Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is one of the most popular and recognizable holiday songs, so much so that it still tops the Billboard Hot 100 during the holiday season decades after it was released. (And now it's probably stuck in your head. Sorry, not sorry!)
But earlier this year, Carey was sued for the 1994 song by Andy Stone, an artist who performs under the name Vince Vance in the country group Vince Vance & the Valiants, according to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. He accused Carey, the song's co-writer, and Sony Music Entertainment of ripping off his own tune, and sought $60 million in damages for copyright infringement and unjust enrichment, among other allegations.
Stone's song, which is also called "All I Want for Christmas Is You," was released in 1989 and was played extensively on the radio during the holiday season in 1993, according to Stone, the year before Carey's version was released. Carey's tune was a derivative version of Stone's song "in terms of the lyrics, melody, harmonic language, rhythm, and meter," the complaint said.
But on Nov. 1, Stone and his attorneys filed to dismiss the case, dropping it entirely — at least for now. It was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled, Reuters reported. And though the queen of Christmas pop music appears to be off the hook, as of Nov. 2, Carey and her attorneys had not responded to the dismissal in court.
