Mariah Carey’s iconic holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is once again facing legal issues as a country singer refiles a $20 million copyright infringement lawsuit, alleging he was not given proper credit.
Andy Stone has resubmitted his claim in federal court in Los Angeles after previously dismissing the case in New Orleans due to incorrect venue selection, according to one of his lawyers as reported by Rolling Stone.
Stone’s attorney, Douglas M. Schmidt, states, “If you compare both songs, you can see that around 50 percent of the words are the same, in nearly the same order. I believe this is a strong claim.”
Attempts to resolve the issue with Carey, her co-songwriter Walter Afanasieff, and Sony were unsuccessful, leading Stone to take the case back to court.
“Now we are proceeding towards a financial resolution, either through a settlement or a trial,” stated Stone’s manager Jay Ceravolo. “This is simply a case of copyright infringement.”
Stone, known by the stage name Vince Vance and legally named Andrew Franichevich, initially filed the lawsuit in June 2022. He dismissed the complaint without prejudice, reserving the right to refile.
Stone and co-songwriter Troy Powers wrote their version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 1988, recorded it in Nashville in 1989, and claim it received significant airplay in 1993.
Carey, who is now known as the unofficial queen of Christmas, co-wrote and recorded her song before releasing it as the lead single for her Merry Christmas album in 1994. It quickly became a holiday classic, playing extensively each year at malls, parties, and sporting events worldwide in the lead-up to Christmas.
Stone and Powers argue that Carey’s song is a “derivative” of theirs, with similar lyrics, melody, harmonic language, and rhythm. They claim both songs tell the story of a female narrator who rejects material goods in favor of a cherished partner.
In Stone and Powers’ song, the narrator says, “I don’t need” sleigh rides in the snow and only desires an unnamed “you” standing “underneath the Christmas tree” to make her “dream come true.”
In Carey’s song, the narrator says, “I don’t need” and “I don’t want” in relation to seasonal comforts “underneath the Christmas tree.” Instead, the “one thing” she wants is an unnamed “you” to make her wish “come true.”
The new 19-page complaint obtained by Rolling Stone states, “The phrase ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ may seem common today, but in 1988 it was distinctive in context. Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of Vance’s original work, encompassing both lyric choice and chord expressions.”
The plaintiffs assert that Carey and Afanasieff had access to their song, as Stone performed it at the White House in 1994 after it reached No. 55 on the Billboard Hot Country chart the same year.
When Stone initially filed his lawsuit last year, one lawyer stated it could face challenges due to the existence of at least 177 copyrighted works, many of them songs, using the title “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
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