Released 1985 Length 36:37 Producer Denny Diante | Genre Vocal
Pop/Rock
R&B Label Columbia | |
Recorded 1985 at
The Complex,
Los Angeles, California,
Conway Studios ,
Hollywood, California,
Sunset Sound Studios,
Hollywood, California | ||
Right from the Heart is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 1985 by Columbia Records and was his first album without songs that were previously recorded by other artists. The title track is one of the album's four ballads that, along with four of the remaining six up-tempo tracks, delve into the subject of relationships, but it's the synth-driven "Step by Step" and the anthemic "Hold On" on which Mathis takes a break from the usual focus on love songs. The former offers the hope that can be found in change that comes gradually until "I can see the way free from yesterday to a new beginning." The latter stresses the importance of being oneself: "Life is a party. Why don't you come the way you are?"
Contents
Even though the title track was featured on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope, the album did not make it onto Billboard magazine's Top Pop Albums chart, but the song "Right from the Heart" did reach number 38 during its two weeks on the magazine's list of the 40 Hot Adult Contemporary songs of the week in the US in May of that year.
Ryan's Hope cameos
In 1985 Mathis guest starred on the daytime drama Ryan's Hope in the April 9 and May 1 episodes, the latter of which included a performance of the song "Right from the Heart". In the plot of the show, Dave Greenberg (Scott Holmes) has written the song, and Katie Ryan Thompson (Julia Campbell) "takes the song to Mathis in the hope he'll record it." Mathis lip syncs to his recording of the song as he pretends to be cutting the song in a recording studio while the characters look on from the control room.
Reception
People magazine gave the album a mixed review, noting the up-tempo songs, "such as "Touch by Touch", on which Mathis forces it a little." Lamenting the lack of duets, the reviewer writes, "he has had such success doing them", and this is his first studio album since 1977 that hasn't included one. The reviewer does praise the title track as "vintage Mathis" and assert that "there's still nobody better when it comes to creating a warm, relaxed, mellow mood."