Mariah Carey finally at #1

[davideduardo]

YES, plagiarized...... I am unable to find anything before Lisa Layne's FIRST recording of the song.
Please advise as to prior recordings............

Yes, and the A&R folks for Carey found it and thought it would be a good song for her, too.

It's not "plagiarized" if all the proper licensing and royalty payments are made.

Amendment: I did not realize that these are different songs. All the more reason to dismiss the "plagiarism" argument.

 

[TheBigA]

LISA LAYNE and the Valiants FIRST recorded "All I want for Christmas is You" back in 1989

That is a different song with the same title. You can't copyright a song title. I have discussed this with people at BMI and ASCAP who have to deal with this all the time. BTW the Vince Vance song has consistently been extremely popular at country stations.

 

[oldies76]

LISA LAYNE and the Valiants FIRST recorded "All I want for Christmas is You" back in 1989, years before
Carey plagiarized the song. To compare the incredible voice of Lisa Layne to Carey is like comparing
Streisand to a chalkboard.... It just goes to show you it's not what you know or how good you are but
who you know............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HWHd0EYJA

Same title, totally different melody and country genre. Not plagiarized and after a quarter century, you'd think that would have been investigated. Nada!

 

[oldies76]

LISA LAYNE and the Valiants FIRST recorded "All I want for Christmas is You" back in 1989, years before Carey plagiarized the song. To compare the incredible voice of Lisa Layne to Carey is like comparing Streisand to a chalkboard.... It just goes to show you it's not what you know or how good you are but who you know............

Same title, totally different melody and country genre. Not plagiarized and after a quarter century, you'd think that would have been investigated. Nothing.

 

[davideduardo]

That is a different song with the same title. You can't copyright a song title. I have discussed this with people at BMI and ASCAP who have to deal with this all the time. BTW the Vince Vance song has consistently been extremely popular at country stations.

Interesting fact. From this thread, I was assuming that it was the same song, different versions. But instead it is the same title, different song.

In music, publishing and other creative fields there are plenty of duplicate names for "works of art".

Just look in stock photography catalogs: there may be hundreds of pictures with the same "name" by different photographers. What matters is the photo itself.

 

[landtuna]

Believe it or not I had never heard either version before today. I think Carey's version is much more a pop "Christmas" song (whatever that means) but disagree that the Valiant's version is "Country". There are traces in the backup music but I would say it is a long way from a genuine Country song. The fact that it is more popular on Country outlets might just be because they actually play it.

BTW and for what ever it is worth, I love the Valiant's version. Carey's is much more forgettable although she does have a beautiful voice.

Just did some research on VV & Valiants and discovered they were a very weird group. This just might have been their "straightest" recording.

 

[TheBigA]

disagree that the Valiant's version is "Country". There are traces in the backup music but I would say it is a long way from a genuine Country song. The fact that it is more popular on Country outlets might just be because they actually play it.

The story about that song is it was recorded in Nashville with country musicians, and produced by a well-known country producer. A well respected country DJ started playing the song a long time ago, and it's become a staple of country radio during the holidays. One could say the melody is more 50s style R&B or doo wop than country. But once again, when it comes to Christmas music, it's its own genre, and typically radio stations will play songs outside their genre during the holidays.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I really didn't think about there being a difference in the songs other than the arrangement until my daughter's high school band played Mariah's song in their Christmas show, and listening to both songs closer this year.

In looking at Wikipedia I realized I had heard one other song by Vince Vance and the Valiants, which was Bomb Iran, a novelty song from around 1980 that went to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann and was on the Dr. Demento show. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8hEtI9AI0U Could this be an appropriate time for this song to make a comeback? I won't get into the politics of that one!

 

[landtuna]

One could say the melody is more 50s style R&B or doo wop than country.

That was my first thought upon hearing it for the first time.

 

[firepoint525]

In looking at Wikipedia I realized I had heard one other song by Vince Vance and the Valiants, which was Bomb Iran, a novelty song from around 1980 that went to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann and was on the Dr. Demento show. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8hEtI9AI0U Could this be an appropriate time for this song to make a comeback? I won't get into the politics of that one!

Vince Vance and the Valiants played the Obion Co. Fair back in 1990, back when I still lived down there. I didn't discover "All I Want..." until that fall.

 

[landtuna]

How did this very weird group, who apparently excelled at comedy songs, retain such a wonderful lead singer?

 

[anotherguyTN]

Vince Vance and the Valiants played the Obion Co. Fair back in 1990, back when I still lived down there. I didn't discover "All I Want..." until that fall.

They played at the casino across the Mississippi river in Caruthersville, MO quite a bit as well, and WASL/WTRO in Dyersburg advertised it a lot, I guess it was during that time they started playing All I Want... there as well. I've never seen them but they were in the West TN/MO Bootheel area enough that I thought they were more local until I found out they were from New Orleans.