#32: My Love For You by Johnny Mathis

City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: September 1960
Peak Position in Hull ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #23
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #47
YouTube: “My Love For You”
Lyrics: “My Love For You”

Johnny Mathis was born in Gilmer (TX) in 1935. His family moved to San Francisco when he was 5-years-old. His father was a vaudeville singer and piano player. Mathis began learning songs and routines from his father. Mathis’ first song was “My Blue Heaven”. He started singing and dancing for visitors at home, at school, and at church functions. When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for housework. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, classical and operatic singing. In 1955, Mathis got a job singing weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club in San Francisco.

Concurrently, At San Francisco State, Mathis had become noteworthy as a high jumper, and in 1956, he was asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team that would travel to Melbourne that November. But given Johnny Mathis had received an offer of a record contract from Columbia Records, on his father’s advice, Mathis opted to embark on a professional singing career.

On December 1, 1958, Johnny Mathis was photographed by the Associated Press high jumping, a sport he was pretty good in while attending San Francisco State College.

In July 1956, Johnny Mathis’ debut album, Johnny Mathis, was a slow-selling jazz album. He performed at night clubs in Manhattan. Near the end of the year he recorded “Wonderful Wonderful!” and “It’s Not For Me To Say”. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. It was also featured in the 1957 film noir movie Lizzie, where Mathis was cast as a piano player and singer. Later in 1957, “Chances Are” became his biggest selling hit and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. It was number-one on October 21, 1957, on the Billboard Most Played by Jockeys chart. The B-side, “The Twelfth Of Never” was also a Top Ten hit in 1957. In 1958, “Wild Is The Wind” was the theme song from the movie of the same name. For his performance, Mathis received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1958, where he also sang the song at the event.

In March 1958, Columbia Records released Johnny’s Greatest Hits. The album reached number-one and remained on the Billboard pop album chart for 490 weeks, almost nine-and-a-half years. He was again a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show on October 26, 1958, singing “Sweet Lorraine”. In the summer of 1958, Johnny Mathis’ “A Certain Smile” was the theme song from the film of the same name, and a #4 hit in the UK and #7 in Norway. That winter his Christmas album featured the track, “Winter Wonderland”, which became a Top 20 hit in the UK.

In 1959, Johnny Mathis recorded “Misty”. The song later was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. His other Top 20 hit of the year was “Small World”. On April 26, 1959, and November 8, 1959, Johnny Mathis appeared again on The Ed Sullivan Show.

In 1960, Johnny Mathis released a version of the hit song from West Side Story, “Maria”, which was a minor hit. This was followed by “My Love For You”.

“My Love For You” was cowritten by Abner Silver and Sid Wayne. Abner Silberman was born in New York City in 1899. He wrote songs during the Tin Pan Alley era. His biggest hit from sheet music and record sales was “Angel Child”, a number-one hit for Al Jolson in 1922. This was his second Top Ten hit, the first being “Yoo Hoo”, also for Al Jolson in 1922. That year Silver also penned “Say It While Dancing”, a Top Ten hit for the Benson Orchestra of Chicago and Isham Jones and His Orchestra. Between 1922 and 1953, recording artists took over twenty of Albner Silver’s songs to the Top Ten on the national pop charts in the USA. Among these were “I’m Goin’ South” for Al Jolson and also Paul Whiteman (1924), “Mary Ann” for Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards (1928), “Pu-Leeze! Mr. Hemingway” by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians (1932), “Chasing Shadows” for Tommy Dorsey (1935), “On The Beach at Bali Bali” for Connie Boswell (1936), “With These Hands” for Eddie Fisher (1953) and “Who Can Explain?” for Frankie Lemon and the Teenagers (1956). He cowrote “Wisdom Of A Fool” for the Five Keys (1956). “He’s So Unusual” was successfully covered by Cyndi Lauper in 1983. Silver died at the age of 66 in 1966.

Sid Wayne was born Sidney Weinberg, in New York City in 1922. He was a songwriter, lyricist and composer. He composed songs that were recorded by Guy Mitchell, the Platters, Dick Haymes, Hank Snow, the Kalin Twins, Cathy Carr, and others. His first hit record was Don Rondo’s recording of “Two Different Worlds” in 1956. Rosemary Clooney had a Top Ten hit with “Mangos” in 1957. In 1959, Elvis Presley had a number-one hit in the UK with “I Need You Tonight”. The Tempos 1960 recording of “See You In September” was more successfully covered by The Happenings in 1966. In 1960, “Biology” recorded by Danny Valentino was a number-one hit in Vancouver (BC). “Flaming Star” and “Do The Clam” were among the other songs Elvis Presley recorded that Sid Wayne wrote. In all, Wayne wrote thirty songs for Elvis in 17 of his films. As well, “I”m Gonna Knock On Your Door” for Eddie Hodges (1961), and “It’s Impossible” for Perry Como in 1968, are among Wayne’s lasting contributions. Sid Wayne died December 26, 1991 in Dallas, Texas.

