Johnny Mathis

 

I felt bad when I read this week that singer Johnny Mathis announced that he was retiring from touring and performing at the age of 89 due to "age and memory issues".

I have been fortunate enough to see Mathis perform live twice in my life, most recently in 2012 at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. (You can read about that HERE.)  Nobody could deliver a love song like Johnny Mathis!

Mathis has been performing since 1956, almost SEVENTY YEARS, and he is entitled to call it quits on his terms.  However, when someone loves his work, as Johnny Mathis so obviously did, it is sad to see that he is doing so for the reasons stated.  Let us all wish that Mathis spends the rest of his years in peace and comfort.

Of course, there are dozens and dozens of Johnny Mathis songs that I could include in this post as a tribute to him. Here is a FILM CLIP from the terrific 1978 movie "Same Time Next Year" starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. Mathis, along with Jane Olivor, sung this song, "The Last Time I Felt Like This", over the titles and throughout the movie.  Music by Marvin Hamlisch, Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, it is a terrific song, and Mathis made it even better.  It is also a movie that I highly recommend.

Johnny Mathis: Wonderful, Wonderful (which he didn't sing!)

My fears, expressed on Facebook yesterday, that going to see Johnny Mathis last night and worrying that he may have lost his touch at age 76-soon-to-be-77 proved, happily, to be unfounded.  He looked great, sounded great, and in a one hour and fifteen minute set, backed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, sang everything that the audience wanted to hear.  No new material for Johnny Mathis, just all his classic standards (with the exception, as noted above, of "Wonderful, Wonderful"), which is exactly what his audience wanted to hear.


My only gripe with the show, and it is a small one, is that at times the music from the Orchestra drowned out Mathis' vocals.  Was this poor acoustics (not likely at Heinz, Hall). or a sign that maybe Johnny can't his all the notes that he used to?  Who knows, and who cares.  It was a fabulous show.


Did I mention that he looks great?  He had on this absolutely beautiful suit on that was gray with shoes that matched the color of the suit exactly and a white open necked dress shirt.  The suit, I am sure, cost more than any ten suits that I ever bought in my life.  Man, did it look great!