Pbenjay's Blog

Johnny Mathis in the'60's

Where Do I Begin to tell you how incredibly Wonderful, Wonderful Johnny Mathis was in concert this past Saturday night? Chances Are I won’t do him justice but I’ll try;   He is an unbelievably youthful septuagenarian – YES  the man is going to be 75 years old September 30th!!!!!!! How does he manage to stand so erect, look so good and sing so awesomely As Time Goes By? Certainly, It’s Not For Me To Say!

I have been to many fabulous concerts at The Great Auditorium over the past 10 years and NEVER have I seen a performer get a STANDING OVATION before he began to sing!! The Great Auditorium holds approximately 6000 people, that’s right you read it correctly, 6000 and everyone stood up and clapped and clapped when the man walked out on stage.   We were ready for A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening listening to the dulcet tone and velvet voice of Johnny Mathis – truly a legend in his own time.

Johnny is not just a singer, not just a mere performer, he is a kind, generous and humble Artist. His mastery of music is so evident as he effortlessly sang his way through many of his greatest hits.  With a strong voice and crisp diction,  every single song elicited applause with the opening notes.

He gave the audience A Certain Smile like Someone In Love while he sang with his heart on his sleeve the most romantic songs we (baby boomers) all remember making out to Didn’t We? ; The Look Of Love, Misty, A Time For Us, A Man And A Woman,  This Heart Of Mine.

Johnny Mathis in the 80's

And Mr. Mathis is not a performer who relies solely on his tried and true winners (although admit it, those are the ones we came to hear) he also regaled us with a musical trip to Brazil.  It was just too much!!!! He is old, he looks young, his voice is a beautiful as ever, he lovely to look at AND he can sing in Portuguese too!!!!

In certainly goes without saying (doesn’t it) that he exudes such romance in his songs, you couldn’t help but love the one you were with and I hope it was the one you are in love with!  Everywhere couples were holding hands and smiling and nodding to one another as Johnny gifted us with yet another song replete with Heavenly, Feelings like  Hello Young Lovers and we remembered when It Was A Time For Us.

I can’t tell you what I had for dinner two nights ago but I knew the words to every song he sang except Brazil. Experiencing his music first as a teenager and now again is such a treasure!  I wish my kids could have known this music in their world – where is their romance?  Oh well…. you ask me how long I will remember this night, this singer with velvet vocal cords AND all the words to his songs???  The answer is: TheTwelfth of Never and that’s a long long time.

And HE can sing in Portuguese too!!!!