Close to You (Johnny Mathis album)

Close To You
Studio album by Johnny Mathis
Released 1970
Genre Pop
Label Columbia
Producer Jack Gold
Johnny Mathis chronology
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
(1970)		 Close to You
(1970)		 Sings the Music of Bacharach & Kaempfert
(1970)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All Music Review(?) [1]

Close To You is the thirty-third original studio album released by singer Johnny Mathis.

Overview

Once again combining film songs with covers of recent hits, Mathis is heard on this album under the musical direction of Ernie Freeman. As with much of his output on Columbia Records at this time, Mathis is strictly in adult contemporary mode on this album.

Track listing

  1. "(They Long to Be) Close to You" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
  2. "Evil Ways" (Sonny Henry)
  3. "Come Saturday Morning (From "The Sterile Cuckoo")" (Fred Karlin, Dory Previn)
  4. "Yellow Days" (Emilie A. Bernstein)
  5. "Pieces of Dreams (From Pieces of Dreams)"
  6. "Song of Joy (Himno a la Alegria)" (Alan Bergman, Michel Legrand)
  7. "Everything Is Beautiful" (Ray Stevens)
  8. "The Long and Winding Road" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
  9. "(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?"
  10. "Wave" (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
  11. "Until It's Time for You to Go" (Buffy Santie Marie)

Billboard charts

This album peaked at #61 on the Billboard album chart, Mathis' thirty-ninth album to place on the chart.[2] Mathis also enjoyed two hit singles from this album, with "Pieces Of Dreams" peaking at #9 and "Evil Ways" reaching #30 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.[3]

Formats Released

This album was released as a LP, Reel to Reel, and Cassette.

Highlights

The work of two songwriting teams featured on previous Mathis recordings is heard on this album. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the title song back in 1963 but it was not until 1970 that it became a #1 hit when recorded by The Carpenters. Alan and Marilyn Bergman's lyrics have been interpreted many times over the years by Mathis. Here, he performs their "Pieces Of Dreams", which had been featured in the 1970 film of the same name. Songs performed by The Beatles also feature on a number of Mathis albums around this time. Here, he includes "The Long and Winding Road", which was also used as the album's name in the UK.

Where more than half of his previous album had been made up of film songs, for this set only one such song is featured. "Come Saturday Morning" was heard in the 1969 film The Sterile Cuckoo starring a young Liza Minnelli.

Popular song hits covered by Mathis on this album include "Evil Ways", a top-ten hit for Santana, "Until It's Time for You to Go" by singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie and "Everything Is Beautiful", a hit for Ray Stevens, who would in turn would find success with a cover Mathis' "Misty". Adding an international twist to the mix are "Song of Joy (Himno a la Alegria)", a #14 hit for Miguel Ríos and Antonio Carlos Jobim's song "Wave".

References

  1. ↑ "Close to You - Johnny Mathis". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  2. ↑ All Music Billboard Album Chart Position
  3. ↑ Johnny Mathis Hit Singles Billboard Singles Chart Positions

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, December 03, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.