Johnny Mathis Sings
| Johnny Mathis Sings | ||||
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| Studio album by Johnny Mathis | ||||
| Released | 1967 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Producer | Johnny Mathis | |||
| Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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Johnny Mathis Sings is the 26th original studio album released by singer Johnny Mathis, and his tenth and final album for Mercury Records. Following this album, he would return to Columbia Records, his recording home from 1956-63.
Overview
For this album, Mathis continues recording in the same style as he last few albums for Mercury Records, including cover versions of contemporary song hits, songs from recent films and one show tune.
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    link |
Track listing
- "Saturday Sunshine" - 2:35
- "Lovers in New York" - 3:21
- "Eleanor Rigby" - 2:54
- "Sunny" - 4:16
- "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" - 2:39
- "Strangers in the Night" - 3:30
- "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" - 2:42
- "Somewhere My Love" (From Doctor Zhivago) - 3:22
- "Who Can Say" - 2:50
- "I Wish You Love" - 4:20
- "The Second Time Around" - 3:12
- "Wake the Town and Tell the People" - 2:50
Billboard Charts
This album peaked at #103 on the Billboard album chart, Mathis' 30th album to place on the chart and his lowest placing original studio album to this point on the chart.[1]
Highlights
Burt Bacharach had contributed a number of songs for Mathis albums in the late 1950s including the title tunes to both Heavenly and Warm. Bacharach would become a major force in the music world in the 1960s with a string of hits with lyricist Hal David often recorded by singer Dionne Warwick who in turn would record a number of duets with Mathis in the 1980s. For this album, Mathis recorded two Bacharach/David songs: "Saturday Sunshine" and "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me". One of the biggest hits of the 1960s and one of the most covered songs of all time is "Sunny" by Bobby Hebb. Mathis performs it for this album as an evocative ballad. Another mega hit of the period was The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", the third in a continuing line of cover versions of Beatles songs that Mathis would record while "Strangers in the Night was a recent #1 hit for Frank Sinatra.
The album also contains three movie songs: "Somewhere My Love" is from the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago while "The Second Time Around" is from the 1960 film High Time. The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's included the Academy Award winning song "Moon River" which Mathis would include on his 1968 album Love Is Blue. Another theme included in the film was "Lovers in New York" which he included on this album. From Broadway comes "Who Can I Turn To?" from The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd.