IN ANTICIPATION OF VALENTINE’S DAY, HERE’S MY LIST OF THE 10 GREATEST LOVE SONGS OF ALL TIME. I’LL POST A SONG EVERY DAY THROUGH VALENTINE’S DAY.
When he was just a child, Johnny Mathis had to choose between singing and training for the Olympics as a high jumper.
Mathis never won a gold medal, but he has collected a trunk load of gold records.
Born in Texas, Mathis and his family moved to San Francisco where he was discovered singing in a nightclub at the age of 19 and was quickly signed to a contract with Columbia Records.
A string of hit ballads ensued and somehow, Mathis wasn’t wiped out by the rock and roll tsunami.
Ken Bloom writes in The American Songbook, “Mathis has presented an ever-youthful, clean cut, nonthreatening image to millions for over 50 years.”
I think his best romance song is this one, sung at a concert in 1984:
National Public Radio did a feature on Johnny Mathis and his longevity in 2005.
BLOG EXTRA:
Love songs can come from anywhere and anyone. Just about everyone is doing the old standards, as Johnny Mathis mentioned in the NPR interview, thanks to Rod Stewart’s tremendous success with those old classics.
Check out this unlikely combo:
Tony Bennett, who knows a thing or two about love songs, and K.D. Lang collaborating on a wonderful duet of “La vie en rose.”
Valentine's Day is next Thursday.
TOP TEN LOVE SONGS
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7) CHANCES ARE
8) UNCHAINED MELODY
9) EMBRACEABLE YOU
10) THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT
