''The Heart of a Woman'' is an album by American pop singer

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

that was released on November 25, 1974 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. Produced by ex-

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

Johnny Bristol John William Bristol (February 3, 1939 – March 21, 2004) was an American musician, most famous as a songwriter and record producer for the Motown label in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a native of Morganton, North Carolina, about which ...

, the LP is made up mostly of new material, in that only three of the 10 songs had already been recorded by other artists. The album made its first appearance on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated December 28, 1974, and remained there for seven weeks, peaking at number 139. It also began a two-week run on the UK album chart on April 5, 1975, during which time it made it to number 39. The only song from the album that ever charted as a single by Mathis was "Sail on White Moon", which entered ''

s list of the 50 most popular Easy Listening songs in the US in the issue of the magazine dated February 15, 1975, and peaked at number 35 during its five weeks there; however, the title track from the album was used in a commercial for Helena Rubinstein's Courant perfume.

Reception

''Billboard'' asserted, "With Johnny Bristol handling the production, we may have the most contemporary commercial LP Mathis has come up with in several years."

Track listing

Side one

# "Woman, Woman" (Bristol) – 3:16 # "Sail On White Moon" (Bristol) – 3:12 # "It's Gone" (Eliot Tucker) – 3:13 # "House for Sale" (Lawrence Howard Brown, Oleg Lopatin) – 3:18 # " Feel Like Makin' Love" (

Eugene McDaniels Eugene Booker McDaniels (February 12, 1935 – July 29, 2011) was an American singer and songwriter. He had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s, reaching number three on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart with " A Hun ...

) – 3:40

Side two

# "Memories Don't Leave like People Do" (Bristol, Jerry Butler, James Anthony Dean, John Henry Glover) – 4:23 # "Strangers in Dark Corners" (Bristol) – 3:50 # "Wendy" from '' Three the Hard Way'' (

Lowrell Simon Lowrell Simon (March 18, 1943, Chicago – June 19, 2018, Newton, Mississippi) was an American soul singer. He began as a singer in The LaVondells, which became The Vondells which featured Butch McCoy and Jessie Dean and enjoyed some regional suc ...

, Richard Tufo) – 3:36 # "The Heart of a Woman" ( Lee Adams, Charles Strouse) – 2:57 # "The Way We Planned It" (

George S. Clinton George Stanley Clinton, Jr. (born June 17, 1947) is an American composer, songwriter, arranger, and session musician. Biography Clinton was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His musical career began in Nashville while earning degrees in music and ...

) – 3:35

2017 CD bonus tracks

This album's CD release as part of the 2017 box set '' The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection'' included two bonus tracks that were previously unavailable: *"Fifty Fifty" (

Jerry Fuller Jerry Fuller (born November 19, 1938) is an American songwriter, singer and record producer. Biography Jerry Fuller was born in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, to a musical family. He and his brother Bill performed as a duo in their home state ...

) – 3:22 *"Nothing in This Whole World" (unknown) – 4:14

Recording dates

From the liner notes for '' The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection'': *May 28–29, 1974 – "Fifty Fifty", "Nothing in This Whole World" *June 28, 1974 – "Sail On White Moon", "The Way We Planned It" *September 6–7, 1974 – "Feel Like Makin' Love", "The Heart of a Woman", "House for Sale", "It's Gone", "Memories Don't Leave like People Do", "Strangers in Dark Corners", "Wendy", "Woman, Woman"

Song information

Of the three covers on this album, only " Feel Like Makin' Love" had been released as a single by the original artist. Roberta Flack's recording of the song spent five weeks at number one on ''

'' magazine's list of the 100 most popular Soul songs in the US, two weeks at number one on its Easy Listening chart, and a week at the top of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in addition to receiving Gold certification from the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. "Sail On White Moon" was first recorded by

Boz Scaggs William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. An early bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells and the Steve Miller Band, he began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until h ...

for his 1974 album ''

Slow Dancer ''Slow Dancer'' is the sixth album by Boz Scaggs, originally released by Columbia in 1974. It was produced by former Motowner Johnny Bristol of "Hang On In There Baby" fame. The album was initially released with a cover photo of Scaggs walking ...

'', and "Wendy" was originally performed by The Impressions on the soundtrack of the 1974 film '' Three the Hard Way''.(1974) ''Three the Hard Way'' by The Impressions lbum jacket New York: Buddha Records CRS 8605.

Personnel

From the liner notes of the original album: ; Production *

– producer (except as noted) *

– producer ("The Way We Planned It") * Paul Riser – arranger (except as noted) *

H. B. Barnum Hidle Brown Barnum (born July 15, 1936) is an American pianist, arranger, record producer, songwriter, and former child actor. Biography After winning a nationwide talent contest at the age of four and starring in the film ''Valley of the Su ...

– arranger ("The Way We Planned It") *James C. Barnett – arranger (" Feel Like Makin' Love", "The Heart of a Woman") *Greg Venable – engineer, mixer * Richard Avedon – photographer *John Berg – cover design ; Performers *Michael Anthony – guitar * Reginald Burke – keyboards *Joe L. Clayton – percussion *

Dennis Coffey Dennis James Coffey (born November 11, 1940) is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings, and is well known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single " Scorpio". Biography Coffey learned to play guitar at the ag ...

– guitar *Henry E. Davis – bass * Gene Estes – percussion * Edward Greene – drums *

– vocals * Ray E. Parker Jr. – guitar * Melvin M. Ragin – guitar *Henry Wallace Shead – keyboards *Franzel Venable – vocal harmony ("Feel like Makin' Love")

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heart of a Woman 1974 albums Johnny Mathis albums Albums arranged by Paul Riser Albums arranged by H. B. Barnum Albums produced by Johnny Bristol Columbia Records albums