Released in late October 1994, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" pretty much became an instant classic. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is one of the best pop songs ever made, regardless of seasonality.
It was not as a stand-alone single at the time it was released (but was later), so it was not eligible for the Billboard Hot 100. That rule has since changed, and it has appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 each year since 2012, garnering some interesting accolades. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, which: (1) made it only the second holiday song to ever top the chart -- the first being The Chipmunks' 1958 holiday classic "The Chipmunk Song" (i.e., "please Christmas don't be late"); (2) set a record for the longest span between a song's release and its ascension to #1 (25 years); (3) set a then-record for number of weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 before hitting #1 (35); (4) extended Mariah's record for the most #1 songs by a solo artist (19); and (5) extended her record of total weeks at #1 to 80. The song stayed at #1 over the last two weeks of 2019 and first week of 2020, making Mariah the first artist to ever top the Billboard Hot 100 in four separate decades.
It has hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 each year since then -- and also owns the record for the only song to top the chart and then fall completely out of the chart the following week -- and in 2021, it became the first song to reach #1 on the chart in three separate years, followed by this year, where it became the first one to hit #1 in four separate years. When it held the top spot for it's tenth week overall, Mariah became the third artist in Billboard Hot 100 history (along with Boyz II Men and Drake) to have three songs that have spent 10 or more weeks at #1.
Worldwide, it's just as big, as it has topped the pop charts in nearly 30 other countries and reached the top five in over a dozen more. It's the only holiday song to have been certified diamond by the RIAA, it's the best-selling holiday song in the U.S. and worldwide by a female artist, and with 16 million physical sales, it is the 12th best-selling physical single worldwide (only 35 million more until it overtakes Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" for the top spot!).
Until today, I did not know that there were two videos released for the song (not including the video in 2019 for the 25th anniversary) -- the main one, with Mariah in a Santa suit playing in snow and whatnot, and another one in black and white where she is doing her best impression of another holiday song icon, Ronnie Spector (though her backing singers don't quite look like the other Ronettes). Both are embedded below.
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