While choosing new material to record for her first compilation, "#1's", Mariah Carey decided to cover "I Still Believe" as a tribute to Brenda K Starr, as she had been Starr's backing singer in the late 1980s and Starr had helped jump-start Carey's career by handing a demo tape to CBS Records executive Tommy Mottola, who had then signed Carey to her first recording contract. She explained that the song "reminds me of the fact that not long ago I was a teenage girl with nothing to my name but a demo tape, my voice, and my ability to write songs. Brenda K. Starr treated me like a 'star' and gave me a shot." During an interview for "Entertainment Tonight," she further commented: