That's What Friends Are For | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 1978 [1] | |||
Recorded | April 20 – May 12, 1978 [1] | |||
Studio | A&M, Hollywood [2] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 32:30 | |||
Label | Columbia/Legacy | |||
Producer | Jack Gold | |||
Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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Deniece Williams chronology | ||||
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That's What Friends Are For is an album by American singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams,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.
On July 20,1978,That's What Friends Are For received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States, [3] and it debuted on Billboard's list of America's Top LP's &Tapes shortly thereafter,in the issue dated July 29,for the start of a 16-week chart run that took the album to number 19. [4] That same issue also marked its debut on the magazine's Black Albums chart,where it remained for 11 weeks and peaked at number 14. [5] The following month,on August 28,it made its first of 11 weekly appearances on the UK album chart,during which time it got as high as number 16, [6] and October 31 of that year the British Phonographic Industry awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 100,000 copies in the UK. [7]
The album was first released on CD in 1997 and reissued on July 1,2003,with four additional songs by the duo,including a previously unreleased version of "Without Us",the theme from the television series Family Ties . [8]
Following quickly on the heels of the June 3,1978,issue of Billboard in which "Too Much,Too Little,Too Late" enjoyed its week at number one on the magazine's Hot 100,this album's opener,a cover of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "You're All I Need To Get By",was released on June 15 [1] and had a July 8 debut on the magazine's list of the 100 most popular R&B singles in the US,where it peaked at number 10 over the course of 12 weeks. [9] The July 8 issue also marked its first appearance on the magazine's list of the 50 most popular Easy Listening records in the US,where it spent 11 weeks and got as high as number 16. [10] The July 29 issue included the debut of the song on the Hot 100,where it stayed for eight weeks and reached number 47. [11] The duet also became a new entry on the July 29 UK singles chart,where it made it to number 45 during a six-week run. [6]
The title song from the album (not to be confused with the Bacharach/Sager composition later popularized by Dionne Warwick) was released as a single in the fall of 1978 [12] but did not have any chart appearances.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [13] |
Record Mirror | [14] |
The Rolling Stone Record Guide | [15] |
Billboard remarked,"For the most part this is a set of slick,pretty R&B pop duets,marked by Mathis' best,most uninhibited singing to date,and the equally important participation of Williams." [16]
Paul Sexton of Record Mirror commented that "their coupling is quite satisfactory from an artistic point of view." [14] Dennis Hunt of the Los Angeles Times said that "Mathis' duets with Williams have rescued him from the MOR graveyard and given him new life in the pop/R&B market. This album,far superior to the last featuring this pair,brims with romantic material. To make sure no one mistakes these songs for MOR,producer Jack Gold has tacked on sprightly rhythm tracks which turn some of them into gentle rockers." [17]
Ron Wynn of AllMusic stated:"Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams made a fine team on this collection of sentimental love songs and light pop ballads." [13]
This album's 2003 CD release included four bonus duets:
As with "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late", "Emotion" was also recorded for the You Light Up My Life album. "Love Won't Let Me Wait" was recorded in 1983 for Mathis's 1984 album A Special Part of Me .
This album's CD release as part of the 2017 box set The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection included three bonus tracks:
"Comme ci, comme ça" and "So Deep in Love" had not been available before. The former was recorded during the sessions for this album, the latter at the same session as the theme song for the series.
From the liner notes for the 2003 CD release: [1]
From the liner notes for The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection: [18]
From the liner notes for the original album: [2]
From the liner notes for the 2003 CD release: [1]
Bonus tracks
Reissue credits
Year | Chart | Position | Country |
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1978 | Black Albums | 14 | US |
1978 | Pop Albums | 19 | US |
1978 | UK Albums | 16 | UK |
Year | Single | Chart | Position | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | "You're All I Need To Get By" | Black Singles | 10 | US |
1978 | "You're All I Need To Get By" | Pop Singles | 47 | US |
1978 | "You're All I Need To Get By" | UK Singles | 45 | UK |
June Deniece Williams is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC.
