The first recordings that the then-unknown singer gave to Columbia Records head Tommy Mottola can now be yours.
Even Mariah Carey was hawking her music at the very beginning of her career, and now, one of those original demo tapes are going up for auction.
New York City-based magazine Wax Poetics will be auctioning off one of the pop star’s earliest demo tapes taken from famed producer and DJ Arthur Baker’s collection on December 2. The two allegedly met at a 1988 Christmas party where she was discovered and Carey gave Baker the tape. Per a press release, the tape includes “early, unreleased recordings” of songs Carey recorded and wrote with songwriter Brenda K. Starr. These songs, per Rolling Stone, eventually made it onto her debut album.
Of the tape, Baker said in a press release, “I stick the cassette in and the first three songs are all hits and I’m thinking holy shit it’s Madonna meets Whitney. She writes like Madonna sounds like Whitney. This is it, I’ve discovered gold.” You can also hear him tell the story below.
As legend goes, at that same Christmas Party, Carey gave the demo tape to then-head of Columbia Records’ Tommy Mottola, who, upon leaving, listened to its songs in his car and rushed back to the party to find her, though she’d already left. After a two week search, and with other record labels trying to outbid him, he signed Carey to Columbia Records in 1988. She later released her self-titled debut album in 1990.
Carey, of course, has since become a global phenomenon and generational-defying vocal talent. The self-dubbed Queen of Christmas most recently released her sixteenth studio album, Here For It All, in September.
In addition to the tape, the auction will include a verified certificate of authenticity, archival notes, and “historical context from Baker’s collection and the Wax Poetics archive team.” The auction kicks off on December 2 at 3 p.m. ET, here.