Fantasy was the first single from the sixth Mariah’s album Daydream. It was released in September 1995. Fantasy made its debut on No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart and R&B Singles Chart on September 22nd 1995. That was Mariah’s 9th number one single. Mariah became the first woman ever to achieve the double-barreled success and she was only the second artist that opened a single on top of Hot 100. Two weeks after the same fame went to Michael Jackson, but his sales were not as high. Fantasy single was sold in 228,941 copies in the first week. It peaked to the top of many other US charts (Hot Dance, overall Singles Sales, overall Maxi-Single Sales, Dance Maxi-Single Sales and R&B Singles Sales, Single Club Play...). It was pretty much the same in Asia and Europe. Mariah broke chart's records once again. She was honored at 1996 Blockbuster Awards for Favorite Single. The single stayed on the top position for 8 weeks.
The Fantasy song is more in a hip-hop music style, but the remixes are also featuring rap. She created one really great dance hit, that was and still is loved by so many fans, but also other people. Mariah has sampled a loop from the Tom Tom Club’s ‘Genius Of Love’, a hit from the year 1981. The track has been sampled already by many other artists Ziggy Marley, Ant Banks, Smooth and Papa San. The track was originally written by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (members of the Talking Heads), who said about Mariah’s version in Fantasy:
‘We love Mariah's version. She captured the sweetness and innocence of the original.’
Mariah explained about the song:
‘Yeah, I used to love the song, and I still do, "Genius of Love." It was one of my favorite songs growing up. I heard it on the radio recently and I just, I had this other idea for the, ya' know, the verses and the choruses of my song, and I thought that it would be really cool to incorporate the two, so we did it.‘

Mariah also released remixes on two maxisingles. Album version was co-produced by Dave Hall, the ‘club’ mixes went to David Morales and for the first time she worked with the producer Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs (Puff Daddy). Together they have created great remixes, including: Bad Boy Fantasy and the famous Bad Boy remix with Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who is also featured in the Fantasy music video. That was the first time Mariah worked with any of the big rap artists and her ‘debut’ was really very successful. It probably encouraged her to continue in urban style music later on the Butterfly album...


Fantasy #1- original maxisingle:
1. Album Version
2. Bad Boy Fantasy
3. Bad Boy With ODB
4. Bad Boy Mix
5. Def Club Mix

Fantasy #2- remixes maxisingle:
1. Radio Mix
2. MC Mix
3. The Boss Mix
4. Sweet Dub Mix
5. Bad Boy With ODB

Fantasy music video was Mariah’s first directing debut. She explains why she decided to direct:
‘I didn't want to come in there and act like, ya' know, Miss Diva, ya' know, trying to be a director all-of-a-sudden... I just wanted to do it because it's, it's my song and I really want it to come out the way I want it to be.‘
The video is set in an amusement park at Playland, Rye in New York, where also some scenes from the movies ‘Big’ and ‘Fatal Attraction’ were shot.
Mariah is dressed in her famous blue jeans shorts and black sweater. The opening scene starts with a circus clown. Later we can see Mariah skating through the park, really enjoying herself. There are also many other people watching her. She than goes on a roller-coaster, named ‘Dragon coaster’, where she continues singing as if she wouldn't be riding the roller-coaster with high speed. Her hair looks so smooth and beautiful, moving through the air.
She explained that the filming crew was quite sick riding that thing, but she didn’t get motion sickness. She really enjoys riding roller-coasters, so that’s one of her favorites. She explains how she tried to direct while they were riding on the coaster:
‘I was on there, trying to talk to DP and the producer about different shots I wanted to get... They were like... they were just holding on very... Look we can do it here, you can be in front of me, and we can get a great shot from here. And you can put a guy with a camera on the back and I can turn around and look and they were like: Aaaaaaa....’ :)
Later there are also night scenes of Mariah standing in a jeep singing on the parking lot. She is surrounded by a group of hip-hop dancers, with all the reflectors behind her, pointing towards Mariah. She looks very beautiful singing, underneath the stars, dressed in her jeans and black top. Mariah also released a video for the remix version with Ol’ Dirty Bastard, which includes the rap segments. He is singing outside on some platform.

Some pictures from the video shooting:

Some captures from the video:

See the video section for more captures...