Anytime You Need a Friend

Encyclopedia : A : AN : ANY : Anytime You Need a Friend

"Anytime You Need a Friend" is a song written and produced by American singer Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff for Carey's fourth album, Music Box. It is a gospel-tinged ballad whose protagonist informs a friend that anytime they need a friend she will be there. It was released as the album's fourth and final single in the second quarter of 1994 (see 1994 in music).

All of Carey's previous singles had been top five hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, but "Anytime You Need a Friend" ended this streak and peaked at number twelve, remaining in the top forty for eighteen weeks. Despite this, it was popular on the radio and was ranked number forty-seven on the Hot 100 1994 year-end charts, giving Carey three singles in the top half of the chart. It was her least successful single to date on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart and did not make the top twenty, but it reached the top five of the Adult Contemporary chart, and a remix of the song became Carey's fourth number-one single on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

The single performed moderately elsewhere following the massive success of "Without You", peaking in the top twenty in most countries. It was most successful in the United Kingdom where it made the top ten, becoming the second consecutive single by Carey to be more successful in the UK than the U.S. The single's video, directed by Danielle Federici, features Carey walking along the streets and among a choir. Shot in black and white, it is intercut with scenes of depressed people whom Carey comes to befriend.

"Anytime You Need a Friend" was remixed by David Cole and Robert Clivillés of the C&C Music Factory. Although over fifteen various edits and extended mixes were created, for the most part they are based on the "C&C Club" mix. Other variations, extended mixes, and edits include but are not limited to the "All That and More" mix, "Dave's Empty Pass" mix, and the "Boriqua Tribe" mix. Corey Rooney and Mark Morales created a Soul Convention and a stringapella for the song. Because of the large number of remixes, two maxi singles were released in the U.S. Carey was given co-producing credit for both the C&C mixes and the Soul Convention/Stringapella, the first time that she had been given producing credit on remixes of her songs.

A video was commissioned for the C&C Club mix of the song. Known as the C&C video edit, it was also directed by Danielle Federici and serves as a behind the scenes addendum to the main music video. It is filmed in black and white, and is composed of clips of Carey and her friends goofing around and having fun.

Track listings

U.S. CD single (cassette single/7" single)
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (album version)
#"Music Box" (album version)

U.S. CD maxi single 1
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (C&C Club version)
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (Ministry of Sound mix)
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (Dave’s Empty Pass)
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (7" mix)

U.S. CD maxi single 2
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (Soul Convention remix)
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (Stringapella)
#"Anytime You Need a Friend" (album version)
#"Music Box" (album version)

Charts

Chart (1994)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	12
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales	19
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	8
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	22
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	5
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	5
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40	14
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1 (1 week)
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	4
UK Singles Chart	8
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	12
French Singles Chart	12
Swiss Singles Chart	15
German Singles Chart	41

External links

[Lyrics from the album version]

Mariah Carey
Albums \| Singles \| Awards \|

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.