My All

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"My All" is a song written by American singer Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff for Carey's seventh album, Butterfly. It is built around a Latin guitar and Latin chord, and its protagonist declares she would give "her all" to have just one more night with her estranged lover. It was released as the album's fifth single in 1998 (see 1998 in music).

Chart performance

Although "My All" was the fifth single released from Butterfly, it was only the third major single release and the second commercial release in the U.S. "My All" became Carey's thirteenth number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the female artist with the most U.S. number-one hits (she had previously shared this record with Diana Ross). It was promoted in the U.S. as a double A-side with "Breakdown". It debuted at number two (her second to do so following "Always Be My Baby" in 1996), and two weeks later it ascended to number one. It spent one week at the top of the chart, from May 17 to May 23 1998, Carey's shortest stay at number one at the time. It replaced "Too Close" by Next, and was replaced by Brandy and Monica's "The Boy Is Mine".

"My All" continued the trend in Carey's singles begun with "Honey" (1997) of strong sales but moderate radio airplay, which worked against its chart performance as the formulations made by Billboard magazine during this period were becoming much more focused on radio airplay than sales. It spent eighteen weeks in the top forty, was certified platinum by the RIAA and was ranked sixteenth on the Hot 100 1998 year-end charts.

The single was also a success outside the U.S., achieving top ten peaks in the United Kingdom, Brazil, France and Switzerland, as well reaching the top twenty in many other countries.

Music videos and remixes

A scene from the music video.

The single's video, shot entirely in black and white and on location in Puerto Rico, was one of the last music videos directed by fashion photographer Herb Ritts before he died. It starts with Carey lying on an overturned rowboat in the ocean and progresses to her exploring the beach past flowers and a beam from the beach's lighthouse. The images of Carey lying in the shell and in front of the flowers were inspired by Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus. The video climaxes to a scene where Carey and her lover make love, but then ends with Carey alone.

"My All" ranks among one of Carey's most remixed tracks, and two maxi singles were released in the U.S. The main R&B remix of this single is the "So So Def" remix, which features re-recorded vocals by Carey and is built around a sample of the Loose Ends song "Stay a Little While", as well as containing a vocal interpolation (Carey blends the first verse and chorus of "My All" with the verse and chorus of "Stay a Little While"). It was produced by Jermaine Dupri, and features raps from Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz. A video, directed by Diane Martel, was created for the remix, and features Carey, Dupri, Lord Tariq, and Peter Guns partying at a friend's house. The video was shot in a grainy fashion to simulate a home video.

The video for the "So So Def" remix was shot in a grainy fashion to simulate a home video.

The song's main dance remix is by David Morales and is known as the "Classic Club mix", and is Carey's first collaboration with Morales for which she did not record entirely new vocals. Consequently, the song is fairly close to the original chord progressions of the album version, though some new vocals were added. The remix was a major U.S. dance hit, consolidating Morales and Carey's positions as club hitmakers. The original Herb Ritts-directed video was re-edited and released as the official video for the "Classic radio mix" version of the song.

Carey recorded a Spanish version of "My All", "Mi Todo" (translated by Manny Benito), and it was released outside the U.S. on the "My All" single. Unlike "Hero" (1993) and "Open Arms" (1996), Carey recorded the Spanish version of the song in a different key from the original English version. The first line of the song had been mistranslated and was grammatically incorrect, and Carey later mentioned on her website that she would no longer record Spanish versions of her songs until she could verify the correct lyrics and pronunciation ("My All" remains her last song to be recorded in Spanish as well as English). Columbia Records commissioned Ippocratis "Grego" Bournellis (a.k.a. DJ Grego) to remix "Mi Todo", but these four mixes were only released promotionally in Mexico.

Audio samples

Charts

See also

• Hot 100 number-one hits of 1998 (USA)
• [}}}] at YouTube

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Mariah Carey
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