All I Want For Christmas Is You

Happy Holidays! At this point in the season, you have probably listened to “All I Want For Christmas Is You” no less than 10,000 times. Even still, the song feels as fresh as the first time you listened to it! Because Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic has dominated our ear space every December for the past 25 years, it has amassed quite a bit of scholarly writing about. I’d love to pass the mic today to those who have studied this song and let you all read what they have to say! Enjoy.

Firstly, listen as Mariah Carey tells the story of her classic song for Amazon Music: Watch here.

For People Magazine, Alex Heigel recorded the origin story of the song from the perspective of Walter Afanasieff, Carey’s co-writer on the song: Read Here.

Despite being initially released in 1994, the song reached number 1 for the first time in 2019. Joe Coscarelli of the New York Times documents that long journey: Read Here.

Vox did a music theory analysis of the song in 2016, dissecting what gives the song that “Christmas-y” feeling and considering it in the context of the American Christmas music oeuvre: Watch Here.

For more analysis, you can listen to Rob Harvilla and Kyla Marshall consider the song within the context of 90’s music. Listen Here.

I hope that these videos, interviews, and podcasts can help you better understand the history and theory around one of the biggest songs to ever exist. And I hope that you have an incredible holiday season!

Wishing you well,

Judy Stakee