Background
When I found out she had AIDS I cried for days. She really could never care for her son again, he now lives with my mother. This sad story made me care more about other children in need. To give them advice and see that they get a better life.
—Carey, on her sister being diagnosed with HIV."One Sweet Day" was a song that Carey wrote with the R&B group Boyz II Men. After Carey's friend and past collaborator David Cole died, she began writing and developing a song that would pay homage to him and all the friends and family her fans had lost along the life's journey. Carey had the idea and chorus composed, and after meeting with Boyz II Men, they realized they too had a similar idea in development. Together, using Carey's chorus and idea, as well as the melody they had produced, they wrote and composed the song. The song was produced by Afanasieff, who built on the song's melody and added various grooves and beats. Carey expressed how the song was "meant to be" and how all the pieces fit into place:
"I wrote the initial idea for 'One Sweet Day' with Walter, and I had the chorus...and I stopped and said, 'I really wanna do this with Boyz II Men,' because...obviously I'm a big fan of theirs and I just thought that the work was crying out for them, the vocals that they do, so I put it away and said, 'Who knows if this could ever happen, but I just don't wanna finish this song because I want it to be our song if we ever do it together. whole idea of when you lose people that are close to you, it changes your life and changes your perspective. When they came into the studio, I played them the idea for the song and when finished, they looked at each other, a bit stunned, and told me that Nat "Nathan Morris" had written a song for his road manager who had passed away. It had basically the same lyrics and fitted over the same chord changes. It was really, really weird, we finished the song right then and there. We were all kinda flipped about it ourselves. Fate had a lot to do with that. I know some people won't believe it, but we wouldn't make up such a crazy story."
After they began working on the song, Carey began to incorporate other lyrics into the chorus, trying to make the song relatable to the AIDS epidemic that was in full force in the mid 1990s. Additionally, Carey's sister Allison had recently been diagnosed with HIV, an event that ruined their relationship and tore them apart. Carey has stated that she wrote the song hoping that all her fans that have lost someone could relate to "One Sweet Day" and maybe help ease the pain of the loss. Carey described the song as " whole idea of when you lose people that are close to you, it changes your life and changes our perspective."
Read more about this topic: One Sweet Day
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