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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 (see 2001 in music). 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. "Lead the Way": Played during the ending credits and when Billie first kisses Dice, her producer and boyfriend.
3. "If We": Played before Billie and Dice's first date.
4. "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 USA Music Awards.
5. "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)": The bridge is performed by Billie during a freestyle at Dice's club.
6. "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.
7. "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.
8. "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life": Played at a club; intro bassline and drums only.
9. "Want You": Billie records this song with fictional R&B singer Rafael; it becomes a hit.
10. "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.
11. "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, 2001 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 two instead of number one . The media was laughing at me and attacked me."

The album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart, 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 636,000 copies in the United States. It was a number-one selling album in Japan, where it became the first international soundtrack to reach the number-one position. It had modest success in smaller markets such as Greece, South Korea, the Philippines, Spain and Italy.

Lead single "Loverboy" peaked at number two 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 (see 2004 in music). 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.

Despite the negative critical reception, the album was still certified platinum in the United States, with unexpected follow-up sales after Carey's release of The Emancipation of Mimi.

Track listing

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

Bonus Track

• "There For Me" - 4:14

Notes

1. "EMI drops Mariah Carey". BBC News. January 23 2002.
2. Sheffield, Rob. "Mariah Carey - Glitter". Rolling Stone. RS 876, August 30 2001.
3. Martens, Todd. "Jay-Z Draws 'Blueprint' For Chart Dominance". Billboard. September 20 2001.
4. "Gold and Platinum - Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America.
5. Weigel, Brandon. "'Somebody done something wrong' songs on these stars' records". USA Today. October 28 2007.
6. Virgin Records. "Mariah's 'Loverboy' Certified Gold". PR Newswire. October 6 2001.
7. Cook, Shanon. "Mariah before breakdown -- 'It all seems like one continuous day'". CNN. August 14 2001. Retrieved March 17 2006.

• Pages with empty short description
• 2001 albums
• Film soundtracks
• Mariah Carey albums
• Virgin Records albums
• Albums produced by Walter Afanasieff