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In The Number Ones, I\u2019m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the<\/em> Billboard Hot 100, beginning with the chart\u2019s starting, in 1958, and dealing my approach up into the current.<\/em><\/p>\n Mariah Carey was cooked. This was the favored notion, to the purpose that there even was<\/em> a preferred notion. Mariah had dominated the pop charts for all the \u201990s, and she or he\u2019d quietly reinvented herself a couple of instances over the course of the last decade. In the primary few years of the brand new century, although, Mariah had flamed out in a really seen approach. Back-to-back albums had flopped resoundingly. I don\u2019t keep in mind Mariah\u2019s downfall being particularly surprising. Mariah was a pop singer, and pop singers\u2019 careers tend to finish. But when Mariah got here again, that<\/em> was notable. <\/p>\n Mariah Carey spent a couple of years wandering round in the dead of night, going by bitter splits with two totally different file labels. Virgin, the second of these labels, needed to pay tens of tens of millions to get Mariah to go away. But then, impulsively, Mariah was again<\/em>. Mariah Carey didn\u2019t simply return after these wilderness years. She stormed again in with certainly one of her all-time largest hits. A full decade and a half after she scored her first #1 hit<\/a>, Mariah spent nearly the whole summer season of 2005 on prime of the Hot 100. Virgin Records realized a pricey lesson: You ought to by no means rely Mariah Carey out. Case in level: Through a convoluted journey that we\u2019ll finally cowl on this column, Mariah Carey has the #1 tune in America proper now<\/em>. <\/p>\n The Mariah Carey comeback was a full-on historic phenomenon, and it virtually appeared to occur out of nowhere. But Mariah didn\u2019t return with a loud, show-offy assertion smash. Instead, she bought there with \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d a lovelorn sigh of a ballad that by no means demanded consideration. Mariah had adjusted her model to fulfill altering instances, however her updates had been all refined, canny tweaks. As a tune, the Mariah Carey comeback smash \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d is fairly good. As an instance of a longtime pop star assembly the second, it\u2019s a masterpiece.<\/p>\n In February of 2000, the overblown ballad \u201cThank God I Found You<\/a>\u201d grew to become Mariah Carey\u2019s fifteenth Hot 100 chart-topper. If she\u2019d by no means ascended to #1 once more, Mariah would\u2019ve nonetheless had a completely insane hitmaking run. For a superb 5 years, \u201cThank God I Found You\u201d actually seemed prefer it would<\/em> be her final dominant hit. After Mariah completed the album cycle for 1999\u2019s Rainbow<\/em>, she left Columbia Records, the label run by her ex-husband Tommy Mottola. She signed a five-year cope with Virgin Records for a reported $100 million. And then: Glitter<\/em>.<\/p>\n Mariah Carey had needed to make a film for a very long time, and Tommy Mottola had all the time dissuaded her. She bought her likelihood when she bought out of her Columbia contract, however the manufacturing of her cinematic debut was chaotic and stuffed with compromise, and the ensuing film was an all-time historic bomb, the sort of factor that looks as if it was made with the precise intent of profitable Razzies. The movie\u2019s launch was much more messed-up than its manufacturing, and the picture of Mariah doing a strip-tease for a shocked Carson Daly on Total Request Live<\/em> grew to become extra infamous than something within the film itself. Months earlier than the movie\u2019s launch, Mariah was hospitalized for what her handlers referred to as \u201ca physical and emotional breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n Mariah\u2019s fall was dramatic, however there was context behind it. For one factor, Tommy Mottola was, by most accounts, actively working to sabotage Mariah\u2019s Glitter<\/em> period. \u201cLoverboy,\u201d the primary single from Mariah\u2019s Glitter<\/em> soundtrack, needed to be reworked on the final minute when Mottola grabbed the Yellow Magic Orchestra pattern that Mariah had deliberate to make use of for the unique model of Jennifer Lopez\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Real<\/a>.