''Faithfully'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

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 December 21, 1959, 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 ...

and continues his trend toward covering ballads alongside an orchestra. While his previous LPs usually offered one or two songs that had not been previously recorded, that number on this project leaped to five, and although the other seven selections were established by other artists, even some of those were lesser-known, such as

Jeri Southern Jeri Southern (born Genevieve Lillian Hering, August 5, 1926 – August 4, 1991) was an American jazz singer and pianist. Early years Born Genevieve Lillian Hering in Royal, Nebraska, United States, Southern was the granddaughter of a German p ...

's number 30 pop hit "You Better Go Now" and the title song from the 1953 film '' The Blue Gardenia''. 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 advertis ...

'' magazine's album chart in the issue dated January 18, 1960, and reached number two during its 75 weeks there. It received 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/ ...

for sales of 500,000 copies in the US on December 4, 1962. Type ''Johnny Mathis'' in the Search box and press ''Enter''. The Mathis recording of the ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid- ...

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ...

" Maria" was released as a single on two occasions. The first came five months after ''Faithfully'' hit store shelves and included four weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 that began in the issue dated May 30 and led to a number 78 peak position.. The second followed the 1961 release of the film version of ''

'' and resulted in a number 88 showing during its three weeks on that same chart in December of that year. ''Faithfully'' was released for the first time on compact disc on June 21, 2002, as one of two albums on one CD, the other LP being his 1960 follow-up '' Johnny's Mood''.

Reception

''Billboard'' wrote, "The arrangements by

Glenn Osser Abraham Arthur "Glenn" Osser (August 28, 1914 – April 29, 2014) was an American musician, musical arranger, orchestra leader, and songwriter. His birthname was Abraham (Abe), but much of his work was under the name Glenn; he can be found with re ...

are lush and warm, and Mathis has never been in better voice."

Track listing

Side one

#"Faithfully" (

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gr ...

, Sidney Shaw) – 2:37 #" Tonight" from ''

'' (

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, Stephen Sondheim) – 3:15 #"Nobody Knows (How Much I Love You)" ( Bart Howard) – 4:14 #"One Starry Night" (

Abner Silver Abner Silberman (28 December 1899, in New York City, New York, United States – 24 November 1966) as pen name Abner Silver, was an American songwriter who worked primarily during the Tin Pan Alley era of the craft. Career Usually composing the ...

, Sid Wayne) – 4:23 #"Follow Me" ( Kay Thompson) – 3:24 #"You Better Go Now" (Irvin Graham, Bickley Reichner) – 4:14

Side two

#" Secret Love" from ''

Calamity Jane Martha Jane Cannary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits she was known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok. Late ...

'' (

Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster (December 20, 1907 – March 18, 1984) was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and was nominated sixteen times for the award. Life and career Webster was born in New York City, United S ...

Sammy Fain Sammy Fain (born Samuel E. Feinberg; June 17, 1902 – December 6, 1989) was an American composer of popular music. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he contributed numerous songs that form part of The Great American Songbook, and to Broadway theatr ...

) – 3:33 #" Maria" from ''West Side Story'' (Bernstein, Sondheim) – 3:50 #"Where Do You Think You're Going" (Bart Howard) – 4:04 #"

And This Is My Beloved "And This Is My Beloved" is a popular song from the 1953 musical '' Kismet'', credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest. Like most other music in the show, this melody was based on music composed by Alexander Borodin, in this case the noctu ...

" from '' Kismet'' ( Bob Wright,

George Forrest George Forrest may refer to: *G. Topham Forrest (George Topham Forrest, 1872–1945), principal architect for the London County Council *George Forrest (author) (1915–1999), American author and musician *George Forrest (botanist) (1873–1932), S ...

) – 4:01 #" Where Are You" from '' Top of the Town'' (

Harold Adamson Harold Campbell Adamson (December 10, 1906 – August 17, 1980) was an American lyricist during the 1930s and 1940s. Early life Adamson, the son of building contractor Harold Adamson and Marion "Minnie" Campbell Adamson, was born and raised i ...

Jimmy McHugh James Francis McHugh (July 10, 1894 – May 23, 1969) was an American composer. One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he is credited with over 500 songs. His songs were recorded by many artists, including Chet Baker, J ...

) – 3:31 #"Blue Gardenia" from '' The Blue Gardenia'' (Lester Lee, Bob Russell) – 4:27

Recording dates

From the liner notes for '' The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection'': *November 4, 1959 – "Blue Gardenia", "Secret Love", "Where Are You", "You Better Go Now" *November 5, 1959 – "And This Is My Beloved", "Nobody Knows (How Much I Love You)", "One Starry Night", "Where Do You Think You're Going" *November 6, 1959 – "Faithfully", "Follow Me", "Maria", "Tonight"

Personnel

*Johnny Mathis – vocals *

Mitch Miller Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor a ...

– producer *

– arranger and conductor(1959) ''Faithfully'' by Johnny Mathis lbum jacket New York: Columbia Records CL 1422. * Bob Cato – photography

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Johnny Mathis sings "West Side Story Medley"
{{Authority control 1959 albums Johnny Mathis albums Columbia Records albums Albums arranged by Glenn Osser Albums conducted by Glenn Osser Albums produced by Mitch Miller