Johnny Mathis Albums (66)
'Up, Up and Away'
Release Date 6/9/2009
Tracks 32
Label Collectors' Choice Music
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'Winter Wonderland'
Release Date 8/29/2005
Tracks 10
Label Sony Special Products
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What The Critics Say
In case you've lost track (or were never keeping track), this is Johnny Mathis' sixth newly recorded Christmas album following Merry Christmas (1958), The Sound of Christmas (1963), Give Me Your Love for Christmas (1969), For Christmas (1984), and Christmas Eve With Johnny Mathis (1986). If it seems like there have been even more, that's because of repackagings: Such titles as Christmas with Johnny Mathis, Christmas Is..., and The Christmas Music of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection are compilations drawn from the previous original five. So, maybe this 2002 collection should be called "A Christmas Album" instead of The Christmas Album. Definitive yet generic, that title isn't likely to distinguish the disc for buyers browsing the holiday sections of their local record stores. You might think that Mathis would have trouble finding Christmas evergreens to record the sixth time through, but somehow he doesn't seem to have gotten around to "Joy to the World," "Away in a Manger," "Frosty the Snowman," "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," or "Merry Christmas" before. He has commissioned one new one, Tom Snow and Dean Pitchford's pleasant "Heavenly Peace," and pressed into service other non-holiday standards, such as Irving Berlin's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and '40s bandleader Claude Thornhill's theme song "Snowfall." And since the album only contains ten tracks and runs a mere half an hour, that's enough. Backed by the Irish Film Orchestra, which can be alternately lush and swinging, Mathis creates yet another winning collection. It isn't a match for his classic first one, Merry Christmas, but it's still very good. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Though Johnny Mathis has recorded many individual songs from Broadway musicals over the years, the last time he devoted an entire album to them was 1960's The Rhythms and Ballads of Broadway, and the geography of the street has changed a lot since then. The Broadway of 2000 is a tourist attraction boasting a variety of kinds of musicals that were not available 40 years ago: oversized European operettas like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera and American copycats like Jekyll & Hyde; Disney extravaganzas like The Lion King; retrospective anthology shows like Fosse; and rock musicals like Rent, along with revues of old rock & roll songs like Smokey Joe's Café. It is music from such disparate sources that Mathis combines on Mathis on Broadway, fearlessly crossing barriers of style and quality. Wisely, he gets the ringers out of the way up front. "On Broadway," despite its title, is a 1963 pop song interpolated in Smokey Joe's Café, but it comes from an era Mathis is comfortable with and it serves as an excellent introduction. "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" is a Broadway song, first heard in the 1931 edition of George White's Scandals, though its reason for being here is its inclusion in Fosse, and Mathis' playful reading is accompanied by the quartet from the show Forever Plaid. The rest of the album consists of songs actually written for and included in musicals of the '80s and '90s, and Mathis successfully smoothes over the wildly divergent styles, singing Stephen Sondheim's "Loving You" from Passion as though it were a simpler, more tuneful song than it is, using "They Live in You" from The Lion King as a exotic change of pace, lowering the key of "Bring Him Home" from Les Misérables so that it no longer sounds like a vocal exercise for a castrato. One of Mathis' talents has always been an ability to incorporate many different styles into his own; for a non-rock singer who emerged in the rock era, it's been a necessity. Here, that talent serves to make the music of Frank Wildhorn, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Jonathan Larson sound like it all belongs on the same musical street, just as those composers' shows have occupied the same square mile of property in New York City. It's a sleight of hand, of course, and that may be one reason why Mathis on Broadway is so short, running only 33 minutes, which, for a new, full-priced CD, is very skimpy. Maybe Mathis just couldn't find any more songs without exploding the album's fragile concept. (Okay, it's more likely that song publishing royalties kept the tune count down.) In any case, the lesser talents among the composers -- Lloyd Webber, Wildhorn, Claude-Michel Schönberg -- owe Mathis a debt for making their music sound so good, while Sondheim can be grateful that Mathis makes him sound so accessible. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Because You Loved Me: Songs of Diane Warren'
Release Date 10/20/1998
Tracks 10
Label Sony
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What The Critics Say
Since Diane Warren was the most successful songwriter of the '90s, it is surprising that nobody devoted an entire album to her songs until Johnny Mathis did in 1998. Of course, Warren's renown was slow to build, since she achieved her success the old-fashioned way, by writing and pitching her songs, but not actually recording them herself. Still, by 1996, when Warren's songs occupied the top of the charts for ten weeks (six weeks with Celine Dion's recording of "Because You Loved Me" and the first four weeks of an 11-week run by Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart"), even casual pop music fans could tell you who she was. She is the queen of the contemporary romantic ballad, whether performed by pop, rock, country, or R&B performers (indeed, her songs have proven readily adaptable to all genres). They are characterized by slow or loping tempos, strong hooks, and nakedly emotional lyrics, pop songwriting craftsmanship at its best (or, depending on your point of view, its most contrived). Could any material be better suited to Johnny Mathis, a singer who has devoted his career to love songs, feelingly rendering them in his immediately identifiable tremulous tenor? Not surprisingly, Mathis showed tremendous affinity for Warren's songs, choosing ten of them from among the songwriter's many hits, from 1989's "All I Want Is Forever" (originally taken into the R&B Top Ten by James "J.T." Taylor and Regina Belle) to "Un-Break My Heart." Since Warren has managed to place her songs well with exceptional singers who did them justice, Mathis didn't really improve on any of the original recordings. Rather, in the manner of the old days of non-writing singers and non-singing songwriters, he rendered the songs in his familiar style for his fans. Of course, we now live in a time when songs tend to be identified with specific recordings by specific singers, which diminishes the impact of Mathis' achievement. Though the album works as a songbook, one wonders why Mathis didn't commission ten new songs from Warren, giving him the chance of scoring a hit. Still, this is a distinguished step on Diane Warren's path to full recognition of her talents, and a typically high-quality effort from Mathis as well. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
This 1963 album was Johnny's first with arranger/bandleader Don Costa, and it's one of his best. It's a nice blend of standards, show tunes and then-new compositions, with Costa's arrangements fitting like a glove around Mathis' pipes. Everything on here works just fine, but pay special attention to "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," "I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me," Cole Porter's "I Love You," and Duke Ellington's "Jump for Joy." No big hits on here, maybe, but a more solid track-by-track Johnny Mathis album you'd be hard pressed to find. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide
'How Do You Keep the Music Playing'
Release Date 5/4/1993
Tracks 11
Label Columbia
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What The Critics Say
Eleven heavily string-orchestrated renditions of Alan & Marilyn Bergman and Michel LeGrand tunes such as "Something New in My Life," "Summer Me, Winter Me" and "Something in the Way She Makes Me Feel." LeGrand plays the ivories as a backdrop to Mathis's unctuous vocal delivery. ~ Bil Carpenter, All Music Guide
'The Best Days of My Life'
Release Date 10/25/1990
Tracks 10
Label Sony
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