Sing-On-TheBeat
May 22, 2024 6:45 PM Subscribe
Adam Reader interviews Johnny Mathis. (16m slyt)
I believe the interview is from 2018 and re-edited in 2022.
I believe the interview is from 2018 and re-edited in 2022.
I love Christmas/holiday music, despite not being religious (at least not in a Christian sense) at all. I've collected a lot of good winter holiday music (and I'm kind of "anything goes" -- classic is good, weird is good, all is good). I tend to add at least one or two to my collection per year.
Last year, I asked for recommendations and I got too many. I didn't buy them all, but my sister-in-law recommended Johnny Mathis, which, yes, was a gap.
It's truly one of my favorite holiday albums. Such a voice! His "O Holy Night" really made me wish I was religious. It made me feel religious!
He's such a delight.
posted by edencosmic at 7:39 PM on May 22 [4 favorites]
Last year, I asked for recommendations and I got too many. I didn't buy them all, but my sister-in-law recommended Johnny Mathis, which, yes, was a gap.
It's truly one of my favorite holiday albums. Such a voice! His "O Holy Night" really made me wish I was religious. It made me feel religious!
He's such a delight.
posted by edencosmic at 7:39 PM on May 22 [4 favorites]
He was always in the shadow of Nat King Cole for me, but he had a lovely voice.
posted by rikschell at 7:57 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]
posted by rikschell at 7:57 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]
Johnny Mathis records were a staple in our household growing up. Of course, I eschewed them for cooler music when I became a teenager, but by then his voice was indelibly encoded into the furrows of my gray matter, and there was no denying that his was the voice of an angel, and now as an ostensibly grown up person I occasionally want to sonically bathe in the voice of an angel.
Imagine my surprise, watching this interview, that this angel is also one hundred percent a person I would love to have a beer with. Really a delightful guy.
posted by vverse23 at 8:46 PM on May 22 [2 favorites]
Imagine my surprise, watching this interview, that this angel is also one hundred percent a person I would love to have a beer with. Really a delightful guy.
posted by vverse23 at 8:46 PM on May 22 [2 favorites]
It's truly one of my favorite holiday albums. Such a voice! His "O Holy Night" really made me wish I was religious.
His holiday album is one of the main 3 that Mom used to play around the house when I was a kid; but only the first side. Our record player was set to let you stack records on top of each other, but only drop one down to the turntable at a time; so she would stack his album, Barbara Streisand's, and the Beach Boys' album on the record player and then let them go while she was doing the housework or other Christmas prep, so we'd end up hearing side 1 of the Beach Boys followed by side 1 of Johnny Mathis, followed by Barbara. She probably meant to then turn all three over to side 2 and let them go as well but never really seemed to.
So I've heard a lot of side 1 of Johnny Mathis' Christmas album. His "O Holy Night" was on side 2; side 1 had mostly cutesy covers of things like "Winter Wonderland" and "Sleigh Ride", and - I'm sorry, he seems like a nice guy and he's got a fantastic voice, but I cannot stand those songs. "You Belong To Me" or "Chances Are" or "Wonderful, Wonderful" I have no problem with. "Sleigh Ride" makes me want to spit tacks.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:09 AM on May 23 [2 favorites]
His holiday album is one of the main 3 that Mom used to play around the house when I was a kid; but only the first side. Our record player was set to let you stack records on top of each other, but only drop one down to the turntable at a time; so she would stack his album, Barbara Streisand's, and the Beach Boys' album on the record player and then let them go while she was doing the housework or other Christmas prep, so we'd end up hearing side 1 of the Beach Boys followed by side 1 of Johnny Mathis, followed by Barbara. She probably meant to then turn all three over to side 2 and let them go as well but never really seemed to.
So I've heard a lot of side 1 of Johnny Mathis' Christmas album. His "O Holy Night" was on side 2; side 1 had mostly cutesy covers of things like "Winter Wonderland" and "Sleigh Ride", and - I'm sorry, he seems like a nice guy and he's got a fantastic voice, but I cannot stand those songs. "You Belong To Me" or "Chances Are" or "Wonderful, Wonderful" I have no problem with. "Sleigh Ride" makes me want to spit tacks.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:09 AM on May 23 [2 favorites]
Well, today I discovered that Johnny Mathis is still alive, so there's that.
posted by briank at 5:55 AM on May 23 [1 favorite]
posted by briank at 5:55 AM on May 23 [1 favorite]
He never thought of his music as romantic? That's hilarious.
