Johnny Mathis, one of the two or three greatest male pop singers of our era, turns ninety this year, and he’s still with us. I heard a song of his the other night, and decided to post my three favorite songs he recorded. He didn’t write any of them, but it’s the voice that really counts here. Nobody else has a voice that sounds as rich and mellow as his.

After the three below, I added one of my favorite Christmas songs, of which Mathis does the best cover.  Note, though, that for the first three I’ve put up videos of the live versions though his recorded versions are a bit better (I’ve added links to those).

First, “A certain smile“, which I learned actually came from a movie. The Wikipedia article about the song says this:

“A Certain Smile” is a popular song that was written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster for the 1958 film of the same name. Johnny Mathis performed the song in the film, and his recording reached the top 20 on the record charts in the US and the top five in the UK. The songwriters were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1959.

The recorded version is here, and it’s terrific. Be sure to listen for the high note accompanying the last use of “certain.” One thing I like about Mathis’s recordings is that he embellishes the endings with lovely vocal tricks.

Stop this video after the first song, as it continues into a lesser song.

One of Mathis’s most popular recordings was “Misty“, which, according to Wikipedia, is

“. . . a jazz standard written and originally recorded in 1954 by pianist Erroll Garner. It appeared on Johnny Mathis’ 1959 album Heavenly, and this recording reached number 12 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart later that year. It has since become one of Mathis’ signature songs.”

The recorded version is here, with an absolutely stunning bit when Mathis’s voice blends with (and is indistiguishable from) the oboe—at 2:40.

“It’s not for me to say” (recorded version here), was also in a movie:

“. . . . a 1957 popular song with music by Robert Allen and lyrics by Al Stillman. American singer Johnny Mathis recorded the song and later performed it in the 1957 movie Lizzie. His recording reached the top 10 on the US pop charts.

The ending hook here is the way Mathis sings the word “we” in the final “we will never meet again” (3:10 in the live version, 2:33 in the recorded version).

Finally, I decided to throw in a holiday song, my favorite: Do you hear what I hear?. I didn’t know this song was so recent, nor written as a plea for peace:

“Do You Hear What I Hear?” is a song written in October 1962, with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Regney had been invited by a record producer to write a Christmas song, but he was hesitant due to the commercialism of Christmas. It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists.

Robert Goulet is often said to have done the best version, but I think Mathis’s, below, is far better. I have only the recorded version, and the final hook is the modulated phrases, “He will bring us goodness and light” at the end.

My other favorite Christmas song is “Merry Christmas, Darling,” by the Carpenters.