Johnny Mathis & his two finest songs

I enjoyed Johnny Mathis perform LIVE on the NBC Tonight Show, July 30, 1981.

John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his career with singles of standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as an album artist, with several of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts.

Mathis has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three recordings. Although frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Latin American, soul, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, soft rock, blues, country music, and even a few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic in 1979. Mathis has also recorded seven albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, he cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences.

In June 1957, Mathis appeared on the TV program The Ed Sullivan Show, which helped increase his popularity. Later that year, Mathis released his second single to sell one million copies, “Chances Are“. In November, he released “Wild Is the Wind“, which featured in the film of the same title and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis performed the song at the ceremony in March 1958.

The week before Mathis appeared at the Academy Awards, Johnny’s Greatest Hits was released. The album spent an unprecedented 490 consecutive weeks (nearly nine and a half years) on the Billboard top 200 album charts, including three weeks at number one. It held the record for the most weeks on the top Billboard 200 albums in the U.S. for 15 years, until Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side of the Moon (March 1973) reached 491 weeks in October 1983.

Later in 1958, Mathis made his second film appearance for 20th Century Fox, singing the song “A Certain Smile“ in the film of that title. The song was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. By the end of the year, Mathis was set to earn $1 million a year. Critics called him “the velvet voice”. In 1959, Mathis released his album Heavenly, which topped the Billboard album chart for five weeks during its historic 295-week run.

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