“My Love For You” offers metaphors to comprehend the depth of the love a suitor offers:
1) Deep and endless as the sea
2) Strong and mighty as a tree
Add to this a series of vows: 1) there’ll be no other lips, 2) there’ll be no other arms, and 3) ever faithful, ever true.

“My Love For You” peaked at #1 in Albany (NY), #3 in Mobile (AL), #4 in Hull (QC) and Rockville (MD), #5 in San Francisco, #8 in Little Rock (AR) and Lexington (KY), and #9 in Ottawa. Though it stalled at #47 on the Billboard Hot 100, the single peaked at #9 in the UK.

On October 16, 1960, Johnny Mathis appeared on See American with Ed Sullivan: San Francisco performing the Frank Sinatra album hit “Come Dance With Me”. He was back on The Ed Sullivan Show on November 26, 1961, and April 29, 1962. After “Misty”, Johnny Mathis went three years without having a Top 20 hit across the USA. It was his recording of “Gina” in the winter of 1962 that took him to #6. He remained on the pop charts into 1963 with “What Will Mary Say?”, which peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 that March.
Later that year, “Every Step Of The Way” was his last To 40 hit until 1978.

Between 1957 and 1963, Johnny Mathis had 14 Top Ten albums, including ten studio albums and four greatest hits albums.

On November 12, 1967, Mathis sang “Up, Up and Away” on The Ed Sullivan Show. On January 21, 1968, and January 5, 1969,  Johnny Mathis was again a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show. On November 22, 1970, Johnny Mathis returned as a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show to sing “My Funny Valentine”.

In 1975, Mathis recorded a cover of the Stylistics song “I’m Stoned In Love With You”. It climbed to #8 in Ireland and #10 in the UK. In the winter of 1976, Mathis had a number-one hit for three weeks in the UK with “When A Child Is Born”. In 1978, Johnny Mathis continued his comeback with a number-one hit in a duet with Deniece Williams titled “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late”. In 2003, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys. In 2013, Mathis had a #4 hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart with “Sending You a Little Christmas”.

Over the decades Johnny Mathis appeared on The Tonight Show on 54 occasions, variously with Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. To date, Johnny Mathis has appeared in concert in Canada on 48 occasions. This includes concert dates in Niagara Falls, Orillia, Toronto, Ottawa, and Windsor (ON), Richmond, Coquitlam and Vancouver (BC), Montreal and Quebec City (QC), and Edmonton (AB).

In 2015, a fire engulfed and destroyed his home in the Hollywood Hills. And in 2023, a hillside beside his home collapsed and crushed his Jaguar. Mathis is the third best-selling artist of the 20th century, selling 360 million records worldwide. He disclosed in an interview in 1982 that he was ‘gay.’ But the publicity led to death threats and he made no more public statements about his sexuality for several decades.

Mathis continues to tour into the fall and winter of 2024. According to setlist.fm Johnny Mathis had appeared in concert in Canada on 48 occasions. This included appearances in Edmonton (AB), Coquitlam, Richmond, and Vancouver (BC), Niagara Falls, Orillia, Ottawa, Toronto, and Windsor (ON), Montreal and Quebec City (QC). His first concert dates in Canada were a 7-night stand at the El Morocco in Montreal from June 9 to 15, 1958.

On September 30th Johnny Mathis will turn 89.

September 11, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“We weren’t poor, we just didn’t have any money,” American Academy of Achievement, 2011.
Karen Heller, “Johnny Mathis, the Voice of the 50s, was always ahead of his time, now he’s ready to talk about it,” Washington Post, August 2, 2018.
Al Jolson, “Angel Child“, Columbia Records, 1922.
Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, “Pu-Leeze! Mr. Hemingway“, Columbia Records, 1932.
Connie Boswell, “On The Beach At Bali Bali“, Decca Records, 1936.
“Abner Silver, Composer, Dies,” Washington Observer, November 25, 1966.
“Sid Wayne,” Wikipedia.org.
Leanne Suter, “Fire tears through singer Johnny Mathis’ Hollywood Hills home,” ABC, November 2, 2015.
Leanne Suter, “Hillside collapses in front of Johnny Mathis’ Hollywood Hills home, crushes singer’s Jaguar,” ABC, January 18, 2023.
Steven Gaydos, “Johnny Mathis remembers his jazz roots,” Variety, January 4, 2019.
“Johnny Mathis concert dates – Canada,” setlist.fm.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | September 17, 1960