Peak
12
Weeks
21
Score
3,315
Chart Year
1994
The accompanying music video for "Anytime You Need a Friend" was directed by Danielle Federici and filmed during the early summer of 1994.[7] It was filmed in black-and-white, and features Carey walking along the streets of New York, watching several people, ranging from a small child to an elderly man, lonely and in need of a friend. Additionally, aside from several scenes of Carey and a large church choir in a large antechamber, the video is known as the first video in which Carey appears with straightened hair.[7] Throughout her career up until that point, Carey had famously sported long, auburn curls. However, the video presented Carey's first image makeover, where she appears with bangs and a long straightened hairstyle.[7] The video begins with scenes of Carey walking down a long New York street, with the addition of close ups of Carey's face. As she stares down the road, she witnesses a small girl, sitting alone in an alley corner, glaring into the sky. As the first chorus begins, Carey enters a large foyer, with a choir dressed in black singing perched atop a large staircase. During the second verse, she similarly witnesses an older man, who is sitting on a withered stoop. Consecutively, during the song's bridge, Carey watches as the small child's mother carries her to a nearby playground where her friends are frolicking and playing. Similarly, the elderly man is met with some other elderly citizens, who accompany him to another building nearby. During the song's climax, Carey joins the choir, flailing her hands wildly towards the sky, and smiling and gazing into the cloudy morning. Renee Graham from The Boston Globe gave the video two out of four stars. She complimented on the fact that the video captured the song's lyrical essence and how it managed to portray it in a clear and concise way. Although calling it "simple," Graham commented that "Videos have never really been Mariah Carey's thing, and frankly, they've never had to be. Carey has a killer voice, so the last thing she'd want to do is overshadow her singing with a lot of choreography, complicated story lines or explosions."[40] Author Chris Nickson compared several parts of the video to religion and belief in God. During such scenes when Carey appears with the choir, he felt it seemed as though they were both channeling a common entity through music; God. Additionally, he claimed it was more evident with each passing scene of the video, as each of the lonely people in the video gaze up into the skies, possibly praying or searching for an answer to their loneliness.[7] A video was commissioned for the C+C club mix of the song. Known as the C+C video edit, it was also directed by Danielle Federici and serves as a behind the scenes addendum to the main music video.[37] It is also filmed in black and white, and is composed of clips of Carey and her friends during filming of the video, where they chat, laugh and enjoy time with each other. Carey's husband at the time Tommy Mottola made a cameo appearance in the video, appearing alongside Carey during the second verse.[41] The remix video was later included on the 1995 home video release, Fantasy: Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden. In March of the year 2020, Entertainment Tonight released behind the scenes footage from a scrapped version of the original music video on their YouTube channel. This version has Carey in a floor-length gown with her hair styled into her signature curls and was to feature a medieval structure as well as a gospel choir. In the video posted by Entertainment Tonight, Carey talks about the concept of the video with director Diane Martel, shows Entertainment Tonight around the set and performs a short a cappella rendition of her song "Now That I Know" from her album, Music Box. Carey also has moments where she gets her hair and makeup retouched during the filming. This version of the music video was ultimately shelved and remains unreleased to this day.[42] Live performances
Mariah Carey tapped into her faith in God for this gospel-flavored single from her third studio album. By the time she released Music Box, Carey was a pop superstar but she felt like a prisoner. In July 1993, she married her boyfriend Tommy Mottola, the president of Sony Music, who controlled nearly every aspect of the singer's personal and professional life. She recalled in her 2020 memoir, The Meaning Of Mariah Carey, that "Anytime You Need A Friend" was borne out of the desperation she felt during the relationship, which ended in divorce in 1997. "Among all of my songs that one was especially significant, because I was desperately alone, removed from friends and full of fear," she said. "My belief in God kept me alive - I wrote that song thinking about what I thought God would say to us in times of fear." Mariah wrote the song with her "Hero" cowriter, Walter Afanasieff. The pair had toyed around with a gospel sound on earlier tracks like "And You Don't Remember" (from Emotions) and "I Don't Wanna Cry" (from Mariah Carey) and wanted something similar for Music Box. He recalled in a 2011 interview with Soul Culture: "The substance of 'I Don't Wanna Cry' and the gospel quality of 'And You Don’t Remember' led this sort of melodic, melancholy theme that we wanted to bust out into some big harmony gospel singing type of chorus. This is how we came up with 'Anytime You Need a Friend.'" Even though it sounds like a huge choir is backing Mariah, most of the supporting vocals were sung by gospel singers Kelly Price, Shanrae Price, and Melonie Daniels. Said Mariah: "It was a great experience to work with them and to do these gospel arrangements. because they're really from the church and they're really really authentic." When Mariah first met her boyfriend Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees shortstop told her this was his favorite song and he listened to it before every game. Their romance inspired the track "The Roof" from Mariah's 1997 album, Butterfly. In the black-and-white music video, directed by Danielle Federici, Mariah performs the song in the foyer of a building backed by a choir standing on a nearby staircase. Meanwhile, on the streets of New York City, we meet lonely people in need of a friend, including a little girl left out of a game of hopscotch and an elderly man sitting by himself on a stoop. The clip also introduces a new look for the singer, who ditches her signature curls for a sleek, straightened hairstyle. Carey's impressive vocal range is on display in the tune, from hitting her higher than high whistle register to dipping into her lower register, which she hadn't accessed as much on her earlier songs. "It's not that I'm experimenting with lower notes. I actually think my natural voice is low. My speaking voice is low, you know what I mean? And I'm really comfortable singing in my lower register," she told US Magazine in 1993. "I sing from the heart. Whatever the music makes me feel at the time, I go into the studio to sing a song, that's what it's going to do. Some people like it, some people don't. But it's just a part of my voice and that's it." Music Box remains Mariah Carey's best-selling album, with 10 million copies sold in the US and more than 28 million sold worldwide.
If you're lonely And need a friend And troubles seem like They never end Just remember To keep the faith And love will be there To light the way, yeah Anytime you need a friend I will be here Never be alone again So don't you fear Even if you're miles away I'm by your side So don't you ever be lonely Love will make it alright When the shadows are closing in And your spirit diminishing Just remember You're not alone And love will be there To guide you home, oh Anytime you need a friend I will be here Never be alone again (No, oh) So don't you fear (No, no, no, no) Even if you're miles away (Even if you're miles away) I'm by your side Don't you ever be lonely Love will make it alright If you just believe in me I will love you endlessly, oh Take my hand Take me into your heart I'll be there forever, baby I won't let go I'll never let go Anytime you need a friend I will be here Never be alone again (No, no) So don't you fear (Don't worry, don't fear, yeah) Even if you're miles away I'm by your side (I'm with you wherever you are) So don't you ever be lonely It's alright, it's alright, it's alright Anytime you need a friend I will be here (Yeah, you know it's alright) Never be alone again (Oh, whoa) So don't you fear (Don't never fear) Even if you're miles away (Oh) I'm by your side (I'm by your side) Don't you ever be lonely It's alright, it's alright (Yeah) Anytime you need a friend (Anytime) I will be here (Oh) You'll never be alone again (You'll never be alone) So don't you fear (You never will) Even if you're miles away (Oh) I'm by your side (I'm by your side) Don't you ever be lonely It's alright, it's alright (Yeah, yeah) Anytime you need a friend I will be here
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 28, 1994 | 45 | 81 |
| 2 | Jun 4, 1994 | 32 | 94 |
| 3 | Jun 11, 1994 | 20 | 106 |
| 4 | Jun 18, 1994 | 15 | 111 |
| 5 | Jun 25, 1994 | 12 | 114 |
| 6 | Jul 2, 1994 | 12 | 114 |
| 7 | Jul 9, 1994 | 12 | 114 |
| 8 | Jul 16, 1994 | 14 | 112 |
| 9 | Jul 23, 1994 | 14 | 112 |
| 10 | Jul 30, 1994 | 14 | 112 |
| 11 | Aug 6, 1994 | 14 | 112 |
| 12 | Aug 13, 1994 | 15 | 111 |
| 13 | Aug 20, 1994 | 17 | 109 |
| 14 | Aug 27, 1994 | 18 | 108 |
| 15 | Sep 3, 1994 | 18 | 108 |
| 16 | Sep 10, 1994 | 22 | 104 |
| 17 | Sep 17, 1994 | 30 | 96 |
| 18 | Sep 24, 1994 | 36 | 90 |
| 19 | Oct 1, 1994 | 39 | 87 |
| 20 | Oct 8, 1994 | 52 | 74 |