Mariah Carey - Hero

In 1993 when this song was #1 I remember that the "Live" version on this promo CD:

https://www.discogs.com/Mariah-Carey-Hero/release/672935

was played in constant rotation when I was living in NYC. I was wondering if anyone else has the same recollection. I think one of the reasons that it was played due to the enormous success of I'll Be There the year before, which of course had no studio version.

Would this be a case where both the studio and live version are AA sides? Any insight or memory would be helpful...

I can honestly say I never once heard the Live Version on the radio at all. It's on the Commercial CD Maxi-Single that I have and I listened to it a few times back then and thought it sounded just like the studio version, like she might have been lip syncing to a pre-recorded tape, so I never listened to it after that. Listening to it a little while ago, I noticed she enunciates some words differently and was indeed singing live. (Not that she would have needed to lip-sync, of course. Her voice pretty much blew everyone else's away at the time, except for maybe Celine and Whitney).

I also can't hear this song without thinking of someone I knew at the time. They had a crush on the male audience member in the video in a striped shirt who is seen clapping his hands and they would often watch VH1 hoping to see the video just to catch a glimpse of the guy.

We only played the studio version. If the live version
was serviced to radio, we didn't get a copy. Then
again, our service from Columbia was kind of spotty at
the time.

AutumnAarilyn wrote: Hey Poparchivist: What station in NYC were you listening to that played the live version?

Z100 or WPLJ. Don't recall which. Sorry it took 2 years to answer lol!

I Never heard the "Live" version played here. However, I did hear the live version of Mariah and Trey Lorenz "I'll Be There" in constant rotation. Maybe it was the only version?