If anything about Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” annoys you, best to avoid shopping malls now. Or the radio. Maybe music altogether, for that matter.

Her de ella 1994 carol de ella dominates holiday music like nothing else.

The Christmas colossus has reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart the past four years in a row — measuring the most popular songs each week by airplay, sales and streaming, not just the holiday-themed — and it's reasonable to assume 2023 will be no different One expert predicts it will soon exceed $100 million in earnings. Even its ringtone has sold millions.

“That song is just embedded in history now,” says David Foster, the 16-time Grammy-winning composer and producer. “It's embedded in Christmas. “When you think of Christmas right now, you think of that song.”

The song was originally released on Carey's 1994 Christmas album, but streaming services, technological changes and general holiday cheer have helped make it a hallmark of the Yuletide season only in recent years.

Carey's hit is so omnipresent that the Wall Street Journal wrote about retail workers driven batty by how many times it comes on in their stores, including one who retreats to the stockroom every time he hears the distinctive opening bells.

Yet the story behind “All I Want for Christmas is You” is not all holly and mistletoe.

The song's co-authors, Carey and Walter Afanasieff, are in a mystifying feud. The authors of a different song with the same title have sued seeking $20 million in damages. While Carey calls herself the Queen of Christmas, her bid to trademark that title failed.

Every year on Nov. 1, the song’s hibernation ends when Carey posts on social media that “it’s time” to play it again. This year’s message depicted her being freed from a block of ice to make the declaration.

In both music and lyrics, the song was perfectly engineered for success, says Joe Bennett, musicologist and professor at the Berklee College of Music.

At the time of its release, most new holiday music came from artists past their peak and looking for a new market. In 1994, though, Carey was at the top of her game.