Mariah Carey’s “Dreamlover” was written collaboratively with Dave Hall and made its commercial debut as the first single from her 1993 album Music Box. Hall, who had previously worked on Mary J. Blige’s What’s The 411?, incorporated a hip-hop influence into Carey’s sound with “Dreamlover.” Together they choose “Blind Alley” by The Emotions to sample and Carey sang the melody over it. Producer Walter Afanasieff added instrumentation to “Dreamlover” and his personal touch to the placement of the sample. Those changes did not obscure the song’s brilliant capture of hip-hop drums, Carey’s R&B/gospel delivery and pop melody. “Dreamlover” became her seventh number one song on the Hot 100 chart and permanent addition to her tour setlist. The video of her dancing in a field with seven male dancers was heavily aired on all the video outlets in the summer of ’93.
Carey received her first opportunity to have control over a remix of her songs and she hired David Morales to create the Def Club Mix. She re-recorded the vocals for the remix that also had hit status in dance music clubs. Music Box became one of Mariah Carey’s biggest selling albums. On Easter Sunday in 2020, Carey celebrated the 15th anniversary of her The Emancipation Of Mimi album from 2005 with mini-performances of some of the songs on social media.Â
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