Search - Johnny Mathis :: Johnny Mathis Sings The Standards

IT'S DE-LOVELY INDEED !!!

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 04/02/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Johnny Mathis Sings The Standards is an excellent CD although I do wish they had added a couple more songs to the track set. However, what we do get here is very high quality control Mathis--he's in excellent form and the quality of the sound is excellent. The artwork is very pretty, too.



The CD starts with Johnny singing so well on "The Folks Who Live On The Hill." This very romantic love song is perfect for slow dancing with your sweetheart late at night all alone in your living room. Johnny delivers this with great sensitivity and I'm loving every minute of it! "Love" is a great number that many people have performed--including Lena Horne; and they'd all be proud of Johnny as he belts this out--straight out of the ballpark! Johnny handles the tempo and key changes effortlessly like the pro he was and still remains!



"It's De-Lovely," a Cole Porter tune, gets the royal treatment from Johnny who delivers this with panache, heart and soul. The big band style arrangement works well for this number; it all holds its own very well. "Stars Fell On Alabama" sounds fresh and new when Johnny sings this to perfection; he never sings a superfluous note and the music that accompanies him fits in just right to make this a very memorable tune.



"Day In Day Out" showcases Johnny front and center; this relentlessly happy tune features a fine energetic tempo and Johnny again belts this out using all the operatic qualities of his voice!



"How High The Moon" features some beautiful music from the wind instruments and the strings; this classic love song shines brilliantly as Johnny Mathis delivers it flawlessly. There's also Johnny performing "I Won't Dance;" this tune sounds great when Johnny Mathis sings it and it makes for a huge hit on this album.



Johnny Mathis fans will rejoice at this album. However, they may have these ballads already in their collections. Perhaps this CD is best geared toward the casual fan or the newcomers who are just discovering the magical artistry of Johnny Mathis. I do wish, however, that they had added a song or two to this album; but this is a minor disappointment.

"

Chances are Mathis fans will enjoy these covers of oldies...

Alex Diaz-Granados | Miami, FL United States | 01/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Standard: a musical composition (as a song) that has become a part of the standard repertoire.Ever since the late 1950s, Johnny Mathis has been singing songs about loves won and lost ("The Twelfth of Never," "Misty," and "Chances Are") with lush instrumental accompaniment and that recognizable and much parodied voice. Like the late Nat "King" Cole, Mathis uses his voice to good effect when performing romantic ballads (I can't imagine Johnny attempting, say, hip hop or reggae).In this unassumingly packaged Sony Music Special Products offering, Mathis sings 10 standards written by such musical luminaries as Oscar Hammerstein, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. Starting with the Hammerstein/Kern collaboration "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" and concluding with "You'd Better Go Now," Mathis takes the listener back to an era when love songs wore their heart on their figurative sleeves and young girls wore sweaters, poodle skirts, bobby socks, and saddle Oxford shoes.I have heard many standards in my time, and even performed a few when I sang in my high school chorus, but I have to admit that I was only familiar with Cole Porter's "It's De-Lovely" and Nancy Hamilton-Morgan Lewis' "How High The Moon," (my favorite track) so for me listening to this CD was like stepping into musical terra incognita. And like the explorers of the Age of Discovery, I was able to discover a modest (34:41) treasure trove of relaxing and romantic ballads.Even though this is part of a 3-disc box set, Sony Music Special Products' division skimped on the packaging and did not even include basic liner notes.Nevertheless, Johnny Mathis Sings the Standards is still worth a listen for fans of this gentler pop music genre."

No Hit CD

Stephen Sanders | San Francisco, CA United States | 06/06/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I like Johnny Mathis. His voice can be thrilling to listen to. I received this CD second hand. It is a "Sony Music Special Product." Unfortunately Sony did not put any information with the CD. There is a cheap, B&W picture of Johnny Mathis on the cover. He deserves better!! Sony spent very little money on the packaging. The songs are from his early years, and there are no hits. I continue to listen to Johnny Mathis from his early years up to his latest CDs. I would love to hear him in person...preferably singing in my ear."