Johnny Mathis

Last week the 89-year-old singer, Johnny Mathis, announced his retirement as of May 18th. Since he started performing and recording at 19, his career lasted 70 years. He had 106 albums and 113 singles, with 73 of the albums appearing for a lengthy period on the Billboard Charts. By the 1960s he not only had sold millions of records, he also had become a millionaire. His career slumped some in the 1970s but came back in the 1980s.

He was known primarily as a romantic ballad singer, but he recorded a wide range of music. For many years he was on 50 – 60 concert tours to promote his recordings. (I only have 1 “On Broadway.” I missed him when he appeared in Albuquerque in 1964, but I heard excited reports of his appearance at the gay bar after the concert. I saw him in-person in 1965 in Houston. I don’t know where he got all that energy, especially in his later years. He is a week older than me.) He was outed in 1982 and officially came out in 2006.

He was an excellent athlete, doing the high jump and basketball in school, and he was a life-long golfer. He was popular in the U.K. as well as the U.S. His long musical career was matched only by Tony Bennett, who lived from 1926 – 2023. As an African-American, he followed the popularity of Lena Horne and Nat King Cole who broke the discrimination. His official biography was published in 1984 under the title: Johnny Mathis: The Authorized Biography by Tony Jasper.

His recordings were distributed on the Columbia and Mercury labels, but he had formed his own production, management, and touring companies. He was a good businessman as well as a performer. His luck ran out in 2015 when his 56-year-old house in Beverly Hills burned. It was rebuilt, but a landslide next door in 2013 caused extensive damages.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.