"Your Precious Love" is a popular song that was a 1967 hit for Motown singers Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. The song was written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and produced by Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol. The doo-wop styled recording features background vocals by Fuqua, Gaye, Terrell and Bristol, and instrumentals by The Funk Brothers with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The song peaked at #5 on Billboard Pop Singles chart, #2 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, and the top 40 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey. The song was later sampled by Gerald Levert on the song, "Your Smile", on his 2002 album, The G Spot.
"You're All I Need to Get By" is a song recorded by the American R&B/soul duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and released on Motown Records' Tamla label in 1968. It was the basis for the 1995 single "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By" from Method Man and Mary J. Blige.
"Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" is a song performed by singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, written by Nat Kipner and John Vallins. The single was a comeback of sorts for Mathis as his last U.S. top 10 hit was 1963’s "What Will Mary Say" and his last U.S. #1 hit was 1957's "Chances Are."
Johnny Mathis is the first studio album by vocalist Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records in 1956. The subtitle A New Sound in Popular Song can be found on the back cover but not on the front of the album or the disc label; in fact, this Mathis LP has been referred to as "the jazz album".
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.
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.
Mathis Is... is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 21, 1977, by Columbia Records and reunited the singer with producer Thom Bell for the first time since their collaboration on I'm Coming Home in 1973. As with that project, Mathis Is... focuses primarily on new songs, the one exception being a cover of "Sweet Love of Mine" from the 1975 Pick of the Litter album by The Spinners.
You Light Up My Life is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released on March 13, 1978, by Columbia Records. While this LP includes three new songs, it doesn’t stray too far from the format of his albums of recent years in covering established material, including a standard, a country number, something from Broadway, and a few soundtrack tunes.
The Best Days of My Life is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released on January 29, 1979, by Columbia Records. He scaled back considerably on his more than decade-long practice of recording recent hit songs by other artists. He did, however, cover two standards: "As Time Goes By" and "Begin the Beguine", the latter of which is given a disco arrangement.
Different Kinda Different is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released on June 16, 1980, by Columbia Records. It included covers of two standards and two recent hits. It also continued the trend of recording duets with a female singer; for this project Paulette McWilliams shared vocal duties on two of the six new songs.
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".
The First 25 Years – The Silver Anniversary Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 1981 by Columbia Records. The back cover of the album notes that there are four new tracks. A cover of the Commodores hit "Three Times a Lady" had been released on the UK version of his 1980 album Different Kinda Different, which was retitled All for You, but the Mathis rendition of the song makes its US debut here.
Friends in Love is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on April 5, 1982, by Columbia Records and included six original songs, two of which were duets with Dionne Warwick.
A Special Part of Me is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on January 22, 1984, by Columbia Records and reunited him with his "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" partner Deniece Williams on one of the LP's two duets, "Love Won't Let Me Wait", which is also the only song on the album that was previously recorded and released by another artist. This continuing trend away from the cover album genre would reach its limit with his next studio release, Right from the Heart, which only had original material.
The Hollywood Musicals is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis and American composer/conductor Henry Mancini that was released on October 17, 1986, by Columbia Records. This project heralded Mathis's return to the genre of traditional pop, which he would revisit occasionally over the next few decades.
Sending You a Little Christmas is the sixth Christmas album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 29, 2013, by Columbia Records. In addition to piano accompaniment on the title track by its composer Jim Brickman, this particular holiday release of original recordings is distinguished by duets with guest vocalists Susan Boyle, Natalie Cole, Gloria Estefan, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Billy Joel, and The Jordanaires.
Better Together: The Duet Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 8, 1991, by Columbia Records and featured three new songs alongside eight other pairings that were previously released.
Johnny Mathis has recorded 73 studio albums, 10 of which achieved sales of 500,000 units and were awarded Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Six of his compilation albums also accomplished this, and of these 16 Gold albums, six eventually went Platinum by reaching sales of one million copies. In 1999, sales figures totaled five million for his first holiday LP, Merry Christmas, and three million for Johnny's Greatest Hits, a 1958 collection that has been described as the "original greatest-hits package" and once held the record for most weeks on Billboard magazine's album chart with a total of 490. His second longest album chart run was the 295 weeks belonging to his Platinum 1959 album Heavenly, which gave him five weeks in the top spot. In a ranking of the top album artists of the last half of the 1950s in terms of Billboard chart performance, he comes in at number two, for the 1960s, number 10, and for the period from 1955 to 2009 he is at number six.