This year, all you want for Christmas is the ultimate Mariah Carey collectible — and if you have deep pockets, you may just have a shot at buying it.
A rare early demo recording of Mariah’s is going on the auction block starting Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. ET via Wax Poetics, a collectibles marketplace. Bidding closes on Dec. 11. The tape comes from legendary producer and remixer Arthur Baker, who explains in a video that he got the tape when he attended a 1989 record release party in New York City thrown by a bunch of music execs.
At the party, pop singer Brenda K. Starr, best known for her 1988 ballad “I Still Believe,” approached Baker and said her background singer, a then-unknown Mariah, had a great demo tape for which she’d written all the songs. She handed the tape to Baker, and after the party was over, Baker, Brenda and Mariah all went over to Baker’s studio to listen to it.
“I stick the cassette in and the first three songs are all hits,” Baker says in the video. “And I’m thinking, ‘Holy s*** … it’s Madonna meets Whitney [Houston]. She writes like Madonna, sounds like Whitney. I’m thinking, ‘This is it, I’ve discovered gold."”
Then, Baker remembered that at the party, another one Mariah’s demo tapes had ended up in the possession of music exec Tommy Mottola. Despite his best efforts, Baker was unable to get a deal together in time to stop Mottola from signing Mariah — and the rest is history.
There are seven songs in all on the tape, and according to Wax Poetics, they include “unreleased and early versions of what would become hits” on Mariah’s 1990 debut album. Visit WaxPoetics.com for more information.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.