#168: Wild Is The Wind by Johnny Mathis

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CKOY
Peak Month: January 1958
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “Wild Is The Wind”
Lyrics: “Wild Is The Wind”

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.

On December 11, 1957, a new film was released titled Wild Is The Wind. Johnny Mathis sang the theme song.

In 1958, “Wild Is The Wind” was the theme song from the film Wild Is The Wind, starring Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani and Anthony Franciosa. In the film, Gino (Quinn) marries Gioia (Magnani) who is the sister of his deceased wife. Gino calls Gioia by his departed wife’s name. Feeling resentful for being compared to her late sister and found wanting, she finds love outside her marriage with a ranch hand named Bene (Franciosa). Both Anthony Quinn (Best Actor) and Anna Magnani (Best Actress) were nominated at the Academy Awards. Meanwhile, in 1957 in Italy, Anna Magnani received her fourth Italian Nastro d’Argento Best Actress award for the Italian-language comedy The Awakening. 

For his performance, Mathis received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1958, where he also sang the song at the event. “Wild Is The Wind” lost to “All The Way” from The Joker Is Wild starring Frank Sinatra and Mitzi Gaynor.

“Wild Is The Wind” was cowritten by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington. Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was born in 1894 in Kremenchuk, Russia, in what is now part of southern Ukraine. He learned piano and was classically trained from childhood. He studied classical music in St. Petersburg. Tiomkin supported the Russian Revolution, but moved to Berlin in 1921 when there was little work for classical musicians in the new Soviet Union. From Berlin he moved to Paris in 1924 and crossed the Atlantic for New York in 1925. While in New York City he gave recitals at both Town Hall and also Carnegie Hall. He moved to Hollywood after the stock market crash of 1929. His first major film score was the 1933 film Alice In Wonderland. In 1937 he began with with Frank Capra and scored Lost Horizon. In 1940 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring for Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Other films with Capra included Meet John Doe and It’s A Wonderful Life. He worked with other directors, for example Alfred Hitchcock beginning Shadow of a Doubt and  Strangers On A Train. 

Meanwhile, Dimitri Tiomkin continued to earn more Academy Award nominations. But it was his sixth nomination in 1953 that won him the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture for High Noon (1952). In the same film he shared an Oscar with Ned Washington for “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling” in the Best Music, Original Song category. In the film the song was sung by Tex Ritter. Tiomkin won another Academy Award in 1955 for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture for the film The High And Mighty. While his 1957 and 1958 Academy Award nominations for “Friendly Persuasion” (sung by Pat Boone) and “Wild Is The Wind” (sung by Johnny Mathis) didn’t get him another Oscar, Tiomkin won his fourth Academy Award in 1959 for his scoring of The Old Man and The Sea. starring Spencer Tracey and based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway.

Other films Timokin scored in the ’50s include Dial M For Murder and Giant. In 1962, when Tiomkin was nominated for an Academy Award for composing the music for “Town Without Pity”, it was his 17th nomination. His final and 21st Academy Award nomination was in 1972 for Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song in the film Tchiakovsky. Spending his final twelve years in London and Paris, Tiomkin died at the age of 85 in 1979. The New York Times reported that Dimitri Tiomkin composed scores for over 160 films.

Cowriter of “Wild Is The Wind”, Edward “Ned” Michael Washington was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1901. He began his career as a vaudeville Master of Ceremonies. Washington both introduced acts and also was an agent for a number of them. His first success came in 1928 with the song “Singing in the Bathtub,” which was included in the musical revue Earl Carroll Vanities of 1929. In 1932 he wrote “I Don’t Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You”, a Top Five hit for Bing Crosby in 1933. In 1934 he got a contract with MGM studios. That year he wrote “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”, a hit for Tommy Dorsey. In 1938 Washington wrote “The Nearness Of You” which became a Top Five hit for the Glenn Miller Orchestra featuring vocals by Ray Eberle. In 1940 Ned Washington won an Academy Award for Best Song for “When You Wish Upon A Star”. He also received an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for Pinocchio.

Ned Washington received An Academy Award in 1952 (together with Dimitri Tiomkin) for “The Ballad Of High Noon” (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling). He and Tiomkin shared Academy Award nominations for “Wild Is The Wind”(1958) and Strange Are The Ways Of Love” from the 1959 film The Young Land.  Though Tiomkin’s score for The High And Mighty won an Academy Award in 1955, Ned Washington’s song “The High And Mighty” got a nomination, but didn’t win an award. Ned Washington also was nominated for Best Original Song in 1941 for “Baby Mine”, in 1943 for “Saludos Amigos”, in 1944 for “Rio De Janeiro”, in 1949 for “My Foolish Heart” and in 1953 for “Sadie Thompson’s Song (Blue Pacifc Blues)”.  Ned Washington died in 1976 at the age of 75.

“Wild Is The Wind” reflects the forbidden passion between Gioia and Bene, as they try to keep the hunger of their desire hidden from Gioia’s rancher husband Gino. Johnny Mathis sings “Like a leaf clings to a tree, oh my darling cling to me. For we’re creatures of the wind, and wild is the wind.”

“Wild Is The Wind” peaked at #1 in Toronto, #3 in Sacramento (CA), and Akron (OH), #4 in Ottawa, #5 in Caribou (ME), Washington DC, Floral Park (NY), and Pittsburgh, #7 in Milwaukee (WI), #8 in Lowell (MA), and #9 in Denver, #10 in Bethesda (MD) and Georgetown (DL).

“Wild Is The Wind” has been covered by Nina Simone, George Michael, and David Bowie.

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. Late that year he released the single “Misty”.

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”.

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.

Johnny Mathis looks forward to his 90th birthday on September 30, 2025.

August 18, 2025
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.
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.
Allen Hughes, “Dimitri Tiomkin Dies, Wrote Film Scores: Russian-Born Composer Won Four Oscars, Including ‘High Noon’ and ‘High and Mighty’,” New York Times, November 14, 1979.
Warren M. Sherk, “Dimitri Tiomkin Biography,” dimitritiomkin.com.
“Dimitri Tiomkin Filmography,” dimitritiomkin.com.
“Ned Washington Biography,” Songwriters Hall of Fame.

CKOY 1310-AM Ottawa Top Ten | January 18, 1958