Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider shared his reaction to Mariah Carey ignoring the co-writer of one of her hits, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You.’
The rocker mentioned Carey’s recent appearance on Good Morning America and slammed the singer for not writing the whole song and refusing to credit her co-writer. Expressing his disappointment on his X account, he wrote:
“Saw Mariah Carey talking about her ‘writing’ ‘All I Want for Christmas’ this morning on GMA. Really? What about her ‘co-writer’ and producer Walter Afanasieff? Seems like he may have had some input…like he’s had on a ton of other hit pop songs. Just saying.”
Carey’s Story in Good Morning America
Appearing on the show on November 6, Carey said that the chart-topping hit was written by her when she was younger, and she played it on her Casio keyboard at an early age. Stating that she wanted to do something timeless, she never mentioned the co-writer’s name during the show and claimed the song to be hers. Carey said of the creation of the song:
“I was working on it by myself… on this little Casio keyboard and writing down words and thinking about, ‘What do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? What do I dream of?’ And that’s what started it.”
The Two-Sided Story of the Hit
Despite the song’s fame, the story of its creation was told differently by both Carey and the co-writer Walter Afanasieff.
Afanasieff’s side of the story claims that the two were on the same page about the song but ten years after its release, it took a turn only for Carey to claim that she wrote the song on her Casio keyboard when she was younger.
Her claims don’t seem to be accurate, according to the co-writer. Afanasieff slammed the singer for lying and stated that she doesn’t know how to play the keyboard and cannot even tell the difference between a minor seventh chord and a major seventh chord.
Furthermore, Afanasieff mentioned having degrees in music and knowing music theory, thus understanding how the singer couldn’t have come up with ‘a very complicated chord-structured song.’
You can see Snider’s latest tweet below.
Saw @MariahCarey talking about her 'writing' "All I Want for Christmas" this morning on @GMA. Really? What about her "co-writer" and producer Walter Afanasieff? Seems like he may have had some input…like he's had on a ton of other hit pop songs. #justsayin
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) November 6, 2023
