Customer Reviews

Johnny Mathis: A 50th Anniversary Christmas Celebration

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buy this cd and rest assured that your holiday music will be well rounded. No need to purchase anything else. The 50th Gold Anniversary Christmas Celebration cd is just that-it is a representation of his recording career of Christmas music with the exception of the 1969 Give Me Your Love For Christmas album.
This cd starts out with the original tunes released in 1958's Merry Christmas album, all arranged by Percy Faith. Johnny sounds clear as Silver Bell's ringing out on a quiet, snow-laided forest. Doesn't get much better than that!
Next up you'll find a song orignally recorded for Mercury in 1963-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
Moving on to 1986-from the Christmas Eve With Johnny Mathis album-you'll find two of his most popular Christmas recordings. One of these, It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, made the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers top 25 Christmas Songs list. Also included in this timeframe of recordings is his beautiful rendition of Toyland. I think we can all relate to the time in our lives when YES, VIRGINIA, THERE REALLY IS A SANTA CLAUS and the world was perfect and we were young.
The cd then travels on to the year 2001 when Johnny recorded with Mannheim Steamroller on their Christmas Extraordinaire album The song is O' Tannebaum. It was once again released on their Christmas Celebration album in 2004.
Two more recordings from 2002 and The Christmas Album follow that up. They are I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm and Have A Holly Jolly Christmas, and both are toe tapping tunes!
And last, but certainly not least, is the 2006 duet with Bette Midler from her currently released Cool Yule cd. I think they sound great together and the song leaves you wanting more. But, isn't that generally the way with all of Mr Mathis' songs? YES!
So there you have it. Your Christmas standards, religious tunes and upbeat songs to swing to. Wonderful song selections I'd say!
For those of you who say this cd is not representative of his 50 years, look again because it is.
So, haul out the holly, put up the tree, fill up the stocking, and deck the halls again now because WE NEED A LITTLE JOHNNY MATHIS CHRISTMAS MUSIC. Always and forever........

As a boomer growing up listening to Johnny Mathis every Christmas, this album hits the spot. It conjurs up warm memories of colored Christmas lights, tinsel and going to Midnight Mass. I give it 4 stars just for the nostalgia factor. Johnny's voice is as deep and mellow as ever, and he sings the old standards one hopes he would. Who really wants to hear Johnny sing "Mary Did You Know?" anyway? Definitely a great addition to any Christmas collection.

It's so interesting to listen Johnny Mathis voice from diferent times through these 50 years of his career. His choice, which is his privilege, has been a hit since he gives us a selected list of songs, so classy, not dropping in the usual Christmas songs of forever, but bringing us an elegant collection of beloved songs to make this Christmas a special one. A CD I enjoyed from beginning to end, with that final refreshing duet with Bette Midler, so perfect!!! WHAT A VOICE!!!

What a fitting way to celebrate Johnny's 50 years as a recording artist -- an Christmas anniversary cd with some the best and most loved Christmas recordings he's done through the years. All the favorites are here. Even the new duet with Better Midler is included, very cute and too short. Wish it had been a tad bit longer to hear how well their voices blend together. This is the only CD you'll need this Chrismas - when friends or family are over to trim the Christmas tree - or when you're by yourself wrapping gifts. Johnny is Christmas and nice to hear these beloved Christmas songs all in one place.

I must agree with the reviewer from Oklahoma. What a disappointment it is to see a 50th anniversary Christmas album from one of the greatest ambassadors of Christmas that gives us little that's new. I'm still waiting for a recording of a Christmas song that he sang and was only broadcast on Los Angeles radio stations twenty-some years ago called "Christmas in the City of the Angels." It was a wonderful song that for some reason never made it to any of his wonderful Christmas albums.

If you are a Johnny Mathis fan you cannot beat this CD - It's the best. I had the original "album" for years and loved it.

"... Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine, Oh night
Oh night divine!" ~ O Holy Night ~
(Beautiful Words and Music by J.S. Dwight and A. Adam)

"To me Christmas is one of those magical things that I have been so lucky to be associated with as a singer. It happens every year, and hopefully my songs will be played as long as there is a Christmas to be celebrated. And to be associated with Christmas forever . . . I'm in heaven . . ." ~ Johnny Mathis ~

My Christmas music collection wouldn't be complete without this sublime Johnny Mathis CD, "Johnny Mathis Gold: A 50th Anniversary Christmas Celebration." This special Christmas compilation was released last year to coincide with his 50th Anniversary as an artist, a remarkable one at that! It's written on Liner Notes that Mr. Mathis has personally "selected his all-time favorite Yule tunes covering nearly 50 years of joyous holiday celebration including a new duet with Bette Midler."

I'm truly impressed with his flawlessly sublime renditions of "Silent Night" and "O Holy Night" with Percy Faith and His Orchestra. The heavenly chorus on "Silent Night" adds an old-fashioned Christmas feeling. I've heard a lot of interpretations for these top two seasonal favorites, but these are too beautiful for comparisons. The sacred renditions, divine arrangements and orchestrations are unmatched. Percy Faith was one of my late father's favorite orchestrators, arrangers and composers, who truly did some great and creative works of art to make this compilation outstanding. The rest of his works here can be heard in "Sleigh Ride," "The Christmas Song" and "Silver Bells." All these tracks were taken from Johnny Mathis' album "Merry Christmas," which was produced by Mitch Miller in 1958.

