1. Can't Let Go



2. Endless Love



3. Loverboy



4. Shake It Off

1. CAN'T LET GO
Mariah Carey had surpassed a record held by The Jackson 5 by having her first five singles all reach #1, and she hoped to extend that streak to six with the second release from her album, Emotions . But she soon discovered that all good things had to come to an end.

As on Carey's previous hits, she chose to share songwriting duties with another writer, Walter Afanasieff, on "Can't Let Go." In the book Mariah Carey: The Unauthorized Biography, she explained why she preferred to share the writing process: "I always do the melody first. Sometimes I'll have an idea for a lyric. If I'm collaborating with someone, I'll direct them in the direction I'm going chordwise, because I get all these melody ideas and then I lose them if I don't have someone really good on keyboards right there with me. That's why I tend to collaborate because I lose the ideas by the time I figure out the chords."

Afanasieff had previously produced Mariah's hit "Love Takes Time" and was a natural choice to assist her with the new ballad. She told Billboard magazine, "One of the best things about writing with Walter is that he is such a knowledgeable musician. When I frantically hum out chords to him, he knows how to translate what I am hearing in my mind so accurately. With a lot of other people, it is not quite as easy. Our differences really compliment each other."

Following the chart-topping success of "Vision Of Love," "Love Takes Time," "Someday," "I Don't Wanna Cry," and "Emotions," "Can't Let Go" seemed to have a good chance of extending Mariah's streak of #1 hits to six. The song entered the charts at #42 and three weeks later reached the top 10. Unfortunately she couldn't get Color Me Badd to let go of the #1 spot and ended up with the first non-chart-topper of her career. The song also hit the runner-up spot on the R&B charts, but it did much better on the Adult Contemporary charts, where it became her fourth #1 hit.

Mariah's next release, "Make It Happen," fared even worse, reaching only #5. Even though those hits failed to reach the top of the charts, Carey reserved a special place for them. As she revealed in the liner notes of her #1 hits album, "One day, I will put out a greatest hits with songs...that came out that didn't go to #1 that are, in my opinion, better than some that did (i.e. 'Make It Happen,' 'Anytime You Need A Friend,' 'Endless Love' with Luther, or 'Can't Let Go'). Still, "Can't Let Go" kept Mariah Carey's streak of top 10 hits alive at six. Her streak extended to 11 before finally being broken by the #12 single "Anytime You Need A Friend." It took another #2 single to start the streak anew.


2. ENDLESS LOVE
Luther Vandross had a particular knack for finding duet partners. His duet with Dionne Warwick, "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye," gave him his first Top 30 pop hit. His duet with Janet Jackson, "The Best Things In Life Are Free," gave him his fourth Top 10 pop hit, and his duet with Mariah Carey gave him his biggest hit ever.

Remaking a song that had already been definitively recorded by another artist might have seemed like a strange move for Luther, but by 1994, after more than a decade in the music business, he'd begun to see that it might not be as strange as it seemed. As he noted in a Time-Life documentary about the history of rock 'n' roll, "In the 1990s, we've had time to look and inspect and analyze everything and be influenced by everything. There isn't a whole lot of pioneering going on right at this minute. The pioneering went on earlier."

Sony Records President Tommy Mottola suggested that Vandross record Songs, an album of cover versions. Featuring Luther's versions of songs like Stephen Stills' "Love The One You're With," Heatwave's "Always And Forever," and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly," the album was shaping up to be a major career accomplishment. To give the album a bigger boost, Mottola's wife, Mariah Carey, came up with the idea to remake "Endless Love" as a duet with her. Lionel Richie and Diana Ross had originally recorded "Endless Love" in 1981, and the song spent nine weeks at #1. Although Luther's album was already set to contain one Lionel Riche composition, "Hello," it was obvious that having the most-popular female singer on the Sony label singing on the album would be a benefit.

"Endless Love" debuted on September 10, 1994 at #31, a better start than the original version had had. The next week the Vandross/Carey duet jumped to #6 and seemed a shoo-in for #1. Unfortunately the song didn't have much staying power. After a single week at #2, it was replaced by Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do" and started falling off the charts. Still, the song became Luther Vandross' biggest pop hit ever and gave Lionel Richie his first top 10 as a songwriter in seven years. For Mariah, it started a string of six straight Top 2 singles that ended surprisingly thanks to another superstar duet, her #15 collaboration with Whitney Houston from The Prince Of Egypt soundtrack, "When You Believe."

In the album's liner notes Luther himself extended his thanks to those who came before him and provided the material so close to his heart: "To the artists who did the original versions of these songs: Dionne, Aretha, Diana & The Supremes, Roberta, Stephen, Diana & Lionel, Barbra, Whitney, Heatwave, The Friends Of Distinction, MdFadden & Whitehead, and 'Man Of La Mancha.' Thank you for the pioneering. I love you guys."


3. LOVERBOY - Currently not available.


4. SHAKE IT OFF - Currently not available.



Source:
· The Billboard Book of Number Two Singles, 2000, Christopher Feldman