Daydream is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey. It was released on September 26, 1995, by Columbia Records. The follow-up to her internationally successful studio album Music Box (1993) and the holiday release Merry Christmas (1994), Daydream differed from her earlier works by incorporating stronger elements of urban music.
Carey composed Daydream with producers and songwriters such as Walter Afanasieff, Dave Hall, Boyz II Men, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The album helped the singer make a subtle transition into the contemporary R&B market after having previously pursued pop, adult contemporary, and traditional rhythm and blues. The album marked the beginning of her musical and vocal transition toward hip-hop—a change that would become more evident on her sixth studio album, Butterfly (1997). During its production, she endured numerous creative conflicts with her label and her then-husband, Tommy Mottola. Daydreams songs explore fantasy, isolation, and romantic vulnerability.
Carey promoted the album with the Daydream World Tour (1996) and five singles, three of which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100: "Fantasy", "One Sweet Day", and "Always Be My Baby". "Fantasy" became the first song by a woman to debut atop the chart, while "One Sweet Day" spent sixteen weeks at the top, holding the record for the longest-running number-one single in Billboard Hot 100 history for twenty-three years. Daydream topped the charts in ten countries, including Australia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the United States, it spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200 and has been certified 11× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Upon release, Daydream received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its production, sonic quality, and Carey's musical progression; many reviewers regarded it as her best album to date. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, the album and its songs received six nominations, including Album of the Year. Retrospectively, Daydream has been acclaimed as one of Carey's finest works; critics have deemed it a transitional project that represented the singer's shift toward R&B and hip-hop while also influencing subsequent pop and cross-genre collaborations. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 20million copies sold worldwide.
Background American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey released her third studio album, Music Box, in August 1993. It is primarily a pop and contemporary R&B album consisting mostly of ballads. Music Box was immensely successful, spending eight non-consecutive weeks atop the US Billboard 200 and becoming the second best-selling album of 1994. It spawned the chart-topping singles "Dreamlover", "Hero", and "Without You", and eventually became her best-selling album. Despite its commercial success, Music Box received mixed reviews, with critics finding it lacking in emotional depth and substance.
With Music Box, Carey had begun scaling back the heavier gospel and soul influences of her earlier albums Mariah Carey (1990) and Emotions (1991), a shift journalist Chris Nickson attributed to her desire to evolve gradually as an artist. She released her fourth studio album and first holiday album, Merry Christmas, in October 1994. It was globally successful, selling 18million copies worldwide and yielding the Christmas standard "All I Want for Christmas Is You". By the time Merry Christmas was released, Carey told Billboard that she had already written seven songs for her forthcoming fifth studio album.
Development
Carey began recording Daydream in late 1994; its development process represented a major shift in her artistic direction. She sought greater creative control over her work and increasingly pursued the R&B and hip-hop influences she had long admired. She later described the album as her most personal work at the time, explaining that she had become more confident in expressing her musical instincts after previously feeling "insecure and cautious" and following label expectations. While recording the album, Carey worked quickly and intensely, telling Time that she entered "this phase of recording, recording, recording", while focusing more deliberately on what she wanted artistically.
Carey's changing musical direction created conflicts with Columbia Records, which had previously cultivated her image around adult contemporary ballads and mainstream pop. Executives became particularly concerned after Carey enlisted Ol' Dirty Bastard for the remix of "Fantasy", fearing the collaboration was a drastic stylistic shift that could alienate her audience. Carey recalled that label executives were nervous about "breaking the formula" that fueled her commercial success. The inclusion of hip-hop influences throughout the album further strained Carey's marriage to Tommy Mottola, who closely oversaw her career as head of Sony Music. Despite her growing interest in hip-hop and R&B, Mottola preferred that Carey continue recording polished pop ballads. As Carey obtained more authority over the sound and direction of Daydream, her marriage to Mottola continued to deteriorate.
During the recording process, Carey also secretly worked on the alternative rock project Someone's Ugly Daughter by the band Chick. She contributed songwriting, production, vocals, and art direction, although Columbia refused to release the project featuring her lead vocals. Her friend Clarissa Dane was ultimately brought in as the public face of the band, with her vocals layered over Carey’s recordings to obscure her voice. Carey later explained that she enjoyed experimenting with the "breezy-grunge, punk-light" style popular during the period, describing the sessions as an alter ego separate from the more polished sound of Daydream.
