Me and Mrs. Jones | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 1973 | |||
Recorded | June 30, 1971 September 28, 1972 December 5, 1972 December 12, 1972 December 21, 1972 [1] | |||
Genre |
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Length | 41:23 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Jerry Fuller [2] | |||
Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Billboard | positive [3] |
Me and Mrs. Jones is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in January 1973 by Columbia Records. While it does cover several big chart hits of the day like his last album, Song Sung Blue , did, it also includes songs that didn't make the US Top 40 ("Remember", "You're a Lady") or had never charted ("Happy", "I Was Born in Love with You", "Summer Me, Winter Me").
The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated February 17, 1973, and remained there for 14 weeks, peaking at number 83. [4]
The medley of "Soul and Inspiration" and "Just Once in My Life" was released as a single and reached number 37 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. [5]
Billboard gave the album a positive review. "Mathis's power as a standout interpreter of material continues to amaze." [3] They detailed the specifics that impressed them as well. "The tempo is slow and romantic; his voice sweet and flowing. The backings are full and broad sounding. Mathis's special sound is razor-sharp as an instrument of romantic interludes." [3]
This album's CD release as part of the 2017 box set The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection included a bonus track that was previously unavailable:
From the liner notes for The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection : [1]
"Me and Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul enjoyed four weeks at number one on Billboard's R&B chart [6] and three weeks in the top spot on the magazine's Hot 100, [7] made it to number 10 on its Easy Listening chart [8] and number 12 in the UK, [9] received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, [10] and earned Paul the Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. [11] Bread's "Sweet Surrender" spent two weeks at number one Easy Listening [12] and reached number 15 pop. [13] Seals and Crofts took "Summer Breeze" to number four Easy Listening [14] and number six on the Hot 100. [15] "Corner of the Sky" comes from the Broadway musical Pippin and was a number nine R&B hit for The Jackson 5 [16] that also made it to number 18 pop. [17]
Mathis selected two Righteous Brothers songs for a medley: "Soul and Inspiration" spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, [18] got as high as number 13 R&B [19] and number 15 UK, [20] and received Gold certification from the RIAA; [21] and "Just Once in My Life" made it to number nine pop [22] and number 26 R&B. [19] James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" peaked at number 14 on the Hot 100 [23] and number three Easy Listening. [24] "If I Could Reach You" by The 5th Dimension spent a week at number one on the Easy Listening chart [25] and reached number 10 on the pop chart. [26] "Remember" was released by Nilsson as "Remember (Christmas)", which got as high as number 21 Easy Listening [27] and number 53 pop. [28]
"You're a Lady" had its biggest chart success as recorded by Peter Skellern, who took the song to number 50 pop, [29] number 11 Easy Listening, [30] and number three in the UK. [31] And Mathis closes the album with a medley of two songs that have music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and that he would later rerecord separately for his 1993 album How Do You Keep the Music Playing? , which paid salute to the songwriting trio: "I Was Born in Love with You" was recorded by the Mike Curb Congregation for the soundtrack album of the 1970 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, [32] and "Summer Me, Winter Me" was first recorded by Barbra Streisand in 1970 but not released until it was included on her 1974 album The Way We Were . [33]
From the liner notes of the original album: [2]
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.
Love Theme from "Romeo and Juliet" is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on July 30, 1969, by Columbia Records. Of its 11 tracks, eight had been hits for other performers earlier that year, and one of the remaining three, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", would become a huge success for Dionne Warwick several months later.
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".
Love Theme from "The Godfather" is the twenty-ninth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released on March 21, 1972, by Columbia Records. The two new songs on what was otherwise another LP of covers of hits by other artists were the title track and "Music from Across the Way", which came from the songwriters behind his recent hits "Happy Heart" and "(Where Do I Begin) Love Story".