Mathis is probably one of the first things my folks bonded over. Dad proposed to Mom with "12th of Never" in the background. By some luck, Dad was able to get a signed pic of him for my Mom for (I think) her 40th birthday. They see him whenever he's in town.
I had a major cringe moment as a kid when my Mom told me that was their background music when they were, uh, "trying" to make me. lol
I still think there should be a band who covers Mathis songs at twice the speed. Dad says that's blasphemy. ;)
posted by luckynerd at 10:52 AM on May 23
Mathis is probably one of the first things my folks bonded over. Dad proposed to Mom with "12th of Never" in the background. By some luck, Dad was able to get a signed pic of him for my Mom for (I think) her 40th birthday. They see him whenever he's in town.
I had a major cringe moment as a kid when my Mom told me that was their background music when they were, uh, "trying" to make me. lol
I still think there should be a band who covers Mathis songs at twice the speed. Dad says that's blasphemy. ;)
posted by luckynerd at 10:52 AM on May 23
Back when I was in a stoner-rock band, we listened to Open Fire Two Guitars at our stoner hangout a lot (that and Scott 3).
posted by ovvl at 4:10 PM on May 23
posted by ovvl at 4:10 PM on May 23
To my mind, the best Johnny Mathis album was his eponymous first album
Johhny Mathis
featuring among others
Johnny Mathis -- Street of Dreams
Johnny Mathis - Easy to Love
Johnny Mathis -- It Might As Well Be Spring
Thereafter Columbia records repeated with Johnny Mathis what Capitol Records did to the Nat King Cole Trio -- forced the singers to record album after album full of treacly syrupy string laden orchestral arrangements that could not hold a candle to the grace and art of their first jazz recordings.
posted by y2karl at 6:56 PM on May 24 [1 favorite]
Johhny Mathis
featuring among others
Johnny Mathis -- Street of Dreams
Johnny Mathis - Easy to Love
Johnny Mathis -- It Might As Well Be Spring
Thereafter Columbia records repeated with Johnny Mathis what Capitol Records did to the Nat King Cole Trio -- forced the singers to record album after album full of treacly syrupy string laden orchestral arrangements that could not hold a candle to the grace and art of their first jazz recordings.
posted by y2karl at 6:56 PM on May 24 [1 favorite]
To my mind, the best Johnny Mathis album was his eponymous first album
Yeah, I think there's a good argument to be made there, though I have to say I love his early pop music too. I loved his anecdote of Mitch Miller trying to "square up" his phrasing by tapping the beat on his back. Can't let those crazy jazz rhythms get too out of control, there!
I do wonder how much his sexuality affected his career. When I first heard him, as a kid in the 70s, his being gay seemed to be something of an open secret. It always prefaced any discussion about him among the people I knew (my extended family). A sort of, "you can listen to him, but let's get this fact straightened out first" kind of trigger warning, if you will. The women all swooned, the men gave a puzzled side eye. Yeah, it was weird. If it were widely known, it may be one of those odd exceptions of the era where a career is unaffected, possibly even enhanced by homosexuality.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:16 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I think there's a good argument to be made there, though I have to say I love his early pop music too. I loved his anecdote of Mitch Miller trying to "square up" his phrasing by tapping the beat on his back. Can't let those crazy jazz rhythms get too out of control, there!
I do wonder how much his sexuality affected his career. When I first heard him, as a kid in the 70s, his being gay seemed to be something of an open secret. It always prefaced any discussion about him among the people I knew (my extended family). A sort of, "you can listen to him, but let's get this fact straightened out first" kind of trigger warning, if you will. The women all swooned, the men gave a puzzled side eye. Yeah, it was weird. If it were widely known, it may be one of those odd exceptions of the era where a career is unaffected, possibly even enhanced by homosexuality.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:16 AM on May 25 [1 favorite]
Absolutely. He got a pass in a time that rarely happened. But then he was a fountain of talent with the most beautiful voice. How could he not? He then became a package, a product. Hearing him sing to swinging arrangements by the likes of Gil Evans and Teo Macero on the jazz album is like a glimpse of a lost continent.
posted by y2karl at 1:53 PM on May 25
posted by y2karl at 1:53 PM on May 25
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posted by 2N2222 at 6:48 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]