Johnny Mathis

Killing Me Softly With Her Song Johnny Mathis

As Johnny Mathis plays to packed houses across the country on his acclaimed The Voice of Romance Tour, Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records continue

their series of deluxe reissues from the superstar artist with a new two-for-one CD debuting two albums on standalone CD. 1973's Killing Me Softly with Her Song and 1975's When Will I See You Again both spotlight Mathis' silky interpretations of the day's greatest hits. Killing Me Softly with Her Song was his final full-length album collaboration with songwriter-producer Jerry Fuller (Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, The Knickerbockers) and premiered Fuller's "Show and Tell," a top 40 AC hit for Johnny which singer Al Wilson subsequently took to the top of the U. S. Pop chart. It also boasts classic songs from Thom Bell, Kenny Gamble, and Linda Creed (The Stylistics' "Break Up to Make Up"), Don McLean ("And I Love You So"), Stevie Wonder ("You Are the Sunshine of My Life"), David Gates ("Aubrey"), and Joe Raposo (Carpenters' "Sing") - adding up to one of Johnny's most eclectic long-players. 1975's When Will I See You Again took its title from Gamble and Leon Huff's hit for Philadelphia's Three Degrees, and featured another tribute to the Philly sound with Bell and Creed's beautiful "You're as Right as Rain." Johnny brought Mathis magic to the Barry Manilow smash "Mandy," Neil Sedaka's buoyant "Laughter in the Rain," Marvin Hamlisch's Oscar-winning "The Way We Were," The Sherman Brothers' "The Things I Might Have Been," and three tracks from the pen of Paul Williams. This two-for-one disc boasts liner notes by The Second Disc's Joe Marchese with fresh quotes from Johnny Mathis and Jerry Fuller. Mike Piacentini has remastered at Sony's Battery Studios. It all adds up to a release that's right as rain.