anything like that. She doesn’t know a diminished chord from a minor seventh chord to a major seventh chord. <\/p>\n

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\t\u201cSo to claim that she wrote a very complicated chord-structured song with her finger on a Casio keyboard when she was a little girl, it’s kind of a tall tale.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tThe truth, Afanasieff said, was that the two devised the song while working on material for her Christmas album. They had a long collaboration relationship, dating back to her albums Emotions<\/em> and MusicBox. <\/em><\/p>\n

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\t\u201cWe were holed up in this beautiful home that they were renting, and it was the summertime and there was a piano,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the writing of \u201cAll I Want For Christmas\u201d is, I started playing a boogie-woogie, kind of a rock. Mariah chimed in and started singing \u201cI don’t want a lot for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cSo on and on, and it was like a game of ping-pong,\u201d Afanasieff said. \u201cI’d hit the ball to her, she hits it back to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tThe two are credited as the sole writers and producers on the song, with Afanasieff crediting Carey with the lyrics and music, while he takes credit for the music and chords. <\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI’ve studied music, I have degrees in music. I’m an accomplished orchestrator and arranger. I teach music. I’m not a schlump. I don’t play by ear,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n