Due to claims of copyright infringement, Mariah Carey has been sued for her timeless holiday classic, All I Want For Christmas Is You.
According to Billboard, songwriter Andy Stone, who performed as Vince Vance, had sued her twice already. In 2022, he filed a complaint but later withdrew it.
With his group Vince Vance & the Valiants, Stone released a similarly melancholic song of the same name in 1989. It had a lot of radio play over Christmas 1993 and peaked at No. 52 in the US Country Singles chart in 1994. 1994 saw the recording and release of Carey’s song.
According to Stone’s lawsuit: “Although the expression ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ may sound commonplace today, it was, in context, distinctive in 1988. Furthermore, in terms of both lyric choice and chord expressions, the melody’s particular chord progression combined with the exact hook was more than 50% a copy of [Stone’s] original composition.
Gerard P. Fox, who defended two songwriters in a related copyright infringement action against Taylor Swift and her song Shake It Off that ended in an undisclosed settlement in 2022, is Stone’s attorney.
Carey hasn’t answered the complaint. Her management organization has been contacted by The Guardian for comment.
Carey and Walter Afanasieff co-wrote the song, however, they have differing accounts of what happened.
Carey stated in 2021 “I was very, very early in my career while I was still thinking of childhood stuff and I did wish for snow every year… when I first wrote that song.” I began writing that on a small DX7 or Casio keyboard that was in this tiny room of the upstate New York home I was living in at the time. I was just putting anything on paper that came to mind. Everything that brought back memories of Christmas and gave me a joyous feeling that I wanted to share with others.
In 2022, Afanasieff refuted that assertion during an interview. Though Carey hasn’t stated that she composed the song’s entire melody before working with him, he called it “kind of a tall tale” that she composed a very complex chord-structured tune with her finger on a Casio piano when she was a young child.
The two first collaborated in the summer of 1993; according to Afanasieff, it was “like a game of ping-pong.” I would toss the ball to her, and she would return the favor. I began to play a rock-like boogie-woogie. Mariah interrupted, launching into a rendition of “I don’t want a lot for Christmas.” According to Afanasieff, this session created the “nucleus” of the song. “After that, Mariah would call me every week or two to ask, ‘What do you think about this bit?'” We would converse briefly till she finished and coordinated the lyrics. The song was later finished and recorded in 1994, according to Carey, who added layers of vocal effects to a choir arrangement that was “inspired by Phil Spector’s wall of sound formula.”
In her case, Stone makes reference to the purported inconsistencies in the narrative, asserting that Carey has misrepresented these works as her own without obtaining the necessary licenses. Even her co-credited songwriter doesn’t buy the narrative she has conjured up, such is her limitless conceit. Simply said, this is an instance of actionable infringement.
The words of Stone’s song, performed by Lisa Burgess Stewart, read: “Under the Christmas tree, I can’t find what I desire. Santa can’t bring me what I need since all I want for Christmas is you, thus you are my dream come true.
Similar sentiments can be heard in Carey’s song, “I don’t care about the presents / underneath the Christmas tree […].” On Christmas Day, Santa Claus won’t bring me a toy that will make me happy. Fulfill my request / You are all I want for Christmas.
In June 2022, Stone brought his first lawsuit against Carey, Afanasieff, and Sony Music Entertainment; but, in November of the same year, he filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You has become possibly the defining song of contemporary secular Christmas thanks to its sleigh-ride speed and keen sense of yearning. It peaked at No. 2 in the UK in 1994. After downloads and streaming became popular, the song made a comeback to the charts in 2007 and has remained there ever since. In 2020 and 2022, it finally reached No. 1.
Due to its widespread appeal on streaming services and radio, it has also topped the US chart multiple times since it debuted at No. 1 in 2019. During the holiday season of 2022–2023, it remained at the top for 12 weeks.
Carey brought the song back with a new video that she released on social media on November 1st, celebrating the arrival of Christmas and chasing away Halloween in the hopes of enjoying another successful year.