\u201d (\u201cLoverboy\u201d nonetheless peaked at #2. It\u2019s a 4.) Also, this was the height Us Weekly<\/em> period, when the tabloid press was making it very, very exhausting for celebrities to be susceptible weirdos in public. When Mariah seemed like she was slipping, the sharks circled.<\/p>\n After Glitter<\/em> tanked, Virgin spent tens of tens of millions to purchase Mariah Carey out of her contract. Mariah then moved on to Island, and 2002\u2019s Charmbracelet<\/em>, the primary album that Mariah recorded for her new label, appeared to barely exist. The Glitter<\/em> soundtrack and Charmbracelet<\/em> each went platinum, so Mariah nonetheless had her followers, however she barely even gave the impression to be in dialog with the pop mainstream anymore. The solely charting single from Charmbracelet<\/em> was the self-serious ballad \u201cThrough The Rain<\/a>,\u201d which peaked at #81. During that stretch, Mariah\u2019s solely massive hit wasn\u2019t actually her personal. In 2003, Mariah sang the hook on Busta Rhymes and his Flipmode Squad\u2019s \u201cI Know What You Want,\u201d and that tune reached #3. (It\u2019s a 7.)<\/p>\n After Charmbracelet<\/em> got here and went, Island Records may\u2019ve pulled the plug on the entire Mariah Carey experiment. Instead, the label doubled down on her. Mariah went into her 2005 album The Emancipation Of Mimi<\/em> with a unique angle. Despite the title, Emancipation<\/em> isn\u2019t actually a file about overcoming battle. Instead, it\u2019s an album stuffed with laid-back, breezy get together songs. Mariah recorded with tons of individuals whose work has appeared on this column: Kanye West, Twista, Nelly, the Neptunes, Snoop Dogg. Mariah had messed round with dance and rap for years, however she\u2019d all the time balanced these tracks out with swollen middle-of-the-road ballads. On Emancipation<\/em>, she removed the old-timey ballads utterly, changing them with midtempo lopes that had been extra in step with the pop second.<\/p>\n While Mariah Carey was engaged on The Emancipation Of Mimi<\/em>, LA Reid took over as head of Island Records. Reid was an R&B man who understood Mariah\u2019s attraction, and he inspired her to maintain moving into that path. When Reid heard what Mariah had been doing, he advised that she file some extra songs along with her \u201cAlways Be My Baby<\/a>\u201d collaborator Jermaine Dupri. Presumably, that suggestion wasn\u2019t pushed by musical chemistry alone. Dupri had been one of many fundamental inventive forces on Usher\u2019s Confessions<\/em>, the most important album of 2004, and he\u2019d co-written and co-produced three of that LP\u2019s 4 #1 hits. Soon, alongside Mariah, Dupri made one other blockbuster.<\/p>\n Mariah Carey flew all the way down to Atlanta for a few classes with Jermaine Dupri. In the primary of these classes, they wrote and recorded two songs, and each grew to become singles. In the second session, Mariah and Dupri made what would turn into the primary two singles from The Emancipation Of Mimi<\/em>. First, they recorded \u201cIt\u2019s Like That,\u201d a smooth and winding membership observe with party-up exhortations from Dupri and from Fatman Scoop. \u201cIt\u2019s Like That\u201d was the no-more-drama sign. It was catchy and speedy with out being too thirsty, and it discovered Mariah sounding joyous and unbothered. The tune got here out in January 2005, and it peaked at #16.<\/p>\n But the actual hit from The Emancipation Of Mimi<\/em> was the second single from that second Mariah\/Dupri session. Mariah and Dupri co-wrote the ballad \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d with Mariah\u2019s common collaborator Manuel Seal and with Johnt\u00e1 Austin, an Atlanta native who\u2019d hosted a children\u2019 information present on TBS when he was eight years outdated and who actually needed to turn into a singer. In the late \u201990s, a teenage Austin co-wrote songs for artists like Coolio, SWV, and Tyrese. Austin caught round lengthy sufficient that he finally did launch a singing profession, although none of his songs ever charted. (As a visitor, Austin bought to #9 by singing on Bow Wow\u2019s 2006 single \u201cShortie Like Mine.\u201d It\u2019s a 5.)<\/p>\n \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d has a storyline that we\u2019ve heard 1,000,000 instances. Mariah Carey\u2019s narrator has damaged up with somebody, and she or he regrets it deeply. She longs to be again along with this individual, and she will be able to\u2019t consider how badly she messed every little thing up: \u201cGuess I didn\u2019t know you, guess I didn\u2019t know me.