In a most un-festive turn of events, Mariah Carey is being sued for $20 million over her number-one entry in the Xmas canon, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” According to NBC News, songwriter Andy Stone brought the lawsuit because he wrote a song with that same title five years before Carey’s hit. Stone filed a suit in New Orleans citing multiple complaints, including “copyright infringement and misappropriation.” The lawsuit names Carey and her co-writer Walter Afanasieff, Sony Corporation of America, and Sony Music Entertainment as defendants. Thankfully, the Lobster from Love Actually hasn’t been roped into this. Stone’s song was recorded by his band, Vince Vance & the Valiants, and released in 1989. Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” came out on her 1994 Merry Christmas LP and laid the foundation for an entire second act of her career. Compare and contrast the two tracks below.
