Ben Margulies

Ben Margulies is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and a RIAA nine-time platinum certified record producer. He is best known for co-writing, arranging, and producing Mariah Carey's first album, Mariah Carey.

Margulies began his musical career as a session drummer for the New York new wave trio Comateens, and joined their 1983 European tour to promote their Pictures on a String album. That same year, he also made an appearance in their music video "Get Off My Case".

Margulies met Mariah Carey while she was an unsigned artist through a mutual friend of Carey's brother Morgan. Together, Margulies and Carey wrote over twenty songs, five of which were compiled into a demo tape recorded in Margulies' makeshift studio in the back of his father's workshop. On the strength of this tape, Carey was signed to Sony in 1988.

Carey's 1990 first album, Mariah Carey, was a smash hit. Seven of its ten songs, and three of its four number one hits, were Carey-Margulies compositions. "Vision of Love" was nominated for Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. That same year, "Love Takes Time" was also awarded the BMI Pop Awards "Song of the Year".

In the following year, however, Carey’s and Margulies’ collaboration ended over a financial dispute. Before recording their demo, Carey had signed a contract that entitled Margulies to half the proceeds she made from any recordings involving his material, in addition to songwriting royalties. According to one of Carey's biographers,

...
Wikipedia