Billboard #1 Hits: #723: ‘Vision Of Love’- Mariah Carey. August 4, 1990. #1 for 4 weeks in Billboard Hot 100.
- Single: ‘Vision Of Love’- Mariah Carey
- Record Company- Columbia
- Genre: Pop
- Written by Mariah Carey and Ben Margulies
- Time: 3:29
- B-side: 3 album snippets
- Album- Mariah Carey
- Grade: B
- Peaked at #1 4 weeks in Billboard Hot 100. #9 in UK Singles Chart- #1 in Canada and New Zealand.
Mariah Carey was born in 1970- in Huntington, Long Island, New York. She has a five octave vocal range and has never been shy about showing it off. ‘Vision Of Love’ was her first single- her first 5 singles went to #1- Her first 11 singles were top 10- and in those first 11 singles 8 went to #1. At the moment Mariah Carey has 19 #1 hits- trailing only The Beatles at #20. I bought the first album- but quickly tired of her.
slicethelife 
She’d do well to forget the upper octave, maybe two. She gers up there,she’s shrieking…
This song deserves an A+
This is the only song she put out that I could stand. She seems to be the one that started the annoying melisma (vocal run) craze. I had the same problem with Celine Dion. Her first song, sung in English and released in the US, is the only one of her pieces I could stand.
I bought the first album- and I am with you- you nailed it all– she has a 5 octave voice- who gives a crap- and she is constantly showing it off. Blah.
LOL! Exactly! BLAH!
Surely Whitney was in with the melismas first?
Well, yeah, Whitney did it, too but, she wasn’t obnoxious about it. That being said, she is hardly the first to do it. Melisma, historically, goes back to Indian ragas & Gregorian chants. Aretha is known for it, Sam Cooke is, Stevie Wonder is, Ray Charles…Gladys Knight…
After Mariah, everyone wanted to sing like her (sadly) and there was this wave of vocal runners, particularly on American Idol. It’s over done & I’m sick of it.
BBC says:
The vocal technique traces its roots back to Gregorian chants and the ragas of Indian classical music.
In the modern era singers such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke are credited with bringing melisma from the choirs of churches to mainstream audiences.
Mariah Carey’s Vision of Love was a notable use. But it was Houston who popularised it and stretched the standards by attaching complicated strings of notes to single syllables.
I hate her version of I Will Always Love You – just vocal grandstanding.
LOL! Good point. I happen to agree with you.
It’s probably arguable either way with Carey or Houston popularising it. Carey was pretty popular before I Will Always Love You dropped.
I thought there might be a case for someone like Donna Summer too.
They very well could have played off of each other. Houston’s first two albums in the 80s weren’t really “vocal run” prominent.
I grew up listening to Donna Summer. She was more known for holding notes than vocal runs…
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