Songoftheday 9/1/21 - And after all this time you'd think that I wouldn't feel the same, but time melts into nothing and nothing's changed...

"I Still Believe" - Mariah Carey

from the album #1s (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song is from Mariah Carey, who had just scored a top-40 pop/R&B/easy listening hit with her Prince Of Egypt soundtrack collaboration with Whitney Houston, "When You Believe", in the beginning of 1999. That song also appeared on her first greatest hits package, #1s, which was released that fall. The follow-up single from the set would be a cover of a song by the woman who helped Carey get discovered, Brenda K. Starr. Carey sang backup for Starr, and as her plus one attended a party where she gave her demo tape to Columbia head (and future husband) Tommy Mottola. Probably as a nod to close out that era, Mariah remade the track, not making too many changes on the original version on her album. "I Still Believe", written by Antonia Armato and Giuseppe Cantarelli, is a torch song ballad about trying to convince an old flame to rekindle. There's no resolution to the question, and that leaves us feeling that the singer is releasing this into the void more than directly to that person. I'm sure Mariah meant to amp of the vocals on this, comparing to Starr's but the latter's innocence shone through more on the result. It's definitely a professionally well-done record, but was it necessary? Perhaps not, but with the music video having Carey vamp it up for a throng of soldiers made for a visual, and Mariah was back into the top ten...

"I Still Believe" climbed to the pop top ten in America in March of 1999. The song also climbed to #8 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary radio chart. A special remix that "mashed up" the song with the Willy Wonka film classic "Pure Imagination" (see below) gave her a big R&B radio audience, where it spent a week at #3. It was also transformed into a house music throwdown, and landed the singer her seventh #1 on their Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the Netherlands (#2), Hungary (#2), and Spain (#7). It also made the top-40 in the UK (#16), Poland (#16), Canada (#21), New Zealand (#24), Belgium (#25W/#48F), Switzerland (#31), and France (#33). The #1s album, released in November of 1998, peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, selling over five million copies and spending over a year on the list. Of course Mariah will be returning to the series many more times.

"I Still Believe" (5/10) "I Still Believe/Pure Imagination" (6/10)

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As with a lot of Mariah's singles, a special remix was made for the R&B/urban radio market. In this case, producer Damion "Damizza" Young had Mariah re-record her vocals completely, and transform the song into a "mash up" with the song "Pure Imagination" from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Bringing on board Krayzie Bone from the rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmoney, who had been recently on her B-side radio hit "Breakdown", who provides the male counterpart to the record and Da Brat, who tags on as hype woman, this version is so different from the original as to be indistinguishable...