I’m sure this is sacrilege, but of all Mariah Carey’s songs that don’t involve wanting me for Christmas, “Vision of Love” is the one that’s stuck with me the longest, that I remember the best, and that I’m happiest to get wedged in my head. From the first note of this, her first-ever release, it was so obvious we were listening to an iconic voice. In fact, 1990 was quite a year for voices that give you goosebumps: “Vision of Love” came out in May, and then in October, none other than Celine freaking Dion launched in the U.S. with “Where Does My Heart Beat Now?” (I obviously owned the cassingles of both of them, and they were in heavy rotation with “One More Try” by yet ANOTHER legendary crooner, Timmy T, who… *taps mic* hello? Hello? Are you still with me?)
Anyway, I think everyone who heard Mariah — and of course later Celine — felt that shiver of discovery. Everyone just knew. In fact, Sony was so sure of it, they completely scrapped her first music video for “Vision of Love” and shot it again. That’s an unusual amount of resources to give to an unknown artist, and it’s clearly because they knew what they had. It’s also funny, because how bad was THAT one if this is the one we got instead?
She’s in a giant house, staring at a large tree with an empty swing. Then she’s got a cat for a few shots, including one where she’s stretched out on the stairs in a fairly feline manner herself. And… yeah. The picture window is distractingly fake, the house is really terrible — at LEAST give yourself a full Meat Loaf gothic manor experience! — and the visuals are super flat. Fortunately, Mariah can wail, as Wayne Campbell would say, so none of the rest of that matters so much. But seriously, what on EARTH was the first video, and who wants to leak it?!?
Oh, and as for Timmy T, he’s just a boy, standing in front of a camera, singing about a lost relationship while wearing a giant suit, a mock turtleneck, and a mullet.
