Yes, I make jokes about Mariah Carey at Christmas, especially after she tried to trademark “Queen of Christmas”. I don’t like the style of a lot of her music, especially the “warbling” at the high notes. Also, her music was incredibly overplayed in the 1990s.
That being said, the woman has an incredible voice, and an almost unbelievable range. While she is known for being able to sing very, very high, she considers herself an alto, and when she actually sings in that range, all of a sudden I find her much more tolerable to listen to.
I like this arrangement of “Joy to the World”. It’s definitely more “gospel” than a lot of what Mariah Carey sings, which reminds me of big, inner-city churches of my childhood, and I find it amusing that the arrangement pulls in a bit of Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World”, which really has nothing to do with Christmas (and from what I understand was nonsense on purpose).
In addition to the “Carol of the Bells” playlist, I’ve started a general playlist of Christmas songs that will include pieces mentioned here, for anyone interested.
Breath of Hallelujah 