All I Want For Christmas Is You

About All I Want For Christmas Is You

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a song by American singer Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, and recorded for Carey's fifth album Merry Christmas (1994). Its protagonist declares that she does not care about Christmas presents or lights; all she wants for Christmas is to be with her lover. It is unrelated to the 1989 Christmas hit single by novelty act Vince Vance and the Valiants. It was released as the album's first single in December 1994 (see 1994 in music) and reached the top ten in several countries.

It is Carey's most successful song worldwide. It became the first holiday ringtone to go gold and platinum in the U.S., and every Christmas season, it reemerges in the top 10 in many charts worldwide. According to The New Yorker, it is "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon". Despite the common misconception that Carey covered this song, the track is an original song written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff. It has been covered by singers such as Shania Twain and Samantha Mumba, bands such as My Chemical Romance, and girl group The Cheetah Girls and Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana). It was performed by Olivia Olson in the film Love Actually (2003). By late 2006, it had become the best-selling holiday ring tone of all time in the U.S. In 2008 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was voted the UK's favourite Christmas song. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is U.S. best-selling contemporary holiday ringtone for third consecutive year with cumulative sales topping 1.8 million. Mariah Carey's 1994 recording of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has become the first holiday song to sell one million digital downloads in U.S.

Because of Billboard magazine rules at the time, the song did not chart on the U.S. Hot 100 during its original release because a commercial single was not issued. It was popular on U.S. radio and peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and was also a big hit elsewhere. It reached number two in the United Kingdom for three weeks and has been certified for selling over 400,000 copies there, losing out to East 17's "Stay Another Day" for that year's Christmas number-one single. The single also peaked at number two in Australia and Japan, where it was used as the theme song to the drama 29-sai no Christmas (29才のクリスマス), and was titled "Koibinochoto-tachipachi no Christmas" (恋人たちのクリスマス; "Lovers' Christmas"). It sold 1.1 million units in Japan, and remains her best-selling single there.