90's Guilty Pleasures #19: Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (1994)

Hardcore Mariah fanatics may argue otherwise, but "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is surely her artistic peak, surrounded by 3 other career highlights between 1992 and 1995, "I'll Be There," "Dream Lover," and her "Fantasy" collaboration with Ol' Dirty Bastard (all of which may be mostly notable for nostalgic reasons, but at the moment this seems highly accurate).

This song is a rare achievement in itself because it's not only a phenomenal artistic statement, but it's one of the only popular canonized Christmas songs from the past 20 years that actually sounds like a Christmas song, specifically an imaginary outtake from A Christmas Gift To You From Phil Spector. The song is also currently so beloved within our culture that it's almost not a guilty pleasure; however, the context surrounding holiday singles as supreme annoyances has unfortunately assisted in maintaining its perpetual guilt-status. (It would also help if Mariah Carey hadn't started placing her signature "look away from the camera" thing in every fucking video from 1996 onward.)