If "Hero" sounds like it was meant to be heard over the end credits of a film, there's a good reason. Dustin Hoffman and Geena Davis starred in a movie for Columbia Pictures called Hero. Producer Walter Afanasieff recalls, "The people over at Epic Records were going to do the soundtrack for the film. They wanted to have Mariah sing the theme to it, but they didn't really think they could because at that time you couldn't get near Mariah to do anything film-wise. So they wanted to try the next best thing, which was to have us write something."
The film was screened for Afanasieff in Los Angeles and he was told that Gloria Estefan would probably be asked to sing a title theme. At the time, the producer was working with Carey on her Music Box album. "I went to New York and we were in the studio and came to a break. I was sitting at the piano and told Mariah about this movie. Within two hours, we had this incredible seed for this song, 'Hero.' It was never meant for Mariah to sing. In her mind, we were writing a song for Gloria Estefan for this movie. And we went into an area that Mariah didn't really go into - in her words, it was a little bit too schmaltzy or too pop ballady or too old-fashioned as far as melody and lyrics."
The pair was almost finished writing the song when Tommy Mottola, president and COO of Sony Music Entertainment and Carey's fiance (later her husband), walked into the studio. Hearing the song they were working on, he asked them what it was, and Carey replied, "This is a song for the film Hero." Afanasieff recalls Mottola responding, "Are you kidding me? You can't give this song to this movie. This is too good. Mariah, you have to take this song. You have to do it."
Initially, Carey was guided by the subject of the film, but Afanasieff acknowledges that the artist made it a very personal song. After she decided not to give the song away, she completed the lyric and made it her own. The producer went back to the soundtrack people and told them, "You know what? I didn't come up with anything." Estefan never heard the tune originally meant for her, and the song that ended up in the soundtrack was "Heart Of A Hero," written, produced and recorded by Luther Vandross.
Afanasieff and Carey came up with a couple of different versions of "Hero" in the studio. "There was a simpler performance on tape and a more difficult one, with Mariah singing out more, with more licks. But we chose a happy medium. The song really calls for not anything really fancy. But she's always fighting the forces inside of her because she's her own devil's advocate. She wants to do something that's so over the top and use her talents and the voice she has. But she also knows she has to restrain herself and do what the music really calls for.
Before the song hit number one on the Hot 100, Carey announced that she was donating the proceeds from the sale of the single to the families of the victims of a December 7 shooting rampage on the Long Island Rail Road. Three days after the tragedy, Carey was on stage at Madison Square Garden when she dedicated "Hero" to the three men who subdued the gunman. Carey, who had been a frequent passenger on the LIRR rush-hour ride out of the Penn Station, had been shocked by the senseless brutality of the incident. Afanasieff remembers the audience reaction: "We started playing the song, and there was a guy standing in the aisle and the light from the stage hit him. He was a grown man and he had tears streaming down his face. And I looked out and saw so many people crying and realized the power of the song."
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