Carey is named in the lawsuit along with her co-writer Walter Afanasieff and the music company Sony.
Court documents describe Vance as a freelance artist who in 1989 co-wrote a song titled “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and recorded it in a studio in Nashville. It was later released and “received wide airplay during the 1993 holiday season… began making appearances on the Billboard music charts.”
Carey’s song with an identical, but not identical name lyrics and music, was released in 1994 on his album “Merry Christmas”. The lawsuit contends that Carey and the other defendants “never sought or obtained permission” from Vance to use, reproduce or distribute the song and accuses them of infringing their copyrights.
Carey has yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit. Sony Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Saturday.
Carey’s song has become a holiday classic and a staple of the holiday charts every year, so it’s not clear why the lawsuit was only filed now.
Copyrights generally don’t extend to just song titles, with dozens of copyrighted entries for “All I want for Christmas is you” at the US Copyright Office starting Saturday.
Court documents say Vance’s attorneys initially contacted Carey and others in April 2021 and then sent a letter in December. “Even after communicating concerns to Defendants, Plaintiff was unable to reach any agreement on the use of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You,'” the lawsuit says.
Carey, known for musical hits like “Fantasy” and “Hero,” was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year, which in its website He called her part of “an elite group of songwriters” and said she had “written or co-written 18 of her 19 number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100.”
He had his first US No. 1 hit with “Vision of Love” in 1990 and won 5 grammys Awards, 3 Guinness World Record Titles and a ivor novello Award with his distinctive style of 5 octaves that earned him worldwide stardom for his musical performances.
Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” continues to be hugely popular, being streamed over a billion times on the music service. Spotify and for some it is an unofficial announcement of the beginning of the Christmas season. But others say it has become exaggerated and irritating, and last year a Texas bar banned playing the song before December 1, allowing it to be played only “once a night” thereafter.
Reference-www.washingtonpost.com