Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of ‘Butterfly’ Mariah Carey has let it slip in a recent interview that she actually recorded a secret alt-rock album.
Two years prior to the release of Carey’s seminal breakthrough album ‘Butterfly’ the singer was quietly testing the water in Green Day territory, the alt-rock and grunge genre that has come to define the 90s.
As a creative outlet during her heavy recording schedule, Carey set about writing and recording ‘Someone’s Ugly Daughter’ in 1995, in between working on songs for her 1995 ‘Daydream’ album, which saw the birth of quintessential pop hits Always Be My Baby and One Sweet Day.
Carey’s label was not enthused by the idea, but an outlet is an outlet, and Carey had a passion for it, so she went off her own bat, and enlisted singer Clarissa Dane to handle lead vocals to cover Carey’s involvement in the project, on which she co-wrote, co-produced, and sang backup.
Carey went on to release the recordings under the name ‘Chick’, as her original recordings were squashed by her label at the time, insisting she stuck to the operatic sweet stylings she has become so well known for.
But a version featuring only Carey’s vocals has been unearthed, and not only does Mariah want fans to hear it, but fans want to hear it. With some luck, they might actually be added to Spotify soon.
Carey likens the album to 90’s grunge rock band Hole, “It was such an outlet. There were a lot of records of that genre at that moment, like a girl’s Green Day kind of group movement and Courtney Love and Hole.”
In an interview for Rolling Stone’s ‘Music Now’ podcast, Carey revealed, “We actually have it.”
Going on to share that she always wanted to release ‘Someone’s Ugly Daughter’ at the time with her name attached and that she wanted to “let (people) discover it was me” – but the idea was “stomped and squashed” by her record label and management, apparently due to “some of the lyrical content was not what people were (expecting from me).” You can check out the full podcast here.
Fact: Mariah Carey recorded a secret alternative album in 1995 under the alias “Chick” and no one knew about it. pic.twitter.com/tcYQvIrjct
— Mariah Carey Facts (@mariahsfacts) September 27, 2020
