The RIGHT CALL
60 years ago, Johnny Mathis reinvented himself and changed pop music forever.
Johnny Mathis was still looking for his big break when legendary producer Mitch Miller brought him into his office at Columbia Records in New York.
Until that point, Mathis — a Texas native raised in San Francisco — had been trying to make it as a jazz singer. But Miller had other ideas. He thought Mathis’ voice was far better suited for singing romantic pop ballads.
Mathis recalls Miller brought out a tall stack of records and told him to pick out the ones he wanted to record.
“I chose a song called ‘ Warm and Tender,’ a song called ‘ When Sonny Gets Blue,’ a song called ‘It’s Not for Me to Say’ and ‘ Wonderful! Wonderful!’ ” Mathis recalls during a recent telephone conversation from Los Angeles. “And then nothing happened, really, for like sixmonths. I’m sitting around waiting to hear them on the radio — and nothing, nothing, nothing.”
But Miller, as we all now know, would be proved right. Mathis did have the right voice for singing romantic ballads. And soon the world would know as well.
“One day, I was taking a cab across town to visit one of the wonderful songwriters I met early on,” Mathis says. “And in the cab going over there, I heard my song for the first time — ‘ It’s Not for Me to Say.’ ”
It was 1957 — the year that Mathis would catapult into
superstardom. “It’s Not for Me to Say” turned out to be one of six Top 40 singles he’d score in 1957. Others included “The Twelfth of Never,” “Wonderful! Wonderful!” and, of course, the immortal chart-topper “Chances Are.”
Sixty years later, Mathis is still putting out new music. He’s just released “Johnny Mathis Sings the Great New American Songbook,” featuring covers of Adele’s “Hello,” Pharrell’s “Happy” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
The 81-year-old pop music legend is also touring and lands at City National Civic on Oct. 7.
Mathis says he is looking forward to being back in the Bay Area, punctuating the statement with a resounding “I love San Jose.” He still has many friends in the area, even though he’s lived in Hollywood most of his life. Right now, however, he’s residing on the other end of the Sunset Strip.
“My house (in Hollywood) burnt down about a year and half ago and I’m in this incredible penthouse in Beverly Hills that the insurance people gave me to live in until they finish up fixing upmy house again,” Mathis says. “Everything kind of got chaotic there. I’ve been in that house — oh, gosh, that’s the only house I’ve ever lived in. It unfortunately burned while I was away in concert. So, I have been living in this penthouse and it’s kind of fun.”
That’s Mathis in a nutshell. He’s a man who likes to stroll on the bright side of the street, choosing to find the good in situations. His voice is full of joy as he looks back on his 60-plus years in themusic business, as well as the time leading up to it.
He really brightens up at the mention of “My Blue Heaven,” which was reportedly the first song Mathis ever learned to sing.
“That was my dad’s favorite song,” Mathis says. “Of course, I am a product of my dad. My dad was my best friend. He also was the reason I sing. He was a wonderful singer, but, of course, he had seven children so there was no way for him to sing outside the family or pursue a career as a singer. But my dad and I were locked and we were just on the same page on almost every aspect of my life.”
“The first few songs I learned were from my dad,” he adds. “‘ My Blue Heaven’ was almost his theme song. Every time he sat down at the piano — which he loved to do and play for the family — he played ‘My Blue Heaven.’ That’s the only song — and it’s funny that you mentioned it — that I haven’t recorded that he taught me at an early age. I’ll probably get around to it before I die.”
Mathis can’t recall whether he was a so-called “natural,” a prodigal vocal talent who seemed destined for stardom at an early age. He just got involved with music because his dad invited him to join in.
“I don’t remember anything other than listening to my dad and him patting me on the head and saying, ‘ Come on, son, sing it with me!’ So, that’s the way it happened,” Mathis says. “We had an old beat-up piano that somebody gave us, and they had to take it apart to get it into our tiny little basement flat that we lived in. And dad sat down for the first time and played the piano and we were wide-eyed — we had no idea he played the piano.
“I sat by his side for the first five or six years ofmy life and listened to him play the piano. One day, my dad said, ‘Son, howwould you like to take some voice lessons?’ And I said, ‘Pop, I wouldn’t do that. I can sing.’ And he said, ‘No, I want you to sing properly.’ Anyway, that’s kind of the genesis ofmy singing.”
Of course, Mathis would go on to become one of the greatest and most successful pop vocalists of all time, scoring several Grammy nominations, selling millions of albums and charming multiple generations of fans.
Mathis could have chosen sports, instead of singing, as a career. He was a stellar athlete — participating in track and basketball — at San Francisco State.
“Every kid, I think, who has ever won an event, as far as sports is concerned, had it in the back of their mind, ‘I wonder if I can do something with this ability that I have athletically?’ ” Mathis says. “My big claim to fame as a high jumper is that I broke (the record) of Bill Russell — the fabulous, great Bill Russell, the greatest basketball player, I think, who ever lived.
“I broke his high-jump record at a track meet that he and I went to in Reno. They made a big deal of it, because I was about half as tall as he was. Anyway, that was my big claim to fame in college as a high jumper. But I loved my athletics. It gave me a good start as far as keeping myself physically fit in order to sing.”
Mathis wasn’t at SF State for long before a record contract lured him away to New York, where he recorded a self-titled jazz album that was released in 1956. He recalls the Big Apple was “scary.”
“It was so la-di-da out here on the West Coast,” he says. “Everything was OK — go here, do that, at a leisurely pace. But, my goodness, when I got back to the fast and furious confines of New York City, it was eye-opening.
“I loved it, because I was young and I could run around and get to places just by walking. I spent most of my time at the studio — Columbia Records studio — talking to people and trying to find out what, in fact, they had in mind for me. I was kind of a kid lost in the world. But I found my way, thanks to a lot of very wonderful, kind people at the record company.”
He hit pay dirt ditching jazz for romantic ballads— and, a bit later, Christmas songs. He was successful enough in those early days to release 1958’s “Johnny’s Greatest Hits,” which is said to be the firstever “greatest hits” album.
“That’s true. That was the idea of Mitch Miller,” Mathis says. “The way it happened is that they wanted me to go into the studio and record, because I had all these hit records. They wanted to take advantage of it and make some albums and what have you. But I was running around, trying to make a living, singing here and there and everywhere. So, I was not in New York and was not able to go into the studio and record when Mitchell wanted me to.
“So, he decided to take the first four recordings that I did and the other sides — that would be eight songs — and whatever else I had recorded at that time and put it in album form. And he called it ‘Johnny’s Greatest Hits.’ That was the first of the greatest hits (albums). Now, even Beethoven has greatest hits, I think.”