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Glitter is a soundtrack album by American singer Mariah Carey, the album's theme is for the film Glitter, in which she stars. It was released by Virgin Records on September 11, 2001. The poor sales of the album, which was Carey's only release on Virgin, led to her departure from the label in early 2002.

Description

As a concept album of the sounds of the early 1980s, Glitter features contributions from dominant figures of the period: Rick James wrote "All My Life," Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis reworked their song "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" and wrote with Carey the retro track "Want You", and Cameo are featured on lead single "Loverboy." The album also includes collaboratons with rappers Busta Rhymes, Mystikal, Da Brat, Ludacris, Fabolous, Ja Rule and Nate Dogg.

Use of the tracks in the film

1. "Loverboy": the main character, Billie Frank's, mainstream breakthrough single. At first, it is overloaded with effects, before it is toned down to sound more like how it appears on the album.
2. Lime "Babe We're Gonna Love Tonight": opening at the disco, first shot of Billie dancing.
3. "Lead the Way": played during the ending credits and when Billie first kisses Dice, her producer and boyfriend.
4. "If We": played before Billie and Dice's first date.
5. "Didn't Mean to Turn You On": The first song Billie makes with Dice; it becomes an underground hit and Billie performs it at the U.S. Music Awards.
6. "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)": the bridge is performed by Billie during a freestyle at Dice's club.
7. "All My Life": A song made by the fictional pop star Sylk for which Billie is hired to sing back-up vocals. After the producer of the song hears how well Billie can sing, they persuade her to record the song and release it under Sylk's name. However, after a performance where Sylk gets Billie to 'ghost' the song and takes full credit for singing it, Billie gets angry and shows Dice that she was the real singer of the song.
8. "Reflections (Care Enough)": a song Billie writes about her mother. The record company does not approve of the 'woe is me' attempt that she wrote.
9. "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life": played at a club; intro bassline and drums only.
10. "Want You": Billie records this song with fictional R&B singer Rafael; it becomes a hit.
11. "Never Too Far": a song Billie and Dice both write at the end of the film regarding their break-up. She sings the song at her sold-out show at the Madison Square Garden after Dice dies.
12. "Twister": played when Billie is taken away from her mother at the beginning of the film.

Critical and commercial reception

The album was released shortly before the film Glitter, and both album and film were critical and commercial failures, although Rob Sheffield gave the album a three star review in Rolling Stone, writing, "damn if Glitter isn't a big step forward in terms of maturity for one of pop music's eternal kids." Carey attributed the low sales of the album to its release coinciding with the September 11 attacks, saying in an interview, "The talk shows needed something to distract from 9/11. I became a punching bag. They tore me down because my album was at number 2 instead of number 1 . The media was laughing at me and attacked me."

The album debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Soundtracks chart, staying at the top for three weeks, and at number 7 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 116,000 copies in its first week of release, but it had a substantial slide: it remained in the top twenty for two weeks and on the chart itself for twelve weeks. Glitter was certified platinum by the RIAA in October 2001, and as of October 2007, it had sold just 636,000 copies in the United States. It was a number 1 selling album in Japan. It has been certified gold in Switzerland.

Lead single "Loverboy" peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100; after the song stalled at a low position on the chart, Virgin Records reduced the price of the single. The two follow-up singles, "Never Too Far" and "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)," became Carey's first singles not to chart on the Hot 100. A music video was filmed for a fourth single, "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life"), but it was not officially released after Virgin Records ceased promotion of the album and paid Carey to leave the label.

The song "If We" was later re-worked by Damizza and released as a single titled "What Would You Do" with Butch Cassidy, Nate Dogg and Carey in 2004. Conflict between Damizza and Shade Sheist led Damizza to recruit Cassidy to replace Sheist on the single version. Sheist retaliated with his own remix titled "G-Mix," which is a re-worked version featuring Nune and Carey. "What Would You Do" failed to make the Hot 100 and received minimal airplay in Europe.

Track listing

1. "Loverboy" (Remix featuring Da Brat, Ludacris, Shawnna, & Twenty II) - 4:30
2. "Lead the Way" - 3:53
3. "If We" (featuring Ja Rule and Nate Dogg) - 4:20
4. "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" - 4:54
5. "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)" (featuring Mystikal) - 3:37
6. "All My Life" - 5:09
7. "Reflections (Care Enough)" - 3:20
8. "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" (featuring Busta Rhymes, Fabolous and DJ Clue) - 6:43
9. "Want You" (featuring Eric Benét) - 4:43
10. "Never Too Far" - 4:21
11. "Twister" - 2:26
12. "Loverboy" (featuring Cameo) - 3:49

Chart performance

References

1. "EMI drops Mariah Carey". BBC News. January 23, 2002.
2. Sheffield, Rob. "Mariah Carey - Glitter". Rolling Stone. RS 876, August 30, 2001.
3. Mariah Carey blames September 11
4. Top Soundtracks
5. Martens, Todd. "Jay-Z Draws 'Blueprint' For Chart Dominance". Billboard. September 20, 2001.
6. "Gold and Platinum - Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America.
7. Weigel, Brandon. "'Somebody done something wrong' songs on these stars' records". USA Today. October 28, 2007.
8. SwissCharts
9. Cook, Shanon. "Mariah before breakdown -- 'It all seems like one continuous day'". CNN. August 14, 2001. Retrieved March 17, 2006.
10. Australian Albums Chart
11. Austrian Albums Chart
12. Flandres Albums Chart
13. Wallonia Albums Chart
14. Canadian Albums Chart
15. Danish Albums Chart
16. Dutch Albums Chart
17. French Albums Chart
18. SNEP
19. German Albums Chart
20. Hungarian Albums Chart
21. Italian Albums Chart
22. FIMI
23. Oricon Albums Chart
24. RIAJ
25. New Zealand Albums Chart
26. Norwegian Albums Chart
27. Spanish Albums Chart
28. PROMUSICAE
29. Swedish Albums Chart
30. Swiss Albums Chart
31. IFPI Switzerland
32. UK Albums Chart
33. U.S. Albums Chart
34. RIAA

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• Mariah Carey albums
• 2001 albums
• Film soundtracks
• Virgin Records albums
• Albums produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
• Albums produced by Walter Afanasieff