No Johnny come lately
He’s on PBS, he’s on National Public Radio, he’s celebrating his 50th anniversary as an entertainer and now he’s coming to perform with the Spokane Symphony.
You might say that Johnny Mathis is back in the public eye. As for the public ear – he never left it.
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music says, “He has now had albums in the charts nearly every year for decades, a record not many will match.”
How did he do it? Having two enduringly popular Christmas albums didn’t hurt. But mostly, he has done it by keeping his music simple and heartfelt.
“I think we all want the same things,” said Mathis, 71, by phone from his West Hollywood home. “We want some love in our lives, we want some memories. I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
Another thing that will never change: The way an entire generation, which came of age in the 1950s, feels about Mathis’ early hits.
Those include what Mathis now laughingly calls “the Holy Trinity”: “Chances Are” (1957), “The Twelfth of Never” (1957) and “Misty” (1959).
“No one who was a teenager then will ever forget those hits, with his light baritone and unusual, fast vibrato lending a wistful, bittersweet quality to love songs,” says the Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
He’ll do the trinity with the symphony on Sunday, as well as a number of songs that are especially suited to orchestral arrangements.
“I like to take advantage of all of those violins,” said Mathis. “I tend to do songs like ‘Laura,’ which I recorded with a large orchestra.
“There’s also this one song that the audience really loves, in which the first words are, ‘I was born in San Francisco,’ and it goes on about the Bay Area.”
It’s a virtual Mathis biography – he was born in San Francisco and spent his youth hanging out in the city’s jazz clubs – except for one thing.
“I didn’t write it and it wasn’t written for me,” he said. “It was written by a man who said it was the only song he ever wrote. But it’s amazing how it fits my life.”
Mathis’ father was a vaudeville singer and he grew up loving music of all genres.
“My dad listened to country and western,” he said. “I grew up studying classical music, so that has stayed with me.
“My brothers listened to jazz. I met, at the age of 12 or 13, Erroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. I have such great respect for them.”
Mathis became well-known as a high-schooler, but not just for music. He was a national-class high-jumper, hurdler and basketball player who had to forgo the Olympic trials in 1956 to do his first recording sessions. His first hit was “Wonderful! Wonderful!” in 1957, when he was 21.
His 20th and final Top 40 single came in 1982: “Friends in Love,” a duet with Dionne Warwick. Since then he has cut back on recording, instead devoting his energies to two of the activities he loves best.
“I perform in concerts and I’m a golfer,” said Mathis. “It takes so much time to play golf that I have found that my concert schedule and my golf makes a nice lifestyle for me.”
With the new attention he has been receiving from his recent PBS special, that lifestyle is being threatened.
“Now I have to make time for my golf because I am doing so many performances,” said Mathis.
He still loves performing the songs from his prodigious back catalog, which have weathered the decades well.
“The only trepidation I have is to make sure I can perform them,” he said. “Many nights when I go on stage, the thing that is foremost in my mind is whether I can hit the high note in ‘Misty.’ “
His worries are mostly unfounded. Mathis said he has taken care of his voice over the years and when he steps in front of a full orchestra, he doesn’t feel intimidated.
“I know it’s going to be a pleasant experience for both of us,” he said.