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In a career spanning over 60 years, the music of Johnny Mathis is more vibrant than ever.  The eternally youthful “voice of romance” gained a whole new generation of fans in 2017 with a new album featuring his recordings of future standards by Adele, Bruno Mars, and Pharrell Williams.  At the dawn of the 1970s, Mathis was celebrating the great songwriters of that day, too.  On March 2, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music are proud to kick off a new series celebrating the legendary Johnny Mathis’ classic albums of the 1970s and onward with a pair of expanded reissues from 1970: the first-ever expanded CD edition (and standalone U.S. CD premiere!) of the artist’s very first LP of the decade, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, and the worldwide CD debut of Johnny Mathis Sings the Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert.

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head was titled after Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Academy Award-winning hit from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  On Raindrops, Mathis reinterpreted the popular hits of the day in his signature velvety style, aided and abetted by the lush orchestras of Ernie Freeman and Al Capps, and the production of Columbia Records veteran Jack Gold.  In addition to Bacharach and David, also represented by Johnny’s hit “Odds and Ends” and “Alfie,” the original album features his renditions of songs by Jimmy Webb (“Honey Come Back”), George Harrison (“Something”), Paul Simon (“Bridge Over Troubled Water”), John Barry (“Midnight Cowboy”) and Rod McKuen (“Jean”) – a true “Who’s Who.”  The expanded Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head has been bolstered with four bonus non-LP singles from Mathis’ return to Columbia Records circa 1968-1970, including Bacharach and David’s “Whoever You Are, I Love You” from their Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Promises, Promises; Bert Kaempfert’s “Night Dreams;” and Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wherefore and Why” and “The Last Time I Saw Her,” arranged by Harry Nilsson’s frequent collaborator, Perry Botkin, Jr.!

The double album Johnny Mathis Sings the Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert was released in stores in time for Christmas 1970.  Bert Kaempfert may not have achieved the same name recognition in the U.S. as Burt Bacharach, but Kaempfert’s contributions to the standards songbook are indelible, thanks to such songs as “Danke Schoen,” “Spanish Eyes,” “Strangers in the Night,” and “L-O-V-E,” all of which are sung in Johnny’s inimitably intimate style on this collection.  Johnny was joined in Hamburg by arranger-conductor Herbert Rehbein, a close collaborator of Kaempfert’s, for these very special sessions.  Johnny’s relationship with Burt Bacharach dated to the late 1950s with songs including the classic pair of “Heavenly” and “Faithfully.”  Soon, Bacharach’s style would define the sound of the 1960s, and Johnny was bringing his individual stamp to “This Guy’s in Love with You,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.”  All of these songs and more are featured on Mathis’ Bacharach salute, which spanned his career to date.  In true Second Disc/Real Gone style, though, that’s not all!  We’ve added five rare bonus tracks to this already jam-packed double album: Bert Kaempfert’s “It Makes No Difference,” originally issued only in Europe, and four hits by Burt Bacharach and Hal David including their very first song with Johnny, 1957’s “Warm and Tender,” and three more Bacharach/David favorites from Johnny’s Global Records period!  To top off this first-time-on-CD package, Mr. Burt Bacharach has penned a new foreword!

Both of these landmark Mathis reissues have been remastered from the original tapes at Sony’s Battery Studios.  John Sellards has designed with an eye to period detail, and I’ve written the liner notes based on an exclusive interview with Johnny Mathis!  Look for both of these titles on March 2; you’ll find pre-order links below!

Johnny Mathis, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head: Expanded Edition (Columbia LP CS 1005, 1970 – reissued Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records RGM-0681, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head (2:36)
2. Honey Come Back (3:02)
3. Watch What Happens (3:20)
4. Something (2:34)
5. Alfie (3:15)
6. Midnight Cowboy (2:49)
7. A Man and a Woman (3:25)
8. Odds and Ends (3:04)
9. Jean (3:44)
10. Everybody’s Talkin’ (3:02)
11. Bridge Over Troubled Water (4:37)
12. Whoever You Are, I Love You (Non-LP Single, Stereo) (3:55)
13. For All We Know (Lewis/Coots) (Non-LP Single, Stereo) (2:58)
14. Wherefore and Why (Non-LP Single, Stereo) (3:22)
15. The Last Time I Saw Her (Non-LP Single, Stereo) (5:03)

Tracks 1-11 from Columbia LP CS 1005, 1970
Track 12 from Columbia single 4-44837, 1969
Track 13 from Columbia single 4-45104, 1970
Tracks 14-15 from Columbia single 4-45183, 1970

Johnny Mathis, Sings the Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert: Expanded Edition (Columbia CG 30350, 1970 – reissued Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records RGM-0682, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Wonderland by Night (3:34)
2. Spanish Eyes (3:00)
3. The Lady Smiles (3:06)
4. Danke Schoen (2:56)
5. The Times Will Change (3:09)
6. Remember When (We Made These Memories) (2:58)
7. Strangers in the Night (3:30)
8. Don’t Stay (2:51)
9. If There’s a Way (2:55)
10. Lady (3:00)
11. L-O-V-E (2:30)
12. It Makes No Difference (2:32)
13. Walk on By (3:00)
14. The Look of Love (3:41)
15. I Say a Little Prayer (2:14)
16. Heavenly (3:19)
17. This Guy’s in Love with You (4:35)
18. I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (3:00)
19. Alfie (3:13)
20. Odds and Ends (3:02)
21. Faithfully (2:32)
22. Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart (2:21)
23. Warm and Tender (2:37)
24. What the World Needs Now is Love (2:37)
25. Saturday Sunshine (2:35)
26. (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me (2:42)

Tracks 1-11, 13-22 from Sings the Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert, Columbia CG 30350, 1970
Track 12 from Sings the Music of Bert Kaempfert (UK edition), CBS S 63524/CS 9782, 1969
Track 23 from Columbia single 4-40851, 1957
Track 24 from So Nice, Mercury SR 61091, 1966
Tracks 25-26 from Johnny Mathis Sings, Mercury SR 61107, 1967