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Johnny Mathis recorded three Christmas records during his 50's and 60's prime - two for Columbia (the label for which he achieved his greatest successes) and one for Mercury. Then, he waxed two more for Columbia during the long denouement of his career, plus numerous reissues, repackages, and retrospectives. That's a lot of holiday music, and at least one of those albums - the very first, Merry Christmas (Columbia, 1958) - has been an enduring favorite among consumers ever since it's release, hitting the charts nearly every holiday season for 40 years running, from 1958 through 1999.

But frankly, but I've never found Merry Christmas or any of its myriad successors to be all that compelling. Inarguably, Johnny Mathis has a unique voice. Yet he suffers from an almost willful lack of soul. Ultimately, I find him boring. Perhaps that makes me less than an ideal judge of this much-beloved music, but Johnny doesn't offer his listeners a lot beyond his impeccable craft. The missing elements - things like passion, grit, emotion, humor - are the true heart of great music.

Still, there's no discounting the historical importance of these albums, nor can we deny the place they hold in the hearts of the public. For many, Johnny's rendition of Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" tops even Nat King Cole's masterful interpretation, and Mathis' "Sleigh Ride" is perhaps the definitive vocal version of Leroy Anderson's immortal melody. At his best, on upbeat songs like "A Marshmallow World," Mathis exudes a sort of chirpy glee that perhaps explains why he has become so closely identified with Christmas season.

Johnny Mathis was the last of the crooners, marketed as a romantic ballad singer just as teen-oriented rock 'n' roll was on the rise. Not surprisingly, his career focused more on the adult-oriented album market, and he barely brushed the singles charts with his Christmas music, scoring minor hits with "Little Drummer Boy" in 1963 and "Frosty The Snowman" in 2002. But, as mentioned above, Mathis has been a fixture on the albums charts every winter for a period spanning four decades - and counting! In and of itself, Merry Christmas (orchestrated by Percy Faith, by the way) charted most of those years, starting with a #3 performance on the pop charts the year of its release, followed by three Top 10 appearances during the next four years.

Johnny Mathis recorded for Columbia Records nearly his entire career. He briefly jumped ship to Mercury, however, debuting with Sounds Of Christmas (Mercury, 1963). Arguably, Sounds Of Christmas is a better album than Merry Christmas, if only because it contains several songs outside the standard seasonal repertoire and apparently written for the project. These include the title song and "Have Reindeer, Will Travel" (both by Jerry Livingston and Paul Webster); Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's "The Secret Of Christmas"; and "Christmas Is A Feeling In The Heart" by Joe Darion and George Kleinsinger.

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Mathis returned to Columbia in 1967, and they reintroduced Sounds Of Christmas in 1972 as Christmas With Johnny Mathis, trimming two songs from its track listing. Meanwhile, his third holiday album, Give Me Your Love For Christmas (Columbia, 1969) had been a major success, hitting #1 on Billboard's Christmas album chart and eventually selling a million copies. And, it's worth noting that "Christmas Is," a 1970 single (cowritten by Percy Faith), shows up only on a budget compilation of the same name.

A long dry (warm?) spell followed, broken only by 1984's Johnny Mathis For Christmas (which collected tracks from his previous two albums) and a couple of cameos on Gladys Knight's That Special Time of Year (1982). Ultimately, Mathis returned with his fourth holiday album, Christmas Eve With Johnny Mathis (1986).

Over the years, Johnny Mathis' music - never exactly avant garde - grew ever more conservative, less interesting. But, even if you disagree with me about the quality of his work - and clearly, many of you do - that's a lot of Christmas music to contend with. For me, the logical solution presented itself with The Christmas Music Of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection (1993). This straightforward survey of Mathis' first four Christmas albums is smartly selected (ostensibly by Johnny himself) and logically programmed. At 14 tracks, it's too brief, but I recommend it by a slim margin over original albums like Merry Christmas, especially since Sounds Of Christmas has never been reissued in its original format.

Mathis ended another lengthy hiatus with The Christmas Album (2002). Classy, but no less forgettable than his earlier work, this album gets added to the mix on Gold: 50th Anniversary Christmas Celebration (2006), a companion to Johnny's 50th Anniversary Celebration released earlier that same year. Both anniversary albums run fewer than 20 tracks - meaning they take somewhat cursory glance at Mathis' lengthy career. The Christmas Celebration CD, in fact, includes just 15 songs - rather inexcusable given the auspiciousness of the occasion and the nature of the medium - and it all but ignores his superior 1963 and 1969 albums. Even worse, it includes a duet with Mannheim Steamroller on "O Tannenbaum." Yikes!

Which brings us back to The Christmas Music Of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection. It, in fact, had also been a companion piece - this time to a vastly superior boxed set released the following year. So, I recommend seeking out these earlier discs - the former because it focuses on Mathis' strongest Christmas music, the latter because it affords the listener the broad perspective Johnny Mathis' music deserves - even if it's not my particular cup of tea. [top of page]

Important Albums