Johnny Mathis

404. Deniece Williams – Free (1977)

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The Intro

US Grammy-winning soul singer Deniece Williams is probably best known for her US number 1 Let’s Hear It for the Boy from the musical drama Footloose. However, she had a UK number 1 seven years earlier with Free, which seems to have been mostly forgotten about. This is wrong.

Before

June Deniece Chandler was born 3 June 1951 in Gary, Indiana. She grew up singing gospel in a Pentecostal church but at home she particularly loved jazz singers like Nancy Wilson and Carmen McRae. Chandler went to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in the hopes of becoming a registered nurse, but she dropped out after a year and a half. Chandler had taken up a part-time job singing and also spent time working as a ward clerk and for a telephone company.

In 1968, as Deniece Chandler, she began recording for The Toddlin’ Tow group of labels in Chicago. Her debut was Love Is Tears. Her early work left little mark, but one song, I’m Walking Away, became popular with the Northern Soul scene in the UK. In 1969 she briefly joined and sang lead with The Lovelites.

In 1971 Chandler became Deniece Williams after marrying high-school sweetheart Kendrick Williams, Around this time, her cousin John Harris was working as a valet for his childhood friend Stevie Wonder. He introduced her to Wonder, and he asked her to join Wonderlove, his group of backing singers. And so Williams had the pleasure of performing on some of Wonder’s greatest work, including the albums Talking Book in 1972, Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1974 and Songs In the Key of Life in 1976. Williams also featured on Syreeta’s 1974 LP Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta, Minnie Riperton’s Perfect Angel in 1974 and Roberta Flack’s Feel Like Makin’ Love a year later.

But in 1975 Williams decided to try again as a solo artist, befriending Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White. He and record producer Charles Stepney set up production company Kalimba Productions and got her signed to Columbia. Williams worked with them on her debut album, This Is Niecy, released in 1976. A few months before it hit the shops, Stepney died. The first single to be released was Free.

Review

This sprawling sophisticated soul stretches out to 5.58 on the album, but unfortunately it’s hacked back to 2.50 in its single form. It’s a shame as it does take away some of its beauty. But then again, it’s too good a song to keep as just an LP track. Williams puts in a gorgeous performance, cooing and seducing, sweet and sensuous. It’s very refreshing to hear a woman singing about how she has no intention of sticking around once she’s spent the night with this guy. Excellent production from White and Stepney too. It’s very similar in sound to a Gamble & Huff classic, sung by Minnie Riperton. Free definitely deserves to be better known and it’s nice to see the British public sending something like this to the top of the charts for a fortnight.

After

Another single from This Is Niecy – That’s What Friends Are For – followed and also did well here, peaking at eight. White produced Williams’ follow-up album Song Bird alone, but a lone single, Baby, Baby My Love’s All for You only reached 32. In 1978 she guested on Johnny Mathis’ album You Light Up My Life and their duet from it, Too Much, Too Little, Too Late was a US number 1 and climbed to three on these shores. They decided to record a full album together, named after That’s What Friends Are For.

The next few years saw little in the way of chart success, bar It’s Gonna Take a Miracle (10 in the US) from 1982 LP Niecy. Another duet with Mathis, Love Won’t Let Me Wait, was released in 1984. But it was the title track to her next album, Let’s Hear It for the Boy, which saw her make a great comeback later that year. It reached two in the UK and was a US number 1, no doubt helped by its exposure in Footloose. The following year she worked with Wonder again, on his album In Square Circle.

In 1986 Williams went back to her roots, releasing the gospel album So Glad I Know. Over the past few years she had been nominated for many Grammys. She finally won two in 1987 – Best Female Soul Gospel Performance for I Surrender All and Best Duo or Group Gospel Performance with Sandi Patti for They Say. A year later she won Best Female Gospel Performance for I Believe in You. Understandably, with such plaudits coming her way, Williams began concentrating on gospel.

The Outro

Her output began to slow during the 90s but Williams did guest on Nancy Wilson’s 1990 album A Lady With a Song, George Duke’s 1992 album Snapshot and Stevie Wonder’s Conversation Peace in 1995. In 1998 she released This Is My Song, a gospel album that earned her Grammy number four, for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. WIlliams’ last album to date is 2007’s Love, Niecy Style.

The Info

Written by

Deniece Williams, Hank Redd, Nathan Watts & Susaye Greene

Producers

Maurice White & Charles Stepney

Weeks at number 1

2 (7-20 May)

Trivia

Births

13 May: Actress Samantha Morton

Meanwhile…

7 May: The third G7 summit is held in London.
Also on this day, the 22nd Eurovision Song Contest is held in London. Marie Myriam wins for France with L’oisseau et l’enfant (The Bird and the Child). In second place were the UK thanks to Lynsey de Paul and Michael Moran’s Rock Bottom.

