Songfacts®:

• This song was inspired by Carey's boyfriend at the time, Latin singer Luis Miguel. It's the last song on her Rainbow album, and is supposed to represent the rainbow that emerges after the storm - which are other songs on the album dealing with relationship troubles. >>>

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• "Thank God I Found You" came together during a midnight songwriting session with star producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the architects behind many of Janet Jackson's hits, including "That's The Way Love Goes" and "All For You."
  
  The duo was impressed by Mariah's knowledge of their catalog and her decisive nature: She knew exactly what she wanted and exactly how to explain it. Jam told Fred Bronson, author of the Billboard Book Of #1 Hits, how the session unfolded. "She's got 'Thank God I found you' and that's about it," he said. "She sang the melody. We usually have [producer] Big Jim Wright sit in on those kind of sessions to work out chords. He wasn't there so I had to work out the chords myself. So I'm playing and there was a part where I said, 'Man, what chord am I supposed to do here?' and Mariah has such a good ear, she sang me the chord.'"
• This features guest vocals from R&B singer Joe, who broke through with his third album, My Name Is Joe, a few months later. Jam and Lewis originally wanted K-Ci and JoJo for the track, but it was too difficult to negotiate a deal with the "All My Life" hitmakers, who were signed to a different label. When Joe got the call from Mariah Carey to come to the studio, he knew it was a big deal. "I had no idea I would record at that moment, but I couldn't let the opportunity slip away," he explained in the Bronson interview. "She sat in the control room while I was singing in the booth and it was amazing to have her sit there and watch her smile and be in her zone."
• For the male harmonies, they enlisted boyband 98 Degrees, who had to lay down their vocals quickly. "To this day the guys say, 'Sorry about the vocal.' But they came in and killed it," said Jam.
• This was Carey's last #1 hit on the Hot 100 until "We Belong Together," from her The Emancipation Of Mimi album, topped the chart in 2005. It was also 98 Degrees' first and only #1 single.
• Carey sang this with Joe and 98 Degrees at the Last Chance Summer Dance in Minneapolis in 1999. The performance was filmed and used as the song's music video.
• This was the subject of a copyright-infringement lawsuit in 2000. Songwriters Seth Swirsky and Warryn Campbell sued Carey, alleging she plagiarized her hit tune from "One Of Those Love Songs," a song they wrote for Xscape's 1998 album, Traces Of My Lipstick. An expert witness pointed out the two songs had a "substantially similar chorus" and "shared a 'basic shape and pitch emphasis' in their melodies, which were played over 'highly similar basslines' and chord changes, at very nearly the same tempo and in the same generic style." Still, the case was initially dismissed due to insufficient evidence. In 2004, however, the original decision was overturned and the suit was reinstated when the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined the expert witness' statement was, in fact, significant. The parties settled out of court in 2006.
• The "Thank God I Found You (Make It Last Remix)," produced by DJ Clue, interpolated Keith Sweat's 1988 single "Make It Last Forever" and featured rapper Nas. Carey also re-recorded her vocals for the track.