\u201d She tries to maneuver on, however every little thing retains reminding her of what she\u2019s misplaced. She pleads to get again collectively, however as with so many of those songs, we don\u2019t know whether or not she\u2019s actually saying these items or whether or not we\u2019re simply listening to her ideas. Either approach, Mariah doesn\u2019t appear to consider that there\u2019s a reunion on her future. She appears like she\u2019s already misplaced, like she is aware of her plea will go nowhere.<\/p>\n Musically, \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d additionally sounds acquainted. It\u2019s pure mid-\u201900s R&B consolation meals. Mariah co-produced the observe with Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, they usually lean exhausting on the tropes of the second: The tender and tinkly piano intro, the thrives of acoustic guitar, the easy drum-machine beat. As on Usher\u2019s Confessions<\/em>, Jermaine Dupri makes use of the spaced-out 808 programming of Atlanta rap \u2014 the artificial handclaps, the lawn-sprinkler hi-hat hisses \u2014 and combines them with the melodic craving of R&B. The entire factor sounds acquainted, however there\u2019s sophistication in that observe, too. Some of the sophistication is within the familiarity.<\/p>\n On the second verse of \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d Mariah sings about encountering breakup songs at any time when she activates the radio. In the method, she sings lyrics from a few throwback \u201980s breakup jams. First: \u201cBobby Womack\u2019s on the radio\/ Singing to me, \u2018If you think you\u2019re lonely now.’\u201d That\u2019s a direct reference to soul nice Bobby Womack\u2019s 1981 single \u201cIf You\u2019re Lonely Now,\u201d a #3 R&B hit that didn\u2019t cross over to the Hot 100. (Bobby Womack\u2019s highest-charting single is 1974\u2019s \u201cLookin\u2019 For A Love<\/a>,\u201d a canopy of a tune that he first recorded in 1962 along with his group the Valentinos. \u201cLookin\u2019 For A Love\u201d peaked at #10; it\u2019s an 8.)<\/p>\n Mariah sings that \u201cIf You\u2019re Lonely Now\u201d is \u201ctoo deep,\u201d so she switches the station, solely to be confronted by one other \u201980s R&B heart-ripper. This time, it\u2019s \u201cTwo Occasions,\u201d the 1988 hit from Babyface and LA Reid\u2019s outdated band the Deele. (\u201cTwo Occasions\u201d peaked at #10. It\u2019s a 7.) It\u2019s a fleeting second, Mariah Carey singing together with these two breakup songs. The songs themselves are particular, however the feeling is common \u2014 that factor the place you\u2019re unhappy and the universe appears to deliberately remind you, time and again, that you simply\u2019re unhappy. Because of these two strains, the writers of \u201cIf You\u2019re Lonely Now\u201d and \u201cTwo Occasions\u201d \u2014 Bobby Womack, Patrick Moten, Sandra Sully, Babyface, Darnell \u201cDee\u201d Bristol \u2014 bought songwriting credit on \u201cWe Belong Together.\u201d I ponder if Mariah threw that \u201cTwo Occasions\u201d line in there as a sort of salute to her new label boss LA Reid.<\/p>\n But the actual sharp factor about \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d is the way in which that Mariah Carey sings it. The tune has not one of the syrupy bombast of her \u201990s ballads, and she or he hardly ever goes heavy on the melisma that she helped introduce to the pop charts within the first place. Instead, Mariah skates over these 808s like a rapper. Where she would possibly\u2019ve as soon as stretched out a single syllable to 14 totally different notes, she makes use of a single word to cram in a complete lot of syllables. Younger R&B stars like Usher and Beyonc\u00e9 had mastered that hybrid sing-rap model, however that model hadn\u2019t existed when Mariah arrived. On \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d she makes it sound straightforward.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no massive key change on \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d and the beat stays static all through. But Mariah makes the tune dramatic by cranking up the fireplace in her supply. She sings her personal backups, and people backups are calm and placid all through the observe. By the top, although, her lead vocal has turn into fiery and determined, and you may hear the distinction between the softly sighing backups and the depth of that lead: \u201cWhen you left, I lost a part of me<\/em>! It\u2019s still so hard to be-lieve<\/em>! Come back, baby, please<\/em>!