It’s December, and you know what that means: it’s time for “All I Want for Christmas Is You” to take over the world. Mariah Carey‘s megahit returns like clockwork, and for good reason. It’s a near-perfect pop song with a catchy beat, a memorable hook, and spectacular vocals.
While you can hear it on near constant rotation on the radio or in the grocery store, it’s also popular with musicians for how fun it is to play. Rather than relying on a basic I-IV-V pattern, Carey and co-writer/producer Walter Afanasieff crafted a harmonically rich song influenced by hits of the ’60s, making it a modern standard with plenty for pianists and guitarists to sink their teeth into.
Before we get into that, get into the holiday spirit with this rendition of the song with Carey duetting with Michael Bublé during his 3rd Annual Christmas Special:
Carey wanted to write a Christmas hit in the vein of Phil Spector, whose “wall of sound” production style created huge sonic atmospheres. According to Afanasieff, the song began when he played some rock ‘n’ roll piano with a boogie woogie pattern in his left hand. That created the nucleus of the song, which is deceptively simple, given the enormous arrangement featuring sleigh bells, backing vocals, synthesizers, and more.
“Musically, it’s a very simple arrangement. At the time, I thought it was overly simple, and I really didn’t like it. Because music people know [Sings the intro’s stair-step notes] it’s almost a practice interval,” he said in an interview with ASCAP. “Keeping that tradition—and then the oversimplified melody—I guess because it was that, made it so easily palatable for the whole world to go, ‘Oh. Yeah, I can’t get that out of my head.’”
If Phil Spector was an influence, then Phil Spector’s influences also played into the song’s composition. Spector’s songwriting was a response to Tin Pan Alley.
“The music coming from that era leaned heavy into modal changes in both music and lyrics,” explains Bearded Gentleman Music. “Chords go from major to minor back to major leaving the listener with a bittersweet feeling. The only songs of the Tin Pan era existing in modern times would ironically be the Christmas ones.”
“All I Want For Christmas” is in the key of G, and the verse begins with G, G/B, and C. The modal interchange comes next with a C minor chord, which would occur in the key of G minor, not G major. This tension is resolved in the next line when we return to a G chord.
Next, Asanieff uses a B7, which also doesn’t naturally occur in the key, to lead our ear to E minor. This compositional approach is called a secondary dominant because it builds a dominant chord to drive the harmony to a chord other than the tonic. The E minor then returns to the C minor chord, this time with Eb in the bass for smoother voice leading.
“There’s a lot going on here, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the instrumental interlude following the second chorus features a straightforward I / vi / ii / V progression,” Pop Grammar explains. “Pop songwriters will frequently follow passages of tricky, complex harmony with passages that are harmonically simpler, giving the listener’s ears a break.”
Get into the spirit with the sheet music for “All I Want For Christmas Is You”:
