Feb 12 2009
If only Elvis is better than you, what next? The magic of Mariah Carey is safe in the record books
When only Elvis Presley has sold more singles than you, and you are more succesful than The Beatles, Madonna and Michael Jackson, it’s possible you have set some other records on your rise to the top.
That is certainly true for Mariah Carey, who was the first recording artist to have her first five singles go to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. She is also Columbia Records’s highest-selling act.
As well as being the most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States, Mariah was named the Best-selling Female Pop Artist of the Millennium at the World Music Awards.
Carey’s singles have, collectively, topped the charts for seventy-nine weeks, which places her just behind Presley, who topped the combined charts for eighty weeks. Mariah also has the most number-one singles for a solo artist in the United States, currently 18, which is just second overall behind The Beatles.
An alto with a five-octave range, Carey has “a range wide enough to cover all the octaves between an alto and a soprano … and the agility to move between those roles with swiftness and aplomb” and her vocal trademark is the ability to sing in the whistle register.
She has cited Minnie Riperton as the greatest influence on her singing technique. At one time The Guinness Book of Records recorded there was no other singer who could hold a higher note than Carey.
Mariah’s impressive tally of Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum is also likely to remain unchallenged by any modern recording artist for some time:
- 54G+27P+8MP Elvis Presley
- 23G+10P+2MP Mariah Carey
- 26G+6P+2MP Madonna
- 24G+6P+4MP The Beatles
- 21G+5P+0MP Janet Jackson
- 18G+7P+1MP Whitney Houston
- 16G+9P+0MP Michael Jackson
- 17G+6P+1MP Elton John
- 17G+6P+0MP The Temptations
- 12G+5P+1MP Beyonce Knowles
