Queen of Christmas, Most Billboard Hot 100 Number-one Singles for a Solo Artist, Artist of the Decade (1990): these are all titles that Mariah Carey holds. Surprisingly, the title Mariah Carey wanted, but never got, was “Someone’s Ugly Daughter.”
In 1995, Mariah Carey secretly recorded a grunge album called Someone’s Ugly Daughter, but she never got the chance to release it. She released it under the moniker Chick instead. It wasn’t until September 2020 that we learned about Mariah Carey’s musical and lyrical genius related to the album. Mariah Carey wrote and produced the songs on Someone’s Ugly Daughter, but her label denied her the chance to release the album as the lead vocalist. One of Mariah’s long term friends, Clarissa Dane, sang lead vocals on the album, while Mariah sang back up because her label was afraid that even with the band name Chick someone would recognize her voice, ruining her image.
While Clarissa Dane was the official lead singer, why wasn’t Mariah given the opportunity? In 1995, when she wrote the record, she was also recording her Daydream album. During the day she would record for Daydream, but at night she and her band were secretly recording Someone’s Ugly Daughter. Carey and her band have said “It was the most fun we ever had recording.” No one, including Mariah, planned to use their real name when releasing the album, but when Sony found out about it, they immediately shut down the idea.
Sony wouldn’t let Mariah sing lead vocals to protect her image. They also made her change the band’s name, which was originally “Eel Tree”, to “Chick.” They made her rewrite and change many of her lyrics that were explicit or were what they deemed to be “inappropriate.” Sony wanted to protect Mariah’s ‘pop princess image’, but completely ignored what made this album special.
Someone’s Ugly Daughter was meant for Mariah to express her creativity and create songs she actually had fun writing. Even though it is technically a grunge album, Mariah’s original version was a true expression of what she was feeling at the time, and of the different bands and writing styles she was inspired by. According to People magazine, Mariah Carey would say, “I always regretted not putting it out, but they kind of stopped me at that point. You know, it was Sony at the time. We love Sony now, but back then… a little controlling.”
In 2024, Mariah Carey teased the release of the album, saying, “And we might see it in 2025, probably a little bit later than that.” In 2025, Mariah Carey went on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and they played a clip of the song “Prom Queen,” a track from the unreleased album. Jimmy Fallon said that she should release the album as a Christmas gift to her fans, but Mariah shut down the idea, saying it clearly was more of a Halloween album. So are we getting it this Halloween? Will we finally hear Mariah’s version of Someone’s Ugly Daughter? Keep your eyes on the lookout for an announcement!
