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Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis

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Released
  
September 23, 1986

Producer
  
Denny Diante

Release date
  
1986

Genres
  
Holiday, Pop

Length
  
33:28

Artist
  
Label
  
COLUMBIA

Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb1

Recorded
  
1986 atOne on One Studios,North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California,Conway Studios,Hollywood, California,Ocean Way Recording,Hollywood, California

Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis(1986)
  
Similar
  
Johnny Mathis albums, Other albums

Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis is a Christmas album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in September 1986 by Columbia Records. This was Mathis's fourth holiday-themed LP and focused exclusively on secular material.

Contents

The album spent a week on Billboard magazine's Christmas Albums chart in the issue dated December 12, 1992, (no such chart was published in 1986) and two weeks on its Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in December 1994.

The recording of "Jingle Bells" on this release is subtitled "(Let's Take a Sleigh Ride)" on the front and back covers of the album jacket. (The CD booklet does not include song titles on the cover.) The track opens with background vocalists singing, "Let's take a sleigh ride, a merry sleigh ride," and the subtitle is inserted into each refrain of the chorus. Although no credit for additional lyrics is cited, the credit for the arranger of this rendition, Ray Ellis, is listed with the songwriter's name on the LP label.

The album's opener, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas", was featured in the 1992 holiday release Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and included on its original soundtrack album. In the issue of Billboard dated November 28, 2009, the list of the "Top 10 Holiday Songs (Since 2001)" places the Mathis recording at number 10.

Reception

People magazine's reviewer, Ralph Novak, describes Mathis's singing on the album as "characteristically smooth, yet never very engaged", and feels that the arrangements "tend to big stringy orchestrations that are too much for intimacy and not passionate enough for majesty."

Track listing

  1. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (Meredith Willson) – 2:14
  2. Jeremy Lubbock – arranger, conductor
  3. John Arrias – recording engineer
  4. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  5. Jules Chaikin – contractor
  6. "Toyland" from Babes in Toyland (Glen MacDonough, Victor Herbert) – 3:41
  7. Ray Ellis – arranger, conductor
  8. John Arrias – recording engineer
  9. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  10. Joe Soldo – contractor
  11. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (Edward Pola, George Wyle) – 2:45
  12. Jeremy Lubbock – arranger, conductor
  13. John Arrias – recording engineer
  14. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  15. Jules Chaikin – contractor
  16. "Jingle Bells" (James Pierpont) – 2:54
  17. Ray Ellis – arranger, conductor
  18. Daren Klein – recording engineer
  19. Erno Neufeld – concertmaster
  20. Marion Klein – contractor
  21. Medley – 5:09
    a. "Christmas Is for Everyone" (Richard Loring, Dorothy Wayne)
    b. "Where Can I Find Christmas?" from The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas (Doug Goodwin)
  22. Ray Ellis – arranger, conductor
  23. Daren Klein – recording engineer
  24. Erno Neufeld – concertmaster
  25. Marion Klein – contractor
  26. International Children's Choir (Irene Bayless, director) – backing vocals
  27. The kids from St. Michael's School, North Hollywood – backing vocals
  28. Medley from Santa Claus: The Movie – 4:03
    a. "Every Christmas Eve" (Leslie Bricusse, Henry Mancini)
    b. "Giving (Santa's Theme)" (Bricusse, Mancini)
  29. Henry Mancini – arranger, conductor
  30. Henry Mancini Orchestra & Chorus – performers
  31. Mick Guzauski – recording engineer
  32. Erno Neufeld – concertmaster
  33. Marion Klein – contractor
  34. "The Christmas Waltz" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) – 2:36
  35. Ray Ellis – arranger, conductor
  36. John Arrias – recording engineer
  37. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  38. Joe Soldo – contractor
  39. "We Need a Little Christmas" from Mame (Jerry Herman) – 1:54
  40. Ray Ellis – arranger, conductor
  41. John Arrias – recording engineer
  42. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  43. Joe Soldo – contractor
  44. Medley – 3:44
    a. "Caroling, Caroling" (Alfred Burt, Wilha Hutson)
    b. "Happy Holiday" from Holiday Inn (Irving Berlin)
  45. Jeremy Lubbock – arranger, conductor
  46. John Arrias – recording engineer
  47. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  48. Jules Chaikin – contractor
  49. "It's Christmas Time Again" (Sonny Burke, John Elliot, James K. Harwood) – 4:28
  50. Jeremy Lubbock – arranger, conductor
  51. John Arrias – recording engineer
  52. Gerald Vinci – concertmaster
  53. Jules Chaikin – contractor

Song information

"Jingle Bells" is the oldest of the songs that Mathis covers here and was published under the name "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in 1857. "Toyland" originated in the 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland, and "Happy Holiday" was first performed in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters reached number 19 on Billboard magazine's Records Most Played by Disc Jockeys chart and number 23 on its list of the Best-Selling Pop Singles of the week in 1951 with the first recording of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". Peggy Lee's rendition of "It's Christmas Time Again" was released in 1953, and "Caroling, Caroling" first appeared on the 1954 LP The Christmas Mood by The Columbia Choir.

"The Christmas Waltz" was written for Frank Sinatra and debuted as the flipside to his 1954 cover of "White Christmas". "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" was written for The Andy Williams Show and first appeared on The Andy Williams Christmas Album in 1963. "We Need a Little Christmas" was first performed in the 1966 Broadway musical Mame. "Where Can I Find Christmas?" comes from the 1973 TV special The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas, and the medley of "Every Christmas Eve" and "Giving (Santa's Theme)" was part of the soundtrack of the 1985 film Santa Claus: The Movie.

Songs

1It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas2:15
2Toyland3:42
3It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year2:47

References

Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis Wikipedia


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