That's What Friends Are For is an album by American singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams that was released in July 1978 by Columbia Records. The project was a continuation of the pairing of the artists that began on his previous LP, You Light Up My Life, which included "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late", the duet that was on its way to number one on three different charts in Billboard magazine as the recording sessions for this album got underway.
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head is the twenty-fifth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in the spring of 1970 by Columbia Records. Williams was less focused on covering recent hits on this project and instead selected several songs from the singer-songwriter genre. The concept for the album came from Mason Williams, who contacted producer Dick Glasser about co-producing an album that would give Williams's fans a medley of songs that did more than just highlight the most familiar parts of popular songs but rather focus on a unifying theme or storyline of songs that were not necessarily hit records. Billboard magazine opined that the album "may well be titled 'A Journey Through Life.' Through carefully selected songs it conveys a message of dreams, hopes, reality, frustrations and ultimate truth."
Wonderful, Wonderful is the second album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis. It was released on July 8, 1957, on the Columbia Records label but does not include his hit song of the same name or any of his songs that were released as singles that year. The liner notes on the back of the original album cover proclaim that "he stamps as his very own such familiar rhythm tunes as 'Too Close for Comfort' and 'That Old Black Magic', injects new life in well-known ballads such as 'All Through the Night', gives new hearings to several fine standards that have been neglected in recent years, and even introduces a brand new ballad ."
Faithfully is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on December 21, 1959, by Columbia Records and continues his trend toward covering ballads alongside an orchestra. While his previous LPs usually offered one or two songs that had not been previously recorded, that number on this project leaped to five, and although the other seven selections were established by other artists, even some of those were lesser-known, such as Jeri Southern's number 30 pop hit "You Better Go Now" and the title song from the 1953 film The Blue Gardenia.
I'll Buy You a Star is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 27, 1961 by Columbia Records and was the first of two album collaborations with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. This LP includes both ballads and swinging uptempo material throughout a mix of songs that range from the new to the familiar and obscure.
Portrait of Johnny is a compilation album by Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records on July 17, 1961, and described on the cover as "The Third in the Johnny Mathis Greatest Hits Series". Seven B-sides of chart hits are included along with four of the corresponding A-sides that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 or "bubbled under" it and one song from a single that had neither side chart in Billboard magazine.
So Nice is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis released through Mercury Records on September 16, 1966. The singer included a trio of musical numbers from Man of La Mancha in this set as well as songs from Funny Girl, Kismet, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, shows that he had recognized on previous releases. Mathis also covers recent imports from France and Brazil and offers a rendition of a 1944 hit record as part of the mix.
Johnny Mathis Sings is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released by Mercury Records on March 10, 1967 and was the last of his 11 studio projects for the label. Eight of the twelve tracks were recorded since the completion of his previous LP, So Nice, while four of the tracks were leftovers from the recording sessions for previous Mercury albums. The finished product included a number from Broadway's The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd, a cover of the Beatles hit "Eleanor Rigby", two offerings from songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and three cuts that originated in film scores but had lyrics added later: the melody for "Strangers in the Night" was written for A Man Could Get Killed; "Somewhere My Love" began as "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago; and "Lovers in New York" started out as the instrumental title track from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Love Is Blue is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on March 6, 1968, by Columbia Records and adhered even more strictly to the concept of the "cover" album of recent hits than its predecessor in that five of the 10 songs selected for the project were chart hits for the original artists within the previous year and another three had charted within the previous decade. Even the two remaining selections that did not bring chart success to the original artists were by the hit songwriting teams of Burt Bacharach and Hal David and John Lennon and Paul McCartney and left no room for the usual inclusion of some original songs or material from Broadway.
The Impossible Dream is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the summer of 1969 by Columbia Records at the same time as another Mathis compilation, People. Both releases include ten tracks from albums that he recorded during his time with Mercury Records between 1963 and 1967.
