Dreamin'...

Lately a snippet from the new song "Money ($/*...)" ft. Fabolous has become lodged in my ear:

And I dream the impossible dream
When you and I are alone

It kept repeating, calling back to some other Mims lyric...but what? With 14 studio albums plus a host of other singles and collaborations, there's a lot of material to pick through when you're on the trail of a vague memory of another line.

Mariah Carey, "I Still Believe," 1999

Finally this weekend it hit me. The song I was thinking of is one of my favorite remixes and a little-known gem: the "I Still Believe/Pure Imagination (Damizza Remix)" ft. Krayzie Bone and Da Brat. In particular, this:

Baby I had a dream
And it's more than my imagination
Because I still believe we belong together

Tucked in as the last track on the "I Still Believe" single from 1999, it's a standout deep cut that deserves better than its current relative obscurity. As I believe the best remixes do, it takes its source material as a starting point only, becoming something completely different but equally as engaging through new vocals, collaborative input, and in this case, a fantastic interpolation of -- wait for it -- "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 musical Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Krayzie Bone lends his laidback flow -- part of what made 1997's "Breakdown" the finest Mims track around -- to the mix, and then  Da Brat does whatever it is that she does (note: a full post devoted to the Da Brat is necessarily forthcoming). One of my favorite features of the track is that Mims' vocals aren't pushing at either end of her range -- it's all very comfortable within her capabilities, relaxed even, and reminds listeners of how she's such a damn good singer, plain and simple.

"You're Irking Me, I Am Irked..."

Things that the NBC special "Mariah Carey: At Home In Concert" taught us:

• Matt Lauer has listened to MIAMTEC in its entirety
• "Chanteuse" is a word "of French origin," so we can never really know what it's meaning is
• When playing with children, full evening dress is recommended
• The video for "You're Mine (Eternal)" is really bad. Which is crazy, because this is a woman who knows how to make a video. Exhibit A:

And B:

And for good measure, C:

All of those should enable us to forget about this: