There's Got to Be a Way
"
There's Got to Be a Way" is a song written by American singer
Mariah Carey and
Ric Wake, and produced by Wake for Carey's debut album
Mariah Carey (1990). Carey had lobbied to co-produce the song, but was denied permission by her record label
Sony/
Columbia. The protagonist of this
dance song declares "There's got to be a way to connect this world today" and pleads for other ways to help fix the state of the world. It is one of Carey's few socially conscious songs, and deals with
racism and
poverty.
It was released as the album's fifth and final
single in the second quarter of 1991 (see
1991 in music) in the
United Kingdom and some other
European markets. To maintain a then-unbroken string of
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, "There's Got to Be a Way" was not released in the United States. Consequently, the song received little promotion and it became not only one of the least successful singles from
Mariah Carey, but one of the biggest commercial failures of Carey's career. It was released instead of "
I Don't Wanna Cry" for the UK market and failed even to reach the top forty, which her previous three singles had all managed. It peaked at number fifty-four, making a brief appearance in the top seventy-five.
The single's
video, directed by
Larry Jordan, starts off with Carey walking the streets as she laments homeless people and racism. She is soon joined by friends, and they all break into an
impromptu dance in the street.
Remixes of the song were commissioned by
Shep Pettibone.
*
Lyrics for the album version
