Johnny Mathis (album)
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| Studio album by Johnny Mathis | ||||
| Released | July 16, 1956 | |||
| Recorded | March 14, 1956 – April 6, 1956 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 45:17 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | George Avakian | |||
| Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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| Johnny Mathis | ||||
UK album cover
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| Allmusic |
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Johnny Mathis is the debut studio album by vocalist Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records in 1956. The subtitle A New Sound in Popular Song can be found on the back cover but not on the front of the album or the disc label; in fact, this Mathis LP has been referred to as "the jazz album".
This release did not make it onto Billboard magazine's Best Selling Pop Albums chart, which had 15 positions available at the time.
Columbia/Legacy released the album on compact disc for the first time as a 40th Anniversary Edition on May 7, 1996, and included a previously unreleased recording of "I'm Glad There Is You".
In the UK the album was originally issued by Fontana Records with alternate artwork and a different track listing. On May 14, 2001, this version had its first pressing on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being its 1957 follow-up, Wonderful Wonderful.
In the liner notes for the original album, Columbia Records executive and album producer George Avakian wrote of a visit to a nightclub to hear Mathis during a trip to San Francisco in the summer of 1955: "I gave in to the blandishments of my good friend Helen Noga... and agreed to go listen to a 19-year-old local boy." The young singer's talent was immediately apparent: "Before Johnny finished his second song, I knew I was going to sign him.... Obviously he had more training than most pop singers; his extraordinary breath control and sweeping range indicated that. He could do as many different things as four very different singers might, and do them well. All he needed was experience and seasoning." Avakian knew this would take time and returned in January 1956 to see how his skills were developing. "Johnny's repertoire, already unusually broad, had grown enormously, and so had his poise and control. He had learned what to do with his hands, how to make and maintain close contact with his audience, and to program his songs most effectively. Best of all, he had grown so much in quality that I had no doubt that the time had come to record."
Avakian also described what he had in mind for this project: "I visualized a series of intimate small-band sessions with a variety of arrangers, each given carte blanche as to instrumentation and treatment within the overall interpretation of each song as taped as a guide by Johnny in San Francisco." As the head of the jazz department at Columbia, however, he had developed an ear for that vocal style. "Johnny's singing is thoroughly jazz-oriented, so naturally arrangers were chosen who had a thorough command of the jazz idiom, as well as the ability to write imaginatively for a pop vocalist." He explained that these arrangers had "done a certain amount of what might be called experimental writing. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that these arrangements contain many elements seldom encountered in pop vocal accompaniments."
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Wikipedia