Mariah Carey

A curious thing happened with Mariah Carey's "My All." Halfway through its chart life, the song, a big adult contemporary hit (and a big, classic Carey-styled ballad) which managed to top the pop charts for one week (without even making Top Ten airplay), was remixed into "My All/Stay Awhile" and issued as a separate maxi-single. There was already one maxi-single on the market for "My All." The new version, however, is almost a completely different song. Carey enlisted Jermaine Dupri to transform the ballad into a hip-hop summer jam, and featured then-hot rappers Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz lending their rhyming skills. As is typically the case with Dupri songs, its breezy, bouncy, funky, and light. The maxi-single contains both a version with rap and one without. There are also two good but somewhat interchangeable club/house mixes of the original "My All," courtesy of David Morales. Finally, there is a fantastic remix of the album track "The Roof." That song was a minor hit in Europe, and for this single, Morales turned it into a funky, groovy club jam with a slammin' bassline and gangly guitars to excellent effect. So in essence, this unusual single is comprised of a totally new, retitled version of "My All," two dance mixes of the song, and one great remix of "The Roof." A good buy for Carey fans and collectors. ~ Jose Promis, All Music Guide