"Vision of Love" is a song written by Mariah Carey and Ben
Margulies, and produced by Rhett Lawrence and Narada Michael
Walden for Carey's eponymous debut album,
Mariah Carey(1990). The ballad was released as the
album's first single in the second quarter of 1990 in the
United States and the third quarter of 1990 elsewhere. The song
topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive
weeks.
"Vision of Love" was the first song Carey and Margulies
co-wrote after Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola signed
Carey to a recording contract. The album version of the song
was altered from Carey and Margulies's original demo recording,
which had a 1950s-style shuffle.
The song's protagonist describes having a "vision of love"
and of being eternally grateful not to a lover, but to God; the
lyrics are also related to the realisation of Carey's dreams as
a singer. Carey told
Ebonymagazine that the song "represents everything in my
life" and "is a song from the heart." According to her, its
lyrics are based on personal struggles she experienced when was
younger, including her parents' divorce, moving frequently and
the attitudes of the people in her neighborhoods to her
ethnicity. Carey's vocal range in the song is Eb3-C7.
The song was nominated for three 1991 Grammy Awards: Best
Female Pop Vocal Performance (which it won), Record of the Year
and Song of the Year. The song received the Soul Train Music
Award for Best R&B/Soul Single, Female and a Songwriter
Award at the BMI Pop Awards.
Entertainment Weeklywrote in 2005, "from those opening
sci-fi-esque synths to that signature dog-whistle high note,
Mariah's very first single is inspired."
The Village Voicesaid that "Vision of Love" is the song
that set off the melisma trend. In 2006,
The New Yorkernamed the song "the Magna Carta of
melisma" for it and Carey's influence on R&B singers and
American Idolcontestants. Also
Rolling Stonesaid that "the fluttering strings of notes
that decorate songs like "Vision of Love", inspired the entire
American Idolvocal school, for better or worse, and
virtually every other female R&B singer since the
nineties." Slant Magazine critic also said "I think ["Vision of
Love"] was a vision of the future world of
American Idol." About.com said that "'Vision of Love' is
one of the best songs of Mariah's recording career [...] It is
simply one of the most stunning debut releases ever by a pop
recording artist."
VH1 named "Vision of Love" the fourteenth greatest song of
the 1990s. About.com ranked it fourth on its top ten pop hits
of 1990 list and twenty-eighth on its top 100 pop songs of the
1990s list.
Entertainment Weeklyincluded it on their "10 Great (and
10 Grating) Karaoke Songs" list as a grating karaoke song,
saying: "You cannot do this song. Seriously. Tackling this
lung-crusher might seem like a fun challenge, but three
minutes, five octaves, and one 10-second note later, you will
realize that you did not conquer 'Vision of Love.' 'Vision of
Love' conquered you."
USA Todaycritic Elysa Gardner picked "Vision of Love" as
one of the most intriguing tracks, saying that it is still
Mariah's best song. T. Field and a research team discovered
that "Vision of Love" is one of the songs that has
physiological and biochemical effects on depressed female
adolescents.
R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles said that she began doing
vocal "runs" after listening to "Vision of Love" for the first
time, and pop singer Mikaila said that the song is what made
her want to sing. "Vision of Love" is also R&B singer
Rihanna's favorite Mariah Carey song.
In the United States, "Vision of Love" entered the Billboard
Hot 100 at number 73 in the week of June 2, 1990, and it
reached number 1 nine weeks later. It remained at number 1 for
four weeks and was ranked sixth on the Hot 100 year-end chart.
The single also reached number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop
Songs for two weeks and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks for three
weeks. The RIAA certified "Vision of Love" as a gold single in
August 1990.
"Vision of Love" reached the top ten in Australia, United
Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands. It went to number 1 in
Canada and New Zealand.
The single's music video, directed by Bojan Bazelli,
features Carey on a darkly lit stage against a background of
moving clouds and a staircase. The video was the second to be
commissioned for the song, after a previous video was scrapped.
According to
Rolling Stone, an "informal source" said that the two
videos cost a combined US$450,000. Columbia Records executive
Don Ienner said the figure was "total bullshit," adding, "If
we're gonna take the time and effort that we did with Mariah,
on every level, then we're going to image her the right way. If
it costs a few extra dollars to make a splash in terms of the
right imaging, you go ahead and do it."
Two live versions of the track were released as exclusive
live performance bonus tracks on non-U.S. releases of the
singles. The first live version was culled from the EP
MTV Unplugged(1992). The live version released on the
single is not the same as the version found on the
MTV Unpluggedalbum; it was edited and the intro and
outro were faded. The first version is most often found on the
UK single of "I'll Be There" (1992). The other live performance
is taken from Carey's DVD
Fantasy: Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden(1996),
and is available on most European singles of "Open Arms"
(1996).
Worldwide CD single
UK CD single
UK CD maxi-single