Love Story is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 10, 1971, by Columbia Records and included a recent Oscar nominee, a flashback to 1967 ("Traces"), a new song by Bacharach & David, a lesser-known one by Goffin & King, and two songs that originated in film scores from 1970 and had lyrics added later: the album closer, "Loss of Love", from Sunflower and the album opener from Love Story, which was subtitled "Where Do I Begin". The norm for Mathis projects from this era was to cover recent hits, and the title track of this one was so recent that the version by Andy Williams began a 13-week run to number nine on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in February 1971, coinciding with the release of this LP.
Solitaire is the thirty-first studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in the fall of 1973 by Columbia Records and was an attempt to move away from his formulaic series of recent releases that relied heavily on songs that other artists had made popular.
The Way We Were is the thirty-second studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in the spring of 1974 by Columbia Records and was a return to singing songs that his audience was already familiar with after Solitaire, his previous LP that was less reliant on covers of recent pop hits, did not perform well.
You've Got a Friend is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on August 11, 1971, by Columbia Records. The phrase "Today's Great Hits" can be found above the title on both sides of the record jacket as well as both sides of the LP label as if to emphasize that this is essentially an album covering songs that were recently on the charts. This was a common practice of many vocalists of the period, so much so in fact that fellow Columbia artist Andy Williams also released an album titled You've Got a Friend in August 1971 on which he coincidentally covers seven of the 11 tracks that Mathis recorded for this album.
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.
Song Sung Blue is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 13, 1972, by Columbia Records and featured his renditions of mostly recent chart hits.
I'm Coming Home is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 21, 1973, by Columbia Records and was mainly composed of material written by the songwriting team of its producer, Thom Bell, and Linda Creed. Unlike several of the Mathis albums before it, I'm Coming Home relied primarily on new songs and included only two covers of established chart hits, both of which were by The Stylistics.
When Will I See You Again is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in March 1975 by Columbia Records and was again predominantly composed of covers of recent hit songs by other artists.
Feelings is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 20, 1975, by Columbia Records and strayed slightly from the singer's usual practice of covering hits by other artists by including two new songs, both written by Jerry Fuller: "Hurry Mother Nature" and "That's All She Wrote", which Ray Price took to number 34 on the Country chart the following spring.
I Only Have Eyes for You is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on May 10, 1976, by Columbia Records and included two new songs, "Yellow Roses on Her Gown" and "Ooh What We Do", which was written specifically for him, as well as a contemporary arrangement of the 1934 title track that foreshadowed his recordings of standards that incorporated a disco beat a few years later.
The Best of Johnny Mathis 1975–1980 is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the fall of 1980 by Columbia Records. This collection is similar to his last major compilation, 1972's Johnny Mathis' All-Time Greatest Hits, in that it excludes many of his American radio hits of this period in favor of songs that made the UK singles chart or contemporary hits by other people.
I Love My Lady is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was completed in 1981 but not released in its entirety until December 8, 2017, when it was included in the box set The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection. It was written and produced by Chic founders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and represented an attempt at shifting away from the easy listening style of music that Mathis had been recording for 25 years to the more contemporary sound of the team behind "Le Freak" and "We Are Family".
Unforgettable – A Musical Tribute to Nat King Cole is a soundtrack album released in the UK in 1983 by the CBS Records division of Columbia in conjunction with the broadcast of American pop singer Johnny Mathis's BBC television concert special of the same name that featured Cole's daughter Natalie. The front of the original album jacket credits the concert performers as "Johnny Mathis and Natalie Cole", whereas the CD booklet reads, "Johnny Mathis with special guest Natalie Cole".
Live is a live album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in October 15, 1984, by Columbia Records and includes performances of some of his classics, songs from recent albums, and three selections that have never appeared on a Mathis studio album.
How Do You Keep the Music Playing? is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on May 4, 1993, by Columbia Records and included the subtitle The Songs of Michel Legrand and Alan & Marilyn Bergman on its cover. The album featured new, individual recordings of two songs that Mathis covered as a medley for his 1973 album Me and Mrs. Jones -- "I Was Born in Love with You" and "Summer Me, Winter Me". He also performed new arrangements of "The Windmills of Your Mind", "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?", and "The Summer Knows", which he had recorded for other albums many years earlier.