10 May: An explosion at Dounreay nuclear power plant is caused by potassium and sodium.

15 May: Liverpool become English Football League champions for the 10th time.

17 May: The Queen commences her Silver Jubilee tour in Glasgow. 

398. Johnny Mathis – When a Child is Born (Soleado) (1976)

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The Intro

After 20 years in the music business, US pop crooner Johnny Mathis finally scored a UK number 1, and the all-important Christmas spot too, with a timely ballad many associate with the festive season. It’s a throwback to the stately Christmas songs of old.

Before

John Royce Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas on 30 September 1935, of African-American and Native American heritage. The family soon moved to San Franciso, California, which is where he grew up. His father Clem was a singer and pianist, and could see his fourth of seven sons had musical talent. He bought him an old piano for the princely sum of $25. In years to come his parents would run his fan club. Soon, Mathis was singing and dancing for visitors, at school and church. From the ages 13 to 18 he was given singing lessons.

But Mathis had other interests in his youth too. He was a star athlete at George Washington High School, excelling at the high jump, hurdles and basketball. At San Francisco State College in 1954 he set a high jump record that was only 7cm short of the 1952 Olympic record.

Around this time Mathis got to know Helen Noga, co-owner of The Black Hawk Club where he often performed. She became his manager in 1955 and was offered a contract with Columbia Records. He had to decide whether to sign or try out for the Olympics. On his father’s advice he chose the former and released his eponymous jazz-flavoured debut LP in 1956. His first single, Wonderful! Wonderful! followed in 1957 and was a number 14 hit in the US.

It was only the start, as It’s Not for Me to Say peaked at five and then Chances Are topped the US chart. It was followed by The Twelfth of Never, reaching nine. It later became a number 1 for Donny Osmond in 1973. A hugely successful year was rounded off with Wild is the Wind, later covered beautifully by David Bowie on Station to Station. It was the theme to a film of the same name and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 1958. He repeated this achievement with A Certain Smile the following year, which peaked at four in the UK.

Mathis also released Johnny’s Greatest Hits in 1958, which is considered the first of its kind and it held the record for most consecutive weeks in the Billboard album chart until The Dark Side of the Moon overtook it in 1983. Mathis rounded off the year with his first Christmas single, Winter Wonderland, a number 17 hit on these shores. Someone was a number six UK smash in 1959. When My Love for You climbed to nine a year later, it became his last UK chart entry for 15 years.

Relations between Mathis and Noja soured and in 1964 they fought in court. He bought a mansion in Hollywood Hills that had been built by Howard Hughes, and he still owns it to this day. In 1967 Mathis established Jon Mat Records but the 60s were a lean time for his career thanks to the British Invasion. He was no longer fashionable, though he did try to appear more hip by covering Simon & Garfunkel’s The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) and the theme from Midnight Cowboy, both in 1969.

The 70s looked to be going the same way with covers of The Bee Gees’ How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? in 1971 and The Walker Brothers’ former number 1 Make It Easy on Yourself in 1972 making little impression. But then in 1975 he made a surprise return to the hit parade with a cover of I’m Stone in Love with You by The Stylistics and When a Child is Born (Soleado) topped them all on Christmas Day 1976.

The bracketed part of the title is where the tune originated. Soleado was a mainly instrumental song composed in 1974 by Ciro Dammico, aka Zacar, and Dario Baldan Bembo. Soleado was adapted and transformed into various different songs depending on the country, including in the UK, where Vera Lynn sang a version called There Comes a Day in 1975. Fred Jay, who later co-wrote hits for Boney M, was responsible for the English lyrics that Mathis made famous.

Review

So is When a Child is Born (Soleado) a Christmas song or not? Strictly speaking, no. You can easily take the lyrics and say they’re a retelling of the Nativity, with a child’s birth bringing about a ‘brand new morn’ and talk of ‘walls of doubt, crumble tossed and torn’. It all sounds very much like the miraculous birth of Jesus, particularly the reference to ‘A tiny star lights up way up high.’ As it was on my cash-in The Best Christmas Album in the World… Ever!, I’ve considered it for the season for well over 20 years. But upon re-reading the words, it seems to me it’s telling us we’re still waiting for someone to be born that can make the world a better place. It becomes clearer when Mathis recites the spoken word section:

‘And all of this happens because the world is waiting,
Waiting for one child
Black, white, yellow, no-one knows
But a child that will grow up and turn tears to laughter,
Hate to love, war to peace and everyone to everyone’s neighbour
And misery and suffering will be words to be forgotten, forever’

Ouch, that ‘yellow’ bit has aged badly hasn’t it? But the intention was well-meant I’m sure. So yes, Mathis is waiting expectantly for someone to come along and save us all. Personally, the child this song reminds me of is my eldest daughter Emmie, who was due to arrive around Christmas 2011. I love a good croon when the moment and song is right, and still sometimes belt out ‘You’re on solid ground’ triumphantly.

When a Child is Born (Soleado) is a step back to the easy listening of the past, and you can bet the older generation were glad to have a Christmas number 1 that wasn’t by those glam rock upstarts for a change. While I prefer the festive classics of Slade and Mud, I’ve room in my heart for this too. Mathis is a class performer. Just ignore, as is so often the case for me, the spoken word section.

