Alex Henderson

Johnny Mathis

A Special Part of Me

September 30, 2012 marked the 77^th birthday of one of the most enduring figures in popular music: Johnny Mathis, who was born during the Great Depression (1935, to be exact), became famous in the 1950s and continues to perform after all these years. Mathis has evolved considerably along the way. Influenced by Nat King Cole, Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, Little Jimmy Scott and Billie Holiday (among others) during his youth, the Texas-born vocalist started out as a jazz-influenced traditional pop crooner who included a lot of Tin Pan Alley standards in his repertoire. From the 1970s on, however, Mathis focused heavily on soft rock, adult contemporary and R&B/pop. But if there is one thing about Mathis that has never changed, it is his unapologetically romantic outlook—and that outlook is alive and well on A Special Part of Me.

Originally released by Columbia Records in 1984, A Special Part of Me has one foot in urban contemporary and the other in adult contemporary. By that time, Mathis was more likely to be compared to Peabo Bryson, Lionel Richie or Gino Vannelli than Nat King Cole or Perry Como. But his emphasis on romantic ballads never went away, and there are plenty of them on this reissue. “One Love” (not to be confused with the Bob Marley song), “Right Here, Right Now,” “Priceless” and “Lead Me to Your Love” are among the silky ballads on A Special Part of Me, which was aimed not at the traditional pop fans who knew Mathis for 1950s hits like “Chances Are,” “It’s Not for Me to Say” and “Misty,” but at the Baby Boomers who discovered him in the 1970s or early 1980s. A Special Part of Me isn’t comprised of ballads exclusively, however—and Mathis steps outside of ballad mode on the perky “Love Never Felt So Good” (a song that Michael Jackson wrote with Paul Anka and Kathy Wakefield), the optimistic “The Best Is Yet to Come” and the smooth, medium-tempo “Simple.” This reissue offers, as bonus tracks, two additional versions of “Simple” (a six-minute vocal version and an instrumental version).

Although Mathis has had numerous hits over the years, his name hasn’t appeared on the R&B charts as often as it has appeared on the pop charts. Many program directors at R&B stations have tended to think of Mathis as more of a pop singer than an R&B singer, and A Special Part of Me contains two singles that received more pop/adult contemporary exposure than R&B exposure: “Simple” and a remark of the Philadelphia soul classic “Love Won’t Let Me Wait.”  While “Simple” only made it to #43 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, it was a #6 adult contemporary hit in Billboard—and similarly, “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” went to #32 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart and #14 on its adult contemporary singles chart.

Written by Vinnie Barrett and MFSP guitarist Bobby Eli (the same songwriters who gave us Blue Magic’s 1974 smash “Sideshow”) and originally recorded by Major Harris (who was a cousin of the late Philly-based producer Norman Harris and had left the Delfonics in 1974 to pursue a solo career), “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” was among the top soul hits of 1975. And covering that gem of a ballad made perfect sense for Mathis, especially in light of who joins him on his remake: Deniece Williams.

It was with Williams that Mathis, in 1978, enjoyed one of his biggest hits; their duet on the melancholy “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” soared to #1 on Billboard’s R&B, adult contemporary and Hot 100 charts. That same year, Mathis and Williams also enjoyed a #10 R&B/#16 adult contemporary hit with their version of the 1968 Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell favorite “You’re All I Need to Get By.” So reuniting Mathis and Williams in 1984 for a remake of a definitive Philly soul classic was a smart move, and it’s unclear why their version of “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” didn’t climb higher on the R&B charts. But again, many R&B program directors of the 1970s and 1980s tended to think of Mathis as more pop than R&B. At any rate, Mathis and Williams’ reunion on “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” is an inspired one—and the song was covered once again when Luther Vandross delivered a hit remake in 1988.

The other male/female duet on this album is “You’re a Special Part of Me,” a haunting ballad that finds Mathis joining forces with singer Angela Bofill and originally appeared on her 1983 album Teaser.  The ballad that Bofill and Mathis perform should not be confused with a different song that has the same title and became a major hit for another male/female duo, Marvin Gaye & Diana Ross, in 1973. The song on this album was written by Bofill and Loree Gold; the Gaye/Ross hit was written by Harold Johnson, Andrey Porter and Gregg Wright. 

Despite his emphasis on adult contemporary and R&B/pop in the 1970s and 1980s, Mathis never gave up jazz-influenced traditional pop entirely. The 1990s and 2000s found him recording a variety of albums—some of them adult contemporary, some of them traditional pop. 1998’s Because You Loved Me: Songs of Diane Warren is as adult contemporary as it gets, but on the other hand, Mathis paid tribute to jazz legend Duke Ellington on 1990’s In a Sentimental Mood: Mathis Sings Ellington and revisited his Tin Pan Alley roots on 2005’s Isn’t It Romantic: The Standards Album.

It should be noted that Mathis is among the few artists who has been recording for the same label for more than half a century. Mathis signed with Columbia Records in 1957, and in 2010, Columbia/Sony released his most recent studio album, Let It Be Me: Mathis in Nashville (which focuses on country-pop and finds his voice continuing to hold up impressively well).

Without question, Mathis is a true pop survivor. And A Special Part of Me demonstrates that he was very much on top of his game in 1984.

—Alex Henderson, October 2012

Alex Henderson is a veteran journalist whose work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record and many other well known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) has also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books. 

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