Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Johnny Mathis - Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head & Sings the Music of Bacharach & Kaempfert


Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records have kicked off a new series celebrating
the legendary Johnny Mathis’ classic albums of the 1970s and onward with the first-ever expanded CD edition (and standalone U.S. CD premiere!) of the artist’s very first LP of the 1970s. 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 smooth 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 ve 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,” arranged by Harry Nilsson’s frequent collaborator, Perry Botkin, Jr.! The blues they sent to meet you won’t defeat you with this newly-expanded edition of one of Johnny’s most beloved albums!

1. Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
2. Honey Come Back
3. Watch What Happens
4. Something
5. Alfie
6. Midnight Cowboy
7. A Man and a Woman
8. Odds and Ends
9. Jean
10. Everybody's Talkin'
11. Bridge over Troubled Water
12. Night Dreams
13. Whoever You Are, I Love You
14. For All We Know
15. Wherefore and Why
16. The Last Time I Saw Her
  
In a career spanning over 60 years, Johnny Mathis has always had an unerring ear for a song...witness his new, 2017 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, with a double album entitled Johnny Mathis Sings the Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert. Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are proud to inaugurate a series of Johnny’s greatest albums of the 1970s and beyond on CD with the first-ever expanded reissue of The Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert. 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 by German 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 classics including “Heavenly” and “Faithfully.” Soon, Bacharach’s style would de ne 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. In true Real Gone/ Second Disc style, though, that’s not all! We’ve added ve rare bonus tracks to this already jam-packed double album: Bert Kaempfert’s “It Makes No Difference,” originally issued only in the U.K., and four hits by Burt Bacharach and Hal David including their very rst song with Johnny, “Warm and Tender,” and three more favorites from Johnny’s Global Records period! Mathis + 1 Burt + 1 Bert = Johnny Mathis Sings the Music of Bacharach and Kaempfert, or 26 tracks of musical bliss!

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


No comments:

Post a Comment