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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Vision of Love,” and her self-titled debut-released in June of 1990-we’ve ranked all 13 of her non-holiday studio albums. But she’d become a far more interesting artist, savvily incorporating hip-hop elements into her work, which surely extended her commercial viability even as it limited her audience, and developing a singular, idiosyncratic voice as a lyricist. By the end of the ‘90s, both Mariah’s wardrobe and voice-not to mention her album sales-began to shrink. If Mariah’s handlers-her then-husband, Sony Music president Tommy Mottola, among them-wanted her to be a crossover queen in the key of Whitney, the singer evidently had other ideas. “Vision of Love” took its time to reach its sweet destiny-four weeks at #1 on the pop chart-setting the stage for a career with very long legs. Yes, “Vision of Love” introduced the world to that famous whistle register like a stripper popping out of a cake, and Mariah seems to express an entire song’s worth of emotion in one final vocal run, but it also boasts an economy of language, both musical and otherwise, that she’s recaptured rarely over the years. Though it gave birth to a thousand singing competition contestants caterwauling their way to instant fame, the song is more restrained than you might remember. On May 15, 1990, Mariah Carey quietly released her debut single, “Vision of Love,” a contemporary R&B ballad marked by its retro swing and, of course, that voice.