The Heart of a Woman | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 25, 1974 [1] | |||
Recorded | June 28, 1974 September 6–7, 1974 [2] | |||
Studio | Larrabee Sound, Los Angeles, California, Devonshire Sound, Los Angeles, California [3] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 35:00 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Johnny Bristol Jerry Fuller [3] | |||
Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Billboard | positive [4] |
The Heart of a Woman is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on November 25, 1974, [1] by Columbia Records. Produced by ex-Motowner Johnny Bristol, the LP is made up mostly of new material, in that only three of the 10 songs had already been recorded by other artists.
The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated December 28, 1974, and remained there for seven weeks, peaking at number 139. [5] It also began a two-week run on the UK album chart on April 5, 1975, during which time it made it to number 39. [6]
The only song from the album that ever charted as a single by Mathis was "Sail on White Moon", which entered Billboard's list of the 50 most popular Easy Listening songs in the US in the issue of the magazine dated February 15, 1975, and peaked at number 35 during its five weeks there. [7] However, the title track from the album was used in a commercial for Helena Rubinstein's Courant perfume. [1]
Billboard asserted, "With Johnny Bristol handling the production, we may have the most contemporary commercial LP Mathis has come up with in several years." [4]
This album's CD release as part of the 2017 box set The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection included two bonus tracks that were previously unavailable:
From the liner notes for The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection : [2]
Of the three covers on this album, only "Feel Like Makin' Love" had been released as a single by the original artist. Roberta Flack's recording of the song spent five weeks at number one on Billboard magazine's list of the 100 most popular Soul songs in the US, [8] two weeks at number one on its Easy Listening chart, [9] and a week at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 [10] in addition to receiving Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. [11] "Sail On White Moon" was first recorded by Boz Scaggs for his 1974 album Slow Dancer , [12] and "Wendy" was originally performed by The Impressions on the soundtrack of the 1974 film Three the Hard Way . [13]
From the liner notes of the original album: [3]
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.
I'll Search My Heart and Other Great Hits is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records in April 1964 and gathered up five A-sides that reached the Billboard Hot 100, a corresponding B-side, and six songs that had previously been unreleased.
The Great Years is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records in July 1964. Billboard magazine described the two-LP set, which included chart hits and album tracks, as "the best of Mathis".
This Is Love is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released by Mercury Records on September 18, 1964. The album includes three covers of Nat King Cole recordings as well as two more songs from "Fly Me to the Moon" composer Bart Howard.
Up, Up And Away is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 23, 1967, and was the first LP he recorded upon returning to his first record label, Columbia Records, where he then stayed for several decades after having just completed a four-year sojourn with Mercury Records. The title track starts the album on the contemporary end of the spectrum of material covered here, but Mathis also includes a standard from the 1940s, a hit that charted twice for the same artist in the 1950s, a trio of songs from Doctor Dolittle, and two songs that had lyrics added after originating as instrumentals: "Drifting" began as part of the score to the 1958 film Auntie Mame, and "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" was "a theme song of Cornell University before saxophonist Dave Pell retooled it and Sammy Cahn adapted the delightful fairytale-like lyrics."
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.
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".
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.
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.
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 or had never charted.
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.
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 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.
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.
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".
Once in a While is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on May 23, 1988, by Columbia Records and found him returning to the practice of covering contemporary hits but also mixing in lesser-known songs already recorded by other artists along with a few new ones.
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.