After

Although 1977 was another sparse year for hits, Mathis enjoyed another comeback a year later thanks to a duet with Deniece Williams (herself a number 1 artist in 1977 with Free) when Too Much, Too Little, Too Late became a US chart-topper. Mathis was encouraged by this to record many more duets, with, among others, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole. 1979 saw Mathis nominated for a third Oscar, this time for The Last Time I Felt Like This, recorded with Jane Olivor.

In 1981 Mathis tried to update his sound and recorded an LP with Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, but I Love My Lady remained unreleased until the mammoth 68-disc box set The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection in 2017. His last hit was Friends in Love with Warwick, released in 1982.

Despite the sales dwindling, he did release material sporadically over the next few decades. Mathis has, along with Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, the longest tenure on the Columbia label. He reduced his number of live performances in 2000 but still gets out there, now aged 85. In 2003 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been entered into its Hall of Fame three times.

Proving it’s never too late to change course, Mathis released a country album, Let It Be Me: Mathis in Nashville. A Christmas album, Sending You a Little Christmas followed in 2013, and his last collection so far is Johnny Mathis Sings the Great New American Songbook (2017), where he tried his hand at modern hits by Adele and Pharrel Williams. After years of rumours, Mathis came out the year of its release. A survivor of alcohol and prescription drug problems, he’s done lots of commendable work for charity.

The Outro

Well, 1976 was a slog wasn’t it? Glam rock is no more and disco isn’t hitting the upper reaches as much as I’d like yet. Unfortunately 1977 is similar, but I can see at least one classic to come… perhaps the greatest number 1 of all time…

The Info

Written by

Zacar & Dario Baldan Bembo/Fred Jay (English lyrics)

Producer

Jack Gold

Weeks at number 1

3 (25 December 1976-14 January 1977)

Trivia

Births

1 January 1977: Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan
10 January: Sinn Féin leader Michelle O’Neill
11 January: Cricketer Billy Taylor – 11 January
13 January: Actor Orlando Bloom

Deaths

14 January 1977: Conservative Prime Minister Anthony Eden – 14 January 1977

Meanwhile…

3 January 1977: Home Secretary Roy Jenkins announces he is leaving the House of Commons to become President of the European Commission. 

6 January: EMI terminates its contract with the Sex Pistols after only one single, Anarchy in the U.K. This was in response to the band’s infamous appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today in December and incident two days previous at London Heathrow Airport.

327. Donny Osmond – The Twelfth of Never (1973)

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The Intro

You just couldn’t keep the Osmonds down for long in the early-70s. After a brief fightback from glam rock acts, they were back at the top once more, this time it was golden boy Donny with his second number 1.

Before

Since his last solo number 1, Puppy Love, Donny’s voice had broken. Despite this, and while the Osmonds experimented with rock on the unlikely classic, Crazy Horses, he ploughed the same furrow of romantic ballads from the 50s and 60s. The title track of his fourth solo album, Too Young, climbed to number five, and double-A-side follow-up Why/Lonely Boy reached number three. With two albums per year, not counting LPs released with his siblings, you certainly can’t accuse the Osmonds of laziness. They were milked for all they were worth, which was a fortune.

The first track off his fifth album, Alone Together, The Twelfth of Never dates back to 1956. Penned by Jerry Livingston (who co-wrote songs on Disney’s Cinderella) and Paul Webster (the lyricist on 1953 best-seller Secret Love), the tune was inspired by the 15th-century English folk tune The Riddle Song.

Crooner Johnny Mathis was the first to record it, a year later, as the B-side to his hit Chances Are, but he didn’t think much to the song. Then Cliff Richard released a version in 1964, which reached number 8.

Review

Coming after Block Buster ! and Cum On Feel the Noize only makes The Twelfth of Never seem that much duller than it already is. Osmond’s voice may have broken but he still seems too young to be singing about how he’ll love his girl forever. It needs a crooner with gravitas, and is far better suited to Mathis. It has a pretty nice tune, but the lyrics have aged – and the ending in which is noted that the twelfth of never is ‘a very long time’… no kidding!

The Outro

Mike Curb and Don Costa’s production is polished but barely conceals a rather lacklustre affair, when all is said and done. Not as nauseating as Puppy Love though, and certainly better than his little brother Jimmy’s effort.

The Info

Written by

Jerry Livingston & Paul Francis Webster

Producers

Mike Curb & Don Costa

Weeks at number 1

5 (31 March-6 April)

Trivia

Births

3 April: Actor Jamie Bamber

Meanwhile…

1 April: Value-added tax (VAT) first came into effect, and phase 2 of the Price and Pay Code came into effect, restricting rises in pay and prices as a counter-inflation measure.

6 April: Peter Niesewand, a correspondent of The Guardian newspaper and the BBC, was jailed in Rhodesia for an alleged breach of the Official Secrets Act.