Mariah Carey may be trading in her title of the “Queen of Christmas” for a new one: “Queen of Rock.” The singer-songwriter says she has unearthed the original version of her 1995 alt-rock album. The album, recorded under the name “Chick,” was believed to be lost. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Carey, 53, hinted that she intends to release her version of Chick’s Someone’s Ugly Daughter (1995) and that she was also planning a related project or an update of the album with another artist.
When asked how her search was going for the buried version of Someone’s Ugly Daughter, Carey told the publication, “We actually have it.” The unearthed version, she said, “will become something we should hear, but also, I’m working on a version where there will be another artist working with me…. Possibly something built around the album.”
Someone’s Ugly Daughter was eventually released overlaid with replacement vocals by Carey’s friend Clarissa Dane, under the band name Chick. Columbia Records buried the original and kept Carey’s involvement secret. Carey still produced, sang backing vocals throughout the Chick version (with the exception of a cover of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender”), and co-wrote the tracks.
“This was my outlet, and nobody knew about it,” Carey told Rolling Stone. “I honestly wanted to put the record out back then […] and let them discover that it was me, but that idea was squashed.” She adds that it was “like a girls’ Green Day group moment. And of course, there was the Courtney Love era of Hole going on at the time. I even did the artwork—it was a dead roach and some lipstick [laughs].”
Carey doesn’t tour too often, but she has a performance scheduled this weekend at Central Park’s Great Lawn in New York City, as part of the Global Citizen Festival. Metallica is headlining the show; perhaps Mariah will collaborate with the metal legends?