| Swing Softly | ||||
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| Studio album by Johnny Mathis | ||||
| Released | 1958 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 31:53 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
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| Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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Swing Softly is the sixth album released by Johnny Mathis. It was his fifth original studio album (following the singles compilation Johnny's Greatest Hits).
Contents |
Departing from the lush ballad format of his previous pop albums "Wonderful Wonderful" and "Warm", Mathis proved that he could handle lightly swinging uptempo material in a credible fashion. Under the musical direction of Percy Faith, Mathis' expert vocals skillfully merge pop and jazz in the same way that established artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney were doing around this time. This was quite a feat considering that Mathis was only 23 in 1958 and had only been recording for 2 years at this point.
The album's strong sales continued Mathis' consecutive album chart entries peaking at #6 on the Billboard album chart in its original release.[1]
The album features many songs considered standards by composers such as Cole Porter "(It's De-Lovely" and "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To") and Harold Arlen ("I've Got The World On A String") while featuring Mathis' first recording of a George Gershwin song ("Love Walked In.") A self confessed fan of Nat King Cole, Mathis included a cover version of the Cole classic "Sweet Lorraine" on this album. The album also features songs originating from Hollywood ("This Heart of Mine") and Broadway ("Get Me to the Church on Time.")