\u201d Mariah recorded the entire observe in a single in a single day session earlier than flying again to New York within the morning. Years later, she instructed Andy Cohen that she sang so exhausting on the outro as a result of LA Reid was on his option to the studio and she or he was urgently making an attempt to complete the observe earlier than he bought there.<\/p>\n Mariah Carey filmed the \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d video with director Brett Ratner, who\u2019d already made her movies for \u201cHeartbreaker<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThank God I Found You\u201d and who was in between After The Sunset<\/em> and X-Men: The Last Stand<\/em>. Ratner had additionally accomplished Mariah\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Like That\u201d clip, and the \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d video finishes the story launched in \u201cIt\u2019s Like That\u201d \u2014 one of many few instances that we bought a payoff to a type of movies that ends in a \u201cto be continued\u2026\u201d teaser.<\/p>\n As the \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d clip opens, Mariah Carey is about to marry Eric Roberts, the skeezy \u201980s character actor who had a weirdly prolific run as a villain in \u201900s music movies. As a wealthy older white man who\u2019s about to marry Mariah Carey, Roberts is clearly speculated to remind us of Tommy Mottola. Making that connection all of the extra express, Mariah\u2019s wedding ceremony gown within the \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d clip is the one which she wore when she truly married Mottola 12 years earlier. <\/p>\n Instead of marrying Eric Roberts, although, Mariah escapes with brooding Prison Break<\/em> star Wentworth Miller, who exhibits as much as the marriage in a black swimsuit and sneakers. At the time, Miller was just about unknown; Prison Break<\/em> truly had its collection premiere \u2014 additionally directed by Brett Ratner \u2014 whereas \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d was sitting at #1. As the video ends, Mariah and Miller drive off collectively, with Mariah\u2019s long-ass practice dragging behind their fancy just-married convertible. <\/p>\n Naturally, \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d additionally bought a rap remix. Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cHeartbreaker\u201d collaborator DJ Clue used the pianos from the unique observe on a tougher beat, and Mariah re-recorded her vocals, switching the lyrics up barely. DJ Clue does his headache-inducing echo-drenched ad-libs all around the remix, whereas the Lox\u2019s Jadakiss and Styles P give a few their back-and-forth tag-team verses. (The Lox\u2019s highest-charting single, 1998\u2019s \u201cMoney, Power & Respect,\u201d peaked at #17. Jadakiss and Styles additionally rapped on Jennifer Lopez\u2019s #3 hit \u201cJenny From The Block<\/a>\u201d in 2003. Mariah Carey doesn\u2019t know her, however that tune is a 7.)<\/p>\n Mariah Carey launched \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d as a single in March of 2005, and her album The Emancipation Of Mimi<\/em> adopted a month later. The single constructed slowly, however it rose to #1 in June. Other than a fast one-week break for a tune that\u2019ll seem on this column quickly, \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d held the #1 spot till mid-September. \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d isn\u2019t a massively resonant tune for me personally, however the single\u2019s lengthy stretch at #1 was an vital time in my life. While \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d was sitting atop the charts, I moved to New York and began knocking down $400 per week writing a music weblog for the Village Voice<\/em> web site. It was a contract gig, however I handled it prefer it was a full-time job, and it will definitely grew to become one. That signifies that I began making my residing as a music critic when \u201cWe Belong Together\u201d was the #1 tune in America. As I noticed it, a part of my mission as a critic was to concentrate to songs like \u201cWe Belong Together,\u201d to take them critically. <\/p>\n