Johnny Mathis – Gold: A 50th Anniversary Celebration
For those of us raised on rock, Johnny Mathis is supposed to be the enemy. Mathis was, we have been instructed to conclude, an archaic singer of affected prettiness and saccharine sentiment, and he’s never been embraced as a symbol of hip, retro sophistication in the manner of his contemporary Tony Bennett. “I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree,” he confessed in one of his biggest hits, 1959’s “Misty”. What’s cool about that? Well, life and love have a knack for making helpless kittens of us all. Mathis’ lace-like tenor is tailor-made for conveying the fragile and swooning romantic pangs we’ve all experienced. There is something just pitch-perfect — hesitant and vulnerable but eager and thrilling just the same — about piano-and-violins-wrapped hits such as “Chances Are” and “It’s Not For Me To Say”, or Mathis’ version of “Maria” from West Side Story (which few vocalists, then as now, even bother to attempt). This new career-spanning disc (the selections chosen by Mathis himself) is, at eighteen tracks, a trifle skimpy for a half-century overview, but it’s a fine introduction to Mathis’ sensibility, “funny and smile and fine.”