[TR24][OF] Mariah Carey - Merry Christmas - 1994/2010 (R&B, Soul, Pop, Swing, Gospel, Holiday, Christmas)

Merry Christmas is the first Christmas album and the fourth studio album by American singer Mariah Carey. Released by Columbia Records on November 7, 1994, the album features cover versions of popular Christmas tunes and original material. Carey worked with Walter Afanasieff, with whom she wrote all of the original tracks, as well as producing Carey's interpretations of the covered material. The album contains a contemporary holiday theme, and featured "authentic, gospel flavored background vocals".
The album features instrumentation from keyboards, bass guitars, drums, percussion and heavy backing vocals. After its release, the album received generally positive reviews and became a worldwide success. Critics praised Carey's uplifting and flavored vocals, as well as her skilled songwriting alongside Afanasieff. Singles were released from the album, being sent to different radio stations for promotional purposes.
Merry Christmas was released at the peak of the initial stretch of Carey's career, between Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995). The album produced the worldwide classic single, "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which became the best-selling holiday ringtone in the US. The album has sold 5,370,000 copies in the United States as of November 2014 according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been certified five-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of five million copies in the United States. In Japan, Merry Christmas has sold 2,500,000 copies and is the third best-selling album of all time by a non-Asian artist, behind Carey's other release #1's (1998) and Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard. Merry Christmas has sold 15 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling Christmas album of all time.
Personnel:
Mariah Carey – lead vocals, background vocals
Walter Afanasieff – keyboards, additional keyboards, synthesizers,
Loris Holland – synthesizers, keyboards, rhythm programming
Mark C. Rooney – background vocals
Cindy Mizelle – background vocals
Melonie Daniels – background vocals
Kelly Price – background vocals
Shanrae Price – background vocals
Recorded: December 1993 – August 1994, at Sony Studios and The Hit Factory, New York City, NY