The Essential Johnny Mathis

The Essential Johnny Mathis is a nice, two-disc, multiple-decade-spanning overview of Johnny Mathis's music. Obviously, when you're dealing with somebody with a lengthy career and large output level like Mathis, two discs will omit loads of hits and other tracks; therefore, I won't look at this in terms of what was left off, because it would take a box set to even begin assembling Mathis's various hits and whatnot. I'll focus on what is included, and that is a very good collection of Mathis's tunes that takes one through the years with some of his 50s favorites ("It's Not for Me to Say," "Chances Are") and 60s ("What Will Mary Say," "Gina") and 70s ("I'm Coming Home," "Life Is a Song Worth Singing") hits, some show tunes ("What I Did for Love," "Memory") and some Christmas classics ("When a Child Is Born," "Sleigh Ride.") Basically, you get a little bit of everything, rounded out with some of Mathis's later recordings ("Unbreak My Heart," "Because You Loved Me"). Overall, I rate this set highly for achieving what it sets out to do: representing in two CDs the many facets of the versatile Johnny Mathis.

Tracks:
1. Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)
2. When Sunny Gets Blue
3. It's Not for Me to Say
4. Wonderful! Wonderful!
5. Chances Are
6. No Love (But Your Love)
7. The Twelfth of Never
8. Wild Is the Wind
9. Teacher, Teacher
10. A Certain Smile
11. Sleigh Ride
12. My Funny Valentine
13. Misty
14. Small World
15. Maria
16. Dancing on the Ceiling
17. Stairway to the Stars
18. Gina
19. What Will Mary Say
20. The Sweetheart Tree
21. On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
22. The Look of Love
23. A Time for Us

Disc 2
24. I'm Coming Home
25. Life Is a Song Worth Singing
26. 99 Miles from L.A.
27. What I Did for Love
28. When a Child Is Born
29. Too Much, Too Little, Too Late (with Deniece Williams)
30. Begin the Beguine
31. Memory
32. Friends in Love (with Dionne Warwick)
33. Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)
34. Prelude to a Kiss
35. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
36. Let Your Heart Remember
37. Unbreak My Heart
38. Because You Loved Me
39. Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries (featuring Forever Plaid)
40. On Broadway