Special guest Bette Midler graced this Christmas CD in a wonderful duet with Mr. Mathis of a medley arranged by the talented Patrick Williams, "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" This is a very enjoyable offering from these two great singers backed by Patrick Williams Orchestra.

Two up-tempo and cheerful tracks are some of the highlights, "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas." The orchestral arrangements were written by a fine arranger/conductor, Jeremy Lubbock.

What is a perfect Christmas CD without the most-beloved Christmas staples such as "The Christmas Song," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "The Christmas Waltz" and "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm?" Well, these are all in this remarkable collection and these are the very songs that make this CD a collector's item and so deserving to be included in your Christmas collection.

I merrily recommend this CD as part of your Christmas celebrations. Have the most wonderful time of the year and make it very memorable!

"From home to home
And heart to heart
From one place to another
The warmth and joy of Christmas
Brings us closer to each other" ~ Emily Matthews ~

The music of Johnny Mathis surrounding us as we shop, drive, have dinner, enjoy the eveing by the fireside.........oh, it's just too perfect. Mr. Mathis' music has been part of my life for all these 50 years he has been singing and I found it fitting to have both a Christmas album and a 50th year celebration album. I found most of my favorites in BOTH albums. For me, the only thing missing in the Christmas album is Johnny and his friends singing the Twelve Days of Christmas but that's just a quirky thing to me personally as The Partridge Lady. I realize that we have enjoyed these songs before, but the new duet with Bette Midler is worth the price of the album alone, and I'm not even a fan of hers really. My nostalgically favorite is "Silver Bells" because of the memory it evokes of a winter evening in Billings, Montana. How could there be an album without the wonderful "Christmas Song". I wish he could have included some of the music from "Christmas Eve", I'll always love that album. But "O Holy Night" makes up for that.

All in all, being a true fan, any new album be it a compilation or not, is one that is going to be on my shelf. This one has been already uploaded to my DJ Dell and in my CD player in the car. And like those special, treasured Hallmark ornaments created by my Mathis friend in Kansas I also treasure this album because I know a Mathis friend in California shared her Johnny Mathis information with the Sony people for the production of this album.

I agree with the other reviewer - I. Gross - it would have been good to have some new material especially celebrating an outstanding 50 years as a recording artist. I did give it four stars as the songs (albeit it mostly repeats from earlier albums/CD's) are lovely and sang so beautifully by Mr. Mathis. However, the front cover could have been more up to date with perhaps a recent photograph of Johnny and not one which makes him look like he is 40 something - he is now 71 years of age and although his face is now showing some age lines, he is still gorgeous!

This has been out a while, looks like I'm going to be the only one so far to speak my mind about this. This compilation is an insult and a travesty!

I had no reason to expect better, but I wish they would have made it better. There's nothing about this collection that would distinguish it as a 50th Anniversary Celebration; it's exactly like the previous one. Even Mathis' "The Christmas Album" CD from three or four years ago had more originality than this one. The artwork is pure Photoshop cheese and surely not worth the price of admission. There are people who didn't get to buy the Hallmark Christmas album, "Listen! It's Christmas", which was a BEAUTIFULLY done, BEAUTIFULLY produced recording, and they didn't even have the imagination to include some of those. And surely, after 50 years, there are Christmas recordings from The King of Christmas Music that we haven't heard yet because they're in a vault somewhere!

But this, they say, is the culmination of 50 years of work! Who else still alive can even say they've got 50 years of work? This is the best they could do? Well, so be it. There are people who will buy this regardless; more power to them. Enjoy. As for me, I can't support this. I've already got the duet with Bette Midler because I've got her "Cool Yule" album, an excellent recording, and I was gifted the Mannheim Steamroller album with O Tannenbaum on it a couple years ago. I have no reason on Earth to spend $12 on this. Frankly, after following Johnny Mathis for as many years as I have, I've already got everything else.

But if I WERE to recommend a Christmas compilation, find "The Christmas Music of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection" from one of the used sellers if you've got to have a CD for your car, or find an mp3 download of it for cheap. They're all the same songs, more or less! iTunes isn't allowing the single download of the Winter Wonderland duet from either this album or Bette Midler's, they want you to buy the whole album (because they know that's the one carrot they can dangle at this point), but I'd still go the download route because you're only out an X-spot.

Sigh. I guess I'll never get to hear Johnny Mathis sing "Mary, Did You Know" or "Deck The Halls". Once, I even envisioned him singing "Peace on Earth," that old David Bowie/Bing Crosby chestnut, with Sir Elton John. But these sugarplums are only in MY head, and not in those of whoever was responsible for this afterthought. Columbia blew it. They're not getting another chance to honor his longevity. The 50th Anniversary is over, and there won't be a 75th Anniversary to celebrate, and for whatever reason somebody somewhere just doesn't seem to get it.