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You guys! Twenty years ago this very week, Mariah Carey hit number one with her cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There."
Here are some things that makes me think about:
My mom and I got in a fight about whose version was better. I was strongly pro Mariah. In retrospect, I don't think my mom took the fight very seriously, but I DID. Because PARENTS don't know ANYTHING. I've always loved how Mariah coos, "Trey Lorenz... sing" during Lorenz's solo part. It's like she's magically evoking him from the folds of her black leather jacket That jacket! This performance comes from Mariah's MTV Unplugged concert, and I swear to God, I've seen that thing a billion times. And I bought the CASSETTE TAPE. My mom loved that cassette, so maybe, again, she wasn't THAT serious about our argument. But WHATEVER. Was Mariah ever so young? Was her bosom ever so modestly covered? Was her hair ever so real? This was the first song on a mix tape I made in 8th grade called "More Mariah Than You Can Shake a Stick At." It was 90 minutes long, and I used to listen to it on the bus to school. And then one day, some freak stole my damn Walkman while this tape was in it. And I just KNEW the criminal would not appreciate the songs as much as I did. Mariah Carey provoked me do some very gay things in middle school. Mark Blankenship tweets as @IAmBlankenship. He has written about pop music for NPR and The New York Times. He really loved that Mariah mix tape.
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