The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection (2017)
Christmas Time Is Here (2023)
The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection is a 68-disc box set by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on December 8, 2017, by Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The packaging noted that it includes 67 albums that have been remastered, several of which were being made available on CD for the first time. Two of those, I Love My Lady and The Island, were debuting in their entirety for the first time anywhere, and 38 of the bonus tracks included had also previously gone unreleased.
Background
Johnny Mathis was surprised when Columbia Records notified him that they would be releasing a box set of everything he had recorded for the label.[2] Regarding the songs on the albums included, he explained that his early success gave him the freedom to choose what to record, saying, "[M]ost of the stuff I ever wanted to do, from the time I was a little kid growing up in San Francisco, I've been fortunate to be able to put them into recordings."[3] Upon receiving his own copy of the box set, he described it as "the greatest feeling I've ever had in my musical life."[4] He told The Arizona Republic, "I saw all of the years and years of dedication and working hard and learning and trying to improve… It's hard to explain to even the most devoted fans what you've gone through in your life."[5]
Critical reception
In his review of the box set for The Second Disc, Joe Marchese asserted, "What it reveals is that the history of Johnny Mathis is, put simply, the history of American music in the second half of the twentieth century."[6] In summation he wrote that Mathis's "consistence of quality and variation of style" were the most compelling reasons he had to recommend it.[6]Elmore Magazine's Suzanne Cadgène admired many qualities of the release, including the organization and labeling of the discs, the album cover reproductions, the extensive liner notes, and the "delicious" music.[7] In addition to noting how "handsomely designed" it was, Mikael Wood of The Los Angeles Times praised the box set for its inclusion of the two previously unreleased Mathis albums, stating, "Both demonstrate how nimble a singer Mathis has always been — and how curious a mind."[8] Brenda Nelson-Strauss of Black Grooves recommended the collection "if you're interested in a complete career retrospective with plenty of tempting bonus material and you have a large budget".[9] Michael P. Coleman of Sac Cultural Hub wrote, "We all know the hits, but the album cuts are equally breathtaking … [T]hese albums are bonafide masterpieces."[3]
Contents
Recording dates and release information taken from the liner notes.[10]
^ abcd(2017) The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection by Johnny Mathis [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music Entertainment 88985 36892 2.
