Saturday Morning Records: #14 — Mariah Carey’s Number 1’s

A new series for paying subscribers — celebrating favourite albums for the weekend

Forgive me father for I have sinned. I made it all the way to my late-40s before owning a single Mariah Carey album. But I have made up for it. I promise. Late last year, I took possession of the remnants of a friend’s CD collection. Included was a copy of Mariah Carey’s MTV Unplugged EP, which I had always wanted to own. I loved her cover of The Jackson 5’s I’ll Be There. I mean I kinda loved Vision of Love before it, and kinda felt emotions about Emotions, but it was the Jackson 5 cover that let me know Mariah loved music. And could obviously sing better than most.

But growing up in Hawke’s Bay in the late 80s and early 90s I felt a weird shame about buying certain music. I couldn’t own a Mariah Carey album. That’s how I felt.