Vince Vance has sued Mariah Carey over “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Again.
According to published reports from Reuters and other news outlets, Vance has refiled a lawsuit alleging that Carey’s omnipresent seasonal hit, which was first released in 1994, violates the copyright of an older song with the same title that Vance co-wrote.
The tall-haired New Orleans entertainer, using his legal name, Andy Stone, initially sued Carey over “Christmas” in June 2022 in federal court in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
He withdrew that suit Nov. 1, 2022, without prejudice, which left the door open for it to be refiled.
He’s apparently done just that – but in a different state. His new suit, in which he is joined by his song’s co-writer, Troy Powers, was filed this week in federal court in the Central District of California.
Vince Vance performs as the French Quarter Easter Parade rolls in the French Quarter on Sunday, April 9, 2023. (Photo by Scott Threlkeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
In addition to Carey, who will soon embark on a 13-date holiday themed tour, the suit names her label, Sony Music, and Universal Music Group, which owns publishing rights to Carey’s song.
Valiant and Powers are seeking in excess of $20 million, a hefty share of the enormous revenue Carey’s recording has generated over nearly 30 years.
Vince Vance & the Valiants’ “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” first released in 1989, cracked Billboard’s country singles chart multiple times in the 1990s and was recently covered by Kelly Clarkson.
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But Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is a global juggernaut. Arguably the most successful holiday-themed song of the past 30 years, it has rung up more than 1 billion – that’s billion, with a “b” – streams on Spotify and has sold more than 10 million copies in just the United States.
Her “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was also a hit for Justin Bieber and Michael Bublé, generating even more millions of dollars in royalties.
Making himself into Vince Vance
Born Andrew Franichevich Jr. in Oakland, Calif., Stone/Valiant moved to New Orleans as a young boy and graduated from Francis T. Nicholls High School. He majored in English and music at Southeastern Louisiana University, then took a job as the band director at Donaldsonville High School while moonlighting as a piano player on Bourbon Street.
One night in the summer of 1971, he was approached by a group of waiters who had started a ’50s-style doo-wop novelty act along the lines of Sha Na Na. He signed on as the keyboardist and musical director for the newly christened Vince Vance & the Valiants. The Valiants’ first gig was Sept. 18, 1971, at Your Father’s Mustache in the 400 block of Bourbon Street.
He initially wanted to be the music director and songwriting as the original "Vince Vance," James Etienne Viator, occupied the spotlight. But by 1974, the former Andrew Franichevich had assumed the role and remade the character as a wild, Jerry Lee Lewis-like firebrand. He played keyboards behind his back and wore animal skins onstage.
Prior to a 1975 gig in Phoenix, he brushed his hair straight up and sprayed it in place. That up-do became his visual trademark. Decades later, he still rides aboard a signature float in the Krewe of Okeanos parade featuring an oversized likeness of his head with the skyscraper hair.
This year he also took part in the MadHatters parade in Metairie and the Easter parade in the French Quarter.
Dozens of Valiants have passed through the band, but Stone is the star. Playing more than 100 shows annually for years, often at corporate and other private functions, he traveled with multiple cases of props and costumes. He and his Valiants, he’s said, “live a vaudevillian existence, making a living by singing and dancing and being comedic.”
Years ago, he changed his legal name to Andy Stone, which he had used as a songwriting pen name. He has written goofy Saints songs (“Gris-Gris on the Other Team”) and goofy political songs. His “Bomb Iran,” set to the melody of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann," was omnipresent during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-‘81. He later cooked up “Bomb Iraq," based on the Coasters’ “Yakety Yak.”
He co-wrote “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with Powers, who is party to the new lawsuit. Recorded in Nashville with Lisa Layne on lead vocals, the Valiants' "All I Want for Christmas Is You” appeared on Billboard’s country singles chart six times in the 1990s, climbing as high as No. 31. LeAnn Rimes and Sammy Kershaw, among others, covered it.
During a 2011 interview prior to Vince Vance & the Valiants’ 40th anniversary celebration at Rock 'n' Bowl, Stone said he could still live off his annual “All I Want For Christmas Is You” royalties “if I wanted to live poor.”
Kelly Clarkson released her version of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as a single in 2020; it also appeared as a bonus track on her 2021 album “When Christmas Comes Around…” In social media posts, she specifically stated that she was covering the Vince Vance & the Valiants song.
The royalties that Stone earned from Clarkson’s cover of his song pale in comparison to what Carey and her frequent co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, have made from their “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
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