Fifty years ago in 1956 Johnny Mathis began his musical recording career. In the ensuing fifty years, Johnny recorded a seemingly endless collection of successful singles and albums. When trying to come up with a list of Johnny Mathis’ Top Ten Songs there are almost too many to choose from and it becomes difficult to narrow down the possible selections. Real Mathis fans would say that to pick the Top Ten Songs by Johny Mathis just select the next ten songs you hear him sing. In other words to the hard core fans almost anything Johnny Mathis sings has success written all over it. With this dilemma in mind it is fair to say that if fifty fans made their own independent list of Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis,most of the choices that follow would be likely to appear on more than half of the lists in every possible order.
#1.Misty – While the remaining 9 songs in this list of Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis can be arguably arranged in almost any order, the song that must come first because it is so closely linked to Johnny Mathis is “Misty”. Hearing Johnny’s rendition of Erroll Garner’s love song is not unlike listening to Bing Crosby sing White Christmas. The artist and the song in many minds have become one. You can listen to someone else sing “Misty” and still enjoy the song but the real “Misty” is performed by only one artist, Johnny Mathis. It’s his number one song if for no other reason than because it is his signature song.
What makes “MIsty” the number one hit on the list Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis for some is the words. For example, “I can’t understand, I get misty, just holding your hand”. These simple words talk to the heart of every listener caught in the mystery of love. They speak to the simplicity and yet the eternal dilemma of being in love and delightfully out of control. Other listeners are touched by the subtlety of the melody, at once playful and haunting. Many would insist it is Johnny’s artistry, the pureness of his vocal instrument that touches a person’s feelings almost without words. Of course the answer might be that
“MIsty” is #1 on the list of Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis because it combines all the elements above. What rivets “Misty” to the musical imagination of Mathis’ fans is the unique blending of just the right words grafted to just the right music and performed with just the right tonal quality. Or maybe its number one because by itself it has made more people “misty” than any of the other Mathis numbers.
#2. “Chances Are” is a close second on the list of the Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis. “Chances Are” is a whimsically reflective song that catches the attention of audiences as it shares its sweet, off handed even timid story of love. Repeatedly using the comfortably indefinite phrase, “chances are”, one lover says to the other ( and I paraphrase ), ” probably because of the goofy way I act you think I love you ” and ” if you want to be the one to love me in return, I think it will work out just fine.”
“Chances Are” is a subtle love song. Lovers of every age can relate to the line “cause I wear a silly grin whenever you come in to view”. It’s a line that catches us up in a real action, a real situation that in some way is experienced by everyone in love, being so moved by the simple approach of the one you love that you lose your control and your cool. It’s a line that speaks volumes. “Chances Are” is a simple love song and an ageless song that allows the hearer to reminisce with at least an inner smile about the way love changes your whole way of being. If Erroll Garner had never written “Misty”, “Chances Are” would have slid quickly into first place on the list of Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis.
#3. “It’s Not for Me to Say” is another provocatively innocent love song from the early days of Johnny Mathis’ recording career. Johnny first recorded it as a very well received single, but since the ’50’s, “It’s Not for Me to Say” has found its way into most collections and concert programs that feature the Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis. The singer tells a story of love, but too shy and fearful of sounding too forward prefaces everything with the almost apologetic verse, “it’s not for me to say” things like ” you love me” or “you’ll always care. The heart of the song is a subtle request from one lover for help to speak his or her heart by asking the other lover to break his or her own silence and help to speak about their love because alone, “it’s not for me to say”.
#4 “A Certain Smile” and #5“Maria” are two songs that both belong on the list of Top Ten Songs of Johnny Mathis and are known from the movies. Johnny both appeared briefly in and sang the title song of the movie, A Certain Smile. While the movie is seldom viewed now, the song has gone on to be a Mathis’ fan favorite for its recognition of the way we all are touched and moved by the simplest expenditure of muscle power, a smile, when it is executed by a certain someone in our lives.
Maria”, a song crafted by Leonard Bernstein for the stage show and then movie, West Side Story, has been sung to perfection by Mathis in albums and in concert. It’s sensitive almost prayerful lyrics are only enriched by the range and expressiveness brought to the song by Johnny Mathis.
#6″Heavenly” and #7 “Rainbow Ride” were offered by Johnny Mathis among other Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis on an album entitled simply “Heavenly”. The cover song, “Heavenly” reflects on the joy of love and the ethereal feeling it bestows upon the lovers. The lyrics sing out with down to earth happiness that is so rich and real it prompts a comparison with heaven: ” angels above can only be just half as happy as we”. This is the language of those in love.
Also looking skyward the melodious “Rainbow Ride” asks and answers a rather imaginary question ” Did you ever ride on a rainbow, sit starry eyed on a a rainbow?” which immediately allows Johnny to vocalize “I did last night . The remainder of the song turns Johnny loose to describe his love experience riding on the rainbow with the high vocal point probably arriving when Johnny tremulously recounts ” and it seems I was somewhere in space. Fans of Johnny Mathis know what it means to experience love as both “Heavenly” and as a “Rainbow Ride”. Johnny’s ability , in these songs to connect with these most basic and beautiful human emotions put these titles easily on the list of Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis.
#8″Twelfth of Never and #9 All the Time allow Johnny to speak to the theme of the eternality of true love. In “Twelfth of Never”, against a haunting background theme, Johnny sings to answer questions asked about the enduring nature of his love. As many times and in as many ways as the question is put, Johnny responds in firm but loving refrain ” until the Twelfth of never I’ll still be loving you”.
In “All the Time” Johnny sings in a sometimes frantic , choppy style that lets him share the fullness and range of his voice and of the concept of “All the Time” that is “sunrise and sunset and all of the time “. But perhaps the most touching lyric which Johnny brings forth gently and smoothly is the recognition by every lover when he or she finds true love that “I needed someone all the time and all the time it was you”. Johnny wraps his voice around that finish leaving a sense of peace and fulfillment still in the air… all the time.
#10″When Sunny Gets Blue Selecting the final song on a list of Top Ten Songs by Johnny Mathis is almost painful for any lifelong fan. One feels a real reluctance at leaving out songs that are almost like old friends. Perhaps the melancholy mood and tone of “When Sunny Gets Blue” makes it an appropriate choice with which to complete the list.