Give Me Your Love for Christmas is the third Christmas album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis and was released by Columbia Records on October 13, 1969. The oldest song selected for this project was the 1934 classic "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", which meant there were not the traditional hymns that could be found on his previous Christmas outings. He did, however, cover several other contemporary Christmas favorites along with a few new and lesser-known songs, such as the title track, which was a reworking of an unreleased recording of his from 1961, and "Christmas Day", which came from the then-current Broadway musical Promises, Promises. New versions of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Little Drummer Boy", which he also recorded in 1963 for his previous Christmas LP, Sounds of Christmas, made the final track list here as well.
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 25, 1970, by Columbia Records and included several covers of chart hits from the previous year along with 1964's "Watch What Happens" and the 1966 tunes "Alfie" and "A Man and a Woman".
Close To You is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on August 19, 1970, by Columbia Records and mostly included his recordings of hits that other artists had that year. The exceptions were the new movie theme "Pieces of Dreams" and the 1967 songs "Wave" by Antônio Carlos Jobim and "Yellow Days", which was an Easy Listening hit for former Mathis collaborator Percy Faith. In the UK the album was retitled after a different song Mathis covered on it, "The Long and Winding Road".
Johnny Mathis Sings the Music of Bacharach & Kaempfert is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the fall of 1970 by Columbia Records. While one half of the two-record set was a compilation of tracks from his previous albums that were composed by Burt Bacharach, the other consisted of new recordings of songs composed by Bert Kaempfert, including a new version of "Strangers in the Night", which Mathis had already recorded in 1966 for his LP Johnny Mathis Sings. Although the Kaempfert tribute was similar to recent Mathis albums in that he was mainly covering songs made popular by other singers, it was absent of hits from the 12 months previous to its release that had become the pattern of his output at this point. The latest US chartings of any of the Kaempfert compositions as of this album's debut came from 1967 recordings of "Lady" by Jack Jones and "The Lady Smiles" by Matt Monro.
The Very Best of Andy Williams is a compilation album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in the UK on October 5th, 2009. A note from Williams inside the CD booklet explains that the album "was put together to coincide with my memoir Moon River and Me, published by Orion Press. It includes many of the songs that you made hits. I truly appreciate that, and I hope you enjoy the songs we selected for this CD." This compilation includes recordings that either charted in the UK but not in the US or charted much higher on the UK singles chart than they did on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. It entered the UK albums chart on October 17, 2009, and reached number 10 during its six weeks there.
Johnny Mathis in Person: Recorded Live at Las Vegas is a live album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was recorded at Caesars Palace and released on December 22, 1971, by Columbia Records. All but five of the 23 songs performed had appeared on his studio albums, while the five previously unrecorded songs have not appeared on a Mathis studio album since.
The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis released on May 10, 1972, by Columbia Records and continues in the tradition set by his recent studio releases of covering mostly current chart hits. A trio of selections on side one ("Love Theme from 'The Godfather' (Speak Softly Love)", "Theme from 'Summer of 42' (The Summer Knows)", and "Brian's Song (The Hands of Time)") originated as film scores and had lyrics added later.
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on August 15, 1977, by Columbia Records and found him firmly planted in the cover album genre once again in that no original songs were included. Allmusic's Joe Viglione did feel, however, that "they seem to be trying to cover all the bases here," meaning that it had a variety of selections, including a standard from 1939, a hit that charted in both the 1950s and '60s, a country crossover, and recent offerings from stage and screen.
All About Love is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on May 7, 1996, by Columbia Records and pairs him with producer Phil Ramone for his first venture into contemporary material since 1985's Right from the Heart. The two albums share the fact that they do not include covers of songs associated with other artists, which makes them unique entries in the Mathis catalog.
"Odds and Ends" is a 1969 song by Dionne Warwick, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was released as a non-album single. Narrowly missing the U.S. Billboard Top 40, it reached the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary charts of Canada and the U.S., where it peaked at number seven.
