It’s a Firsts first for Mariah Carey this Record Store Day…
The 52-year-old half-Venezuelan American Grammy-winning singer came out with a special vinyl release during this year’s Record Store Day for its 2022 event on Wednesday (Feb. 16).
Carey – who remains the best-selling female artist of all time, released her 1998 greatest-hits collection #1s on vinyl for the very first time.
Among the other releases for Record Store Day’s first iteration since 2019 are a 7-inch of Taylor Swift’s Folklore bonus track “The Lakes” with its orchestral version as the B-side while also being included on charity benefit album Portraits of Her, which celebrates female artists and music industry professionals while raising money for nonprofit We Are Moving the Needle.
Prince’s 1995 LP The Gold Experience also received a special pressing.
“For the past few years, our RSD Drops dates altered the focus of what we did—instead of being one part of what the Day was, the List became the entire focus,” said Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton in a statement. “A way to get much-needed revenue and stock — and great music — into stores and then to customers’ collections. We specifically didn’t call those days Record Store Day, because they weren’t. They were very different, very necessarily so.”
She continued: “Now, we think stores have learned and adapted and are ready to bring back elements of a ‘traditional’ Record Store Day: bands and beer and fun and people and whatever parts of the party they like, in ways that make them, and their customers, comfortable. We also feel strongly that it’s important to focus on those stores themselves, and celebrate what they do year-round, in their communities.”
Check out the exhaustive list of upcoming releases on the official Record Store Day website here.