Official Charts Flashback 1994: Mariah Carey – Without You

It’s 20 years since this cover of a Nilsson classic gave Mariah Carey her very first Number 1, spending four weeks at the top of the Official Singles Chart.

They say good things to come to those who wait, and Mariah Carey certainly did wait very patiently for her first chart-topper. After nine Top 40 hits, Mariah decided it was time to bring out the big guns for the third single from her third album Music Box. Well, they say that three is the magic number and for Mariah it certainly was – her version of the heartwrenching ballad Without You went straight in at Number 1 this week in 1994. Just in time to have a big Valentine’s Day argument, break up and make up, all while this is playing in the background.

Without You was originally recorded by British rockers Badfinger before New Yorker Nilsson made it famous, taking it to Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart in 1972, where it stayed for five weeks. Mariah’s version stayed true to Nilsson’s rendition, and the video was a fairly simple affair – just Mariah on stage, doing what she did best and belting it out.

Watch the video for Without You before we get down and dirty with the stats.

Without You managed a month at the top for Mariah and is to date her only chart-topper all of her own. She has hit Number 1 one more time since, in collaboration with Westlife on a cover of Phil Collins' 1984 hit Against All Odds in 2000. Since her first Top 10 Vision Of Love in 1990, Mariah has appeared on 23 more Top 10 hits, including those two Number 1s. Without You sold 470,000 copies, but Mariah’s biggest seller is her Christmas classic All I Want For Christmas Is You, which passed the million mark just before Christmas 2013. The Yuletide anthem has charted in the Top 40 eight times.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the Top 5 this week in 1994.

2: D:Ream – Things Can Only Get Better

You can walk my path, you can wear my shoes. D:Ream’s former chart-topper slips one place. It would, of course, have a triumphant return to the Top 40 three years later, but to find out more about that, take a look at D:Ream’s very own Official Charts Flashback. 

3: Toni Braxton – Breathe Again

Enjoying her very first hit, R&B chanteuse Toni Braxton was beginning a career that would give her nine more chart hits, including five Top 10s. Toni’s last Top 40 hit was 2003’s Hit The Freeway, which peaked at Number 29, but with new album Love Marriage & Divorce – a collaboration with Babyface – could she be heading back to the Official Singles Chart again?

4: Enigma – Return To Innocence

Mysterious new age band Enigma celebrated their second Top 10 hit with this moody track, featuring vocals from Angel X. Enigma first rose to fame three years earlier, when they spent a week at Number 1 with another atmospheric hit – Sadness (Part I). They were good, but let’s just say they were pretty light on LOLs.

5: Celine Dion – The Power Of Love

Celine had graced the Top 10 only once before she hit the Top 5 with this cover of Jennifer Rush’s Number 1 smash from 1985. While Celine didn’t top the Official Singles Chart with The Power Of Love, she did go on to have 11 more Top 10 hits, including two Number 1s, Think Twice and My Heart Will Go On, which are both million sellers.

See the full Top 40 from this week in 1994.