Save The Day
by Mariah Carey (featuring Lauryn Hill)

Album: The Rarities (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This empowering anthem dates back to a 2011 studio session with Mariah Carey and her longtime collaborators Jermaine Dupri and Randy Jackson. The original idea was to record it as a charity single with guest artists to raise money for human rights issues.

    That song never saw the light of day but it was re-recorded in 2020 for Carey's The Rarities compilation album, a collection of previously unreleased material. With its timely message of "we're all in this together," both the singer and Dupri separately realized how appropriate the track would be for the COVID-19 era. "It happened organically that the lyrics are so apropos to this exact moment," Carey said.
  • The new version samples Lauryn Hill's wailing vocals from the bridge of Fugees' 1996 single "Killing Me Softly." Carey said during a Zoom listening party that she's always been a fan of Roberta Flack's original recording and the Fugees' hip-hop interpretation was her "go-to record" when she was touring in the 1990s. "I love Lauryn, I think she's an incredible artist," Carey shared. "I was happy that Lauryn wanted to do this moment with me... I only wanted to do it with her approval and excitement."
  • Randy Jackson isn't credited on the new version, but Carey and Dupri are along with "Killing Me Softly" writers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. Also listed is Carey's longtime musical director James "Big Jim" Wright, who passed away in 2018.
  • Mariah Carey gave the song its TV debut at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 12, 2020. Her performance kicked off ESPN's coverage of the 2020 US Open Women's Final, with Naomi Osaka going up against Victoria Azarenka.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

Oliver Leiber

Oliver LeiberSongwriter Interviews

Oliver Leiber talks about writing and producing hits for Paula Abdul, and explains his complicated relationship with his father, the songwriter Jerry Leiber.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

American Hits With Foreign Titles

American Hits With Foreign TitlesSong Writing

What are the biggest US hits with French, Spanish (not "Rico Suave"), Italian, Scottish, Greek, and Japanese titles?

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Concert Disasters

Concert DisastersFact or Fiction

Ozzy biting a dove? Alice Cooper causing mayhem with a chicken? Creed so bad they were sued? See if you can spot the real concert mishaps.