C
ConstantLearner
Guest
You made me chuckle. You really don’t like the song, @Irishmom2! I like it, and I agree, @pianistclare, the recording is spectacular!
I like Josh Groban, but he’s not my favorite male singer. This man has always been my favorite singer, and I think the song is appropriate since Sunday is Easter:
This was at one of Johnny Mathis’ Royal Albert Hall concerts in 1979. He likes to sing this song with only a harp accompaniment. The harpist is Thelma Owen. John liked her playing so much that he often flew her to whatever concert he was singing, and Thelma was happy to oblige. Though he was raised in the Methodist Church, and the Mathis family was very religious, John converted to Roman Catholicism decades ago. He used to include this song, written by Duke Ellington, in every concert because he is still very religious and thinks it important we not forget God in our daily lives.
Many people like Johnny Mathis (he is the third largest selling recording artist of the 20th century, with only the Beatles and Elvis ahead), but whether one likes him or not, his intonation is always perfect, his breath control spectacular, and his phrasing impeccable. He studied voice for six or seven years with an opera singer, Connie Cox, and he was almost lured into opera himself. And, along with Barry Manilow and Frank Sinatra, John is the only singer to have an album on Billboard’s “Hot 100” every decade of his career, so he’s resonating with a lot of people. His 1958 album, Johnny’s Greatest Hits was on Billboard’s “Hot 100” for 491 consecutive weeks (9 1/2 years!), making it into the Guinness Book of World Records, a record that held until the 1980s and was broken by Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. And if you’ve read all this, you probably now know more about Johnny Mathis than you ever wanted to!
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