LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Today marks the 25th anniversary of one of Mariah Carey's most enduring hits - "Heartbreaker."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEARTBREAKER")
MARIAH CAREY: (Singing) Give me your love.
JAY-Z: (Rapping) Uh.
CAREY: (Singing) Give me your love.
JAY-Z: (Rapping) What?
CAREY: (Vocalizing).
JAY-Z: (Rapping) MC, uh, Jigga. Ha-ha.
CAREY: (Singing) Give me your love. Give me your love.
FADEL: "Heartbreaker" was the lead single from Carey's 1999 album "Rainbow." It reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts and became an anthem. Here with us to talk about the song's legacy is music writer Tom Erlewine. Hi, Tom.
TOM ERLEWINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: So good to have you on the program. So do you remember what you thought of the song when it first came out?
ERLEWINE: Yeah. I initially thought that it sounded a lot like "Fantasy," which was the single she had a couple of years before.
FADEL: Right.
ERLEWINE: And it does follow the same format - especially of the remix of "Fantasy," which featured Ol' Dirty Bastard.
FADEL: Why do you think it became such a big hit at the time?
ERLEWINE: I think it's because Mariah Carey tapped into different strands that were coming along in the culture that she was able to thread in hip-hop influences into pop in a way that other artists weren't at the time. And it has a real effervescence to its beat. So I think that - and a feel to the sound that was really attractive.
FADEL: Now, "Heartbreaker's" about exactly what the title suggests - falling for a bad...
ERLEWINE: Yes, it is.
FADEL: ...Guy, a cheater who was unfaithful. Let's listen to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEARTBREAKER")
CAREY: (Singing) Heartbreaker, you've got the best of me - oh, baby. But I just keep on coming back incessantly - keep coming, boy.
JAY-Z: (Rapping) You got to bounce like this.
CAREY: (Singing) Oh, why did you...
FADEL: So what was going on in Carey's life when she released this song?
ERLEWINE: At that point, she had just separated from her husband, Tommy Mottola, who also was the head of her record label. So things were sort of in turmoil. But she was embracing the freedom that was coming from just beginning to work with a new set of collaborators. It was the last album she had on Sony, and she would move to Universal not much later. So that was a difficult transition. But this was sort of the triumphant point of a breakup that - starting to test the boundaries of what she was able to do creatively.
FADEL: Yeah. I mean, this whole conversation is reminding me this was the theme music of my teens.
ERLEWINE: Exactly.
FADEL: And she had plenty of hits before this one. "Always Be My Baby" is the one I think of. Where does this one fall - "Heartbreaker" fall in your list of favorites?
ERLEWINE: I think it's sort of towards the middle. I think it's a really, really fun song. But for me, like, things like "Always Be My Baby" and "Fantasy" are the ones that, like, are at the foundation of her career. But this also has a really long influence - established pop singers being able to find verses for rappers. This was one of Jay-Z's biggest...
FADEL: Right.
ERLEWINE: ...Pop showcases at that time. And so I think that it has really long legs.
FADEL: And that was before he really became Jay-Z - so famous as he is now. How did he end up on this track?
ERLEWINE: Exactly. Well, he had just started to finally gain momentum that was pushing him from the underground into the mainstream. And I think that the fact that Mariah would invite him on the record shows that she was really tapped into what was going on at the time.
FADEL: Music writer Tom Erlewine marking the 25th anniversary of Mariah Carey's hit, "Heartbreaker." Thanks, Tom.
ERLEWINE: Thanks, Leila.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEARTBREAKER")
CAREY: (Singing) Break my heart. Heartbreaker, you've got the best of me. You've got the best. But I just keep coming back incessantly - keep coming, boy. Oh, why... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
