Portrait of Johnny is a compilation album by Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records on July 17, 1961,[1] and described on the cover as "The Third in the Johnny Mathis Greatest Hits Series". Seven B-sides of chart hits are included along with four of the corresponding A-sides that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 or "bubbled under" it and one song ("Should I Wait (Or Should I Run to Her)") from a single that had neither side chart in Billboard magazine.[6]
In the "Spotlight Albums of the Week" column in the issue of Billboard dated July 31 of that year, a description of the release states, "A deluxe merchandising effort is represented here, with the fine color cover painting of Mathis, reproduced in a gold titled frame, which is attached to the liner.[4]
The album entered the magazine's Top LPs chart a month later, in the issue dated August 28, and spent 63 weeks there, seven of which were in the number two position.[7]
Reception
Allmusic's Joe Viglione wrote, "The liner notes read like a good biography from a PR firm, better fare than '60s albums usually offered for the album jackets, but there's no clarification on where this material was culled from."[2] He concludes, "The disc sounds like a pastiche, but as always, with the sublime voice of Johnny Mathis as the common denominator, it is as entertaining as ever and perhaps more interesting than usual with all the musical changes on each track."[2]
Track listing
Recording and release dates are taken from the liner notes of The Singles (2015).[3]
