Christmas With Johnny Mathis
	production credits unknown
	Released on 1971
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
CK 38306 cover [high resolution scan]

I t’s a marshmallow world, motherUppers. Christmas With Johnny Mathis is a 1971 budget release of the 1963 hit, The Sounds of Christmas. You can grinch that two tracks are missing from the original or revel in the fact that you saved a few bucks on ten Christmas classics. Mathis, as you know, has some heavenly pipes, and when he gets into the Christmas spirit, there’s no getting out of it. Like the classic vocalists of a generation before (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra), Mathis interprets the material in his own idiom: smooth, buttery tones that pour out like maple syrup. Mathis and arranger Don Costa make this a very classy Christmas album. The choral “Carol of the Bells” and the operatic “Hallelujah Chorus” are no mere nth retelling of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Christmas album without a little warmth: “The Sounds of Christmas,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “Christmas Is A Feeling In Your Heart.” That’s the sentimental, romantic side of Johnny Mathis. But there’s also a child’s wide-eyed wonder at Christmas in songs like “A Marshmallow World” and the evergreen “Let It Snow!” With Elvis and Frank, the Christmas spirit seemed to only go skin deep, and Bing—well, who knew what was going on in his head. Johnny Mathis “gets” Christmas: it’s the helpless sinner and hopeful child intertwined, it’s the pleasure of giving and receiving, it’s here and the hereafter. Yeah, it’s a budget release on the surface, but look beyond that and it’s a delivery mechanism for ten doses of Christmas spirit that’ll cure wassails you.

CK 38306 back sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS    (Jerry Livingston/Paul Francis Webster)
2. HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS    (Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane)
3. A MARSHMALLOW WORLD    (Carl Sigman/Peter DeRose)
4. GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN    (trad. adapted by Johnny Mathis)
5. LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!    (Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne)
6. THE SECRET OF CHRISTMAS    (Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen)
7. RUDOLPH, THE RED-NOSED REINDEER    (Johnny Marks)
8. CAROL OF THE BELLS    (Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych/Peter Wilhousky, adapted by Johnny Mathis)
9. CHRISTMAS IS A FEELING IN YOUR HEART    (Joe Darion/George Kleinsinger)
10. HALLELUJAH CHORUS    (Georg Friedrich Handel, adapted by Johnny Mathis)

CREDITS

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