Johnny Mathis - Better Together: The Duet Album '1991

Tracks list

	Tracklist

01. Better Together
02. You Brought Me Love
03. Too Much, Too Little, Too Late
04. It's All In the Game
05. Love Won't Let Me Wait
06. You're a Special Part of Me
07. The Last Time I Felt Like This
08. Friends of Love
09. In the Still of the Night
10. You're All I Need to Get By
11. Who's Counting Heartaches

One of the last and most popular in a long line of traditional male vocalists
who emerged before the rock-dominated 1960s, Johnny Mathis concentrated on
romantic readings of jazz and pop standards for the ever-shrinking adult
contemporary audience of the '60s and '70s. Though he debuted with a flurry of
singles chart activity, Mathis later made it big in the album market, where a
dozen of his LPs hit gold or platinum and over 60 made the charts. While he
originally concentrated on theme-oriented albums of show tunes and traditional
favorites, from the '70s onward Mathis began incorporating more varied styles of
music into his recordings, including soft rock, R&B, and country. This stylistic
eclecticism, combined with ubiquitous vocal chops, helped Mathis remain a
popular concert attraction well into the 21st century.

Unsurprisingly, given his emphasis on long sustained notes and heavy vibrato,
Mathis studied with an opera coach prior to his teenage years, and was almost
lured into the profession; his other inspirations were the smoother crossover
jazz vocalists of the 1940s - Nat "King" Cole, Billy Eckstine, and Lena Horne.
Mathis was an exceptional high-school athlete in San Francisco, but was wooed
away from a college track scholarship and a potential spot on the Olympic squad
by the chance to sing. He was signed to a management contract by club owner
Helen Noga, who introduced the singer to George Avakian, jazz producer for
Columbia Records. Avakian signed him and used orchestras conducted by Teo
Macero, Gil Evans, and John Lewis to record Mathis' self-titled debut album in
1957. Despite the name talent and choice of standards, it was mostly ignored
upon release.

Columbia A&R executive Mitch Miller - known for his desperately pop-slanted Sing
Along albums and TV show - decided the only recourse was switching Mathis to
Miller's brand of pop balladry, and the formula worked like a charm; the LP
Wonderful Wonderful didn't include but was named after a Top 20 hit later in
1957, which was followed by the number five "It's Not for Me to Say" and his
first number one, "Chances Are." From that point on, Johnny Mathis concentrated
strictly on lush ballads for adult contemporary listeners.

Though he charted consistently, massive hit singles were rare for Johnny Mathis
during the late '50s and '60s - half of his career Top Ten output had occurred
in 1957 alone - so he chose to focus instead on the burgeoning album market,
much like Frank Sinatra, his main rival during the late '50s as the most popular
traditional male vocalist. Mathis moved away from show tunes and traditional pop
into soft rock during the '70s, and found his second number one single, "Too
Much, Too Little, Too Late," in 1978. Recorded as a duet with Deniece Williams,
the single prompted Mathis to begin trying duets with a variety of partners
(including Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, and Nana Mouskouri),
though none of the singles enjoyed the success of the original.

Mathis continued to release and sell albums throughout the '90s - his fifth
decade of recording for Columbia - and beyond, among them 1998's Because You
Loved Me: Songs of Diane Warren and 2000's Mathis on Broadway. Mathis followed
the Broadway album with 2002's The Christmas Album and 2005's Isn't it Romantic:
The Standards Album, both of which found the iconic vocalist in fine form. In
2008, Mathis released the Walter Afanasieff-produced and arranged A Night to
Remember, his first straight-ahead adult contemporary album in over a decade.
Let It Be Me: Mathis in Nashville, Mathis' first full-length album of country
music, appeared in September of 2010. The album ultimately garnered a Grammy
Award nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Mathis released a holiday
album, Sending You a Little Christmas, in 2013, and in 2017 he issued Johnny
Mathis Sings the Great New American Songbook, which saw him taking on
contemporary hits from the likes Adele, Josh Groban, R. Kelly, and more. 



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