Writing and recording Carey co-produced Daydream with Walter Afanasieff, Dave Hall, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and David Morales. The first song recorded for the album was "Underneath the Stars", which Carey described as "a good place to start", as it helped orient her toward a more R&B-driven direction and a sound influenced by Minnie Riperton, one of her longstanding inspirations. Nickson observed that, in contrast to Riperton's songs, "Underneath the Stars" makes limited use of her higher vocal register. As Carey began developing material for Daydream, she heard Tom Tom Club's 1981 single "Genius of Love" on the radio—a song she had long admired—and proposed sampling its hook to Hall. Hall created a groove he felt complemented her voice, while Carey contributed to the beat production and wrote the lyrics, resulting in "Fantasy". She also recorded a remix featuring verses by Ol' Dirty Bastard, with additional production by Sean "Puffy" Combs.
Following the death of her friend and former collaborator David Cole, Carey conceived "One Sweet Day" as a tribute to him and to the loved ones her fans had lost; as an admirer of their work, she enlisted R&B group Boyz II Men to collaborate on the track. Carey had already composed the chorus and developed the concept, and after meeting with Boyz II Men, they found they had been working on a similar idea. Using Carey's chorus and concept alongside the melody created by the group, they wrote and composed the song together. The track was produced by Afanasieff, who expanded on the melody and incorporated additional grooves and beats. Carey had been a fan of Dupri since the release of Kris Kross's 1992 single "Jump" and later expressed interest in working with him.
Soon after, Carey, Dupri, and Seal began writing a song for the album. While Seal played piano and Dupri programmed the drums, Carey improvised over the melody until she developed the chorus for "Always Be My Baby". After the rest of the song was completed, she recorded it with background vocals from Kelly Price, Shanrae Price, and Melonie Daniels. The vocalists created a "wall of background voices" beneath her final belting notes. Daydream marked the beginning of a long-term professional partnership between Carey and Dupri that continued through her fourteenth studio album, Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014). For the album, Carey covered Journey's 1981 song "Open Arms" at her own suggestion. Working with Afanasieff, she softened the arrangement and gave it a polished feel, especially in contrast to the more heartfelt "One Sweet Day". Backed by the vocals of the Price sisters and Daniels, she also gave the track a gospel influence.
"I Am Free", one of the album’s most gospel-influenced tracks, was a collaboration between Carey, Afanasieff, and Loris Holland, all of whom had previously worked together on Merry Christmas. During the creative process, Carey improvised the melody over written lyrics while Holland provided organ accompaniment and Afanasieff handled the programming, resulting in what Nickson described as a "genuine and unforced" sound. While Carey increasingly incorporated R&B influences into Daydream, she continued to honor the style of her earlier work, co-writing the power ballad "When I Saw You" with Afanasieff. She also returned to R&B and hip-hop with "Long Ago", her second collaboration with Dupri and Seal. "Melt Away", which she co-wrote with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, was the only song on Daydream that Carey produced entirely on her own, while "Looking In" was written in roughly fifteen minutes.
Composition Daydream is primarily a pop and R&B album that incorporates elements of hip-hop, gospel, and adult contemporary. It marked a departure from the image established by her earlier releases, such as Music Box, which sought ballad-driven songs; Daydream instead incorporated stronger urban contemporary influences. While still featuring ballads—such as "One Sweet Day" and "Open Arms"—reminiscent of her older work, the album adopted a leaner sound that aligned it more closely with contemporary R&B. Pitchfork wrote that the album expanded the boundaries of Carey's sound, blending genres and styles that had previously been treated as separate. Nickson noted that Daydream adopted a sound that felt more "contemporary than classic", broadening its appeal without alienating fans of her traditional style.
The album opens with "Fantasy", whose lyrics depict a woman in love with a man, lost in vivid daydreams of an unattainable romance each time she encounters him. It is an upbeat R&B and dance-pop song that features elements of funk, hip-hop, and bubblegum pop. The song is built upon funky basslines, gangsta funk synthesizers, and airy background harmonies, with Carey's lead vocal layered over a soft bed of densely multi-tracked backing vocals. Due to its sample of "Genius of Love", all members of Tom Tom Club—Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Steven Stanley, and Adrian Belew—are credited as songwriters on "Fantasy". "Underneath the Stars" draws on soul influences and incorporates synthetic record scratches to evoke an authentic, aged sound. Sung over a Rhodes piano, the song reminisces about a tender young love that faded away, spent lying with her lover under a warm summer night.