Johnny's Greatest Hits, by Johnny Mathis (March, 1958)

Dad's Take:

It's kind of cheating to include greatest hits records in a list of classic albums, but there are several on our list, so there you go. But I suppose when the greatest hits album not only topped the charts but stayed on the charts for two and half months short of 500 weeks, a Billboard record until it was bested by Pink Floyd's 1973 Dark Side Of The Moon, the album definitely qualifies as a classic.

The performances on this album are as sweet as honey. Whether the classic Mathis anthem, "Chances Are," or standards like "When Sunny Gets Blue" or the gorgeous "Wonderful! Wonderful!," Mathis is as close to perfect as you're going to get. He was perhaps the best old-school balladeer of the rock and roll age. Not bad for a Texas kid who grew up in San Francisco and very nearly made the Olympic track team.

Song after song, this album is full of slow dancing favorites. If 1958 was anything like 1978 (and I suspect it wasn't all that different), then this album was put on late at night, instantly turning teen dance parties into teen make-out parties.

Nearly every song that came on made me think, "Oh yeah! I know that one." I don't always recognize the titles, but I know most of the songs. I'd forgotten about great tunes like "It's Not For Me To Say." So, I might ding this one a bit for being a Greatest Hits record instead of showcasing what Mathis could do on a complete album, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a great record of mellow love songs, sung by one of the classic voices of popular music. Mathis occasionally tips over the line into sappiness, but most of the time he's just plain romantic.

One can only wonder how much this record contributed to the last few years of the baby boom.

Brad's Take:


Before listening to this, I'd heart the name Johnny Mathis here and there, but I don't know if I ever knowingly listened to any of his music.

After listening to the whole album, I re-discovered a couple songs that I have heard once or twice before, such as "Wonderful! Wonderful!"

If Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours was a post-break up album, Johnny Mathis' Johnny's Greatest Hits could have been the pre-break up album. All the songs are corny, but every song is sung with all of Johnny's full love stricken heart. (That was pretty corny too.) The lyrics aren't that corny though. They are love songs, but they're not overly cheesy. It's a grilled cheese sandwich, but the cheese doesn't melt over the edges. You know what I mean...

I'm excited to finally start a Johnny Mathis collection. I really like this greatest hits record and I'm very interested in hearing more from Johnny Mathis' ginormous back catalog.

Memorial Album by Hank Williams (September 1956 UK)

Dad's Take:

I don't care who thinks we're silly
You be daffy and I'll be dilly
We'll order two bowls of chili
Settin' the woods on fire

This album was assembled and released a couple years after Williams died too young in the back seat of a Cadillac. I couldn't find a US release date, other than "1955" (with two more songs), but our book lists a September, 1956 UK release date, so we're going with that release.

I'm not a country music fan, but I like Hank Williams and some of the other old-school country artists. Williams might not have invented western music, but he brought a new emotion and heart to the genre. This is back when there wasn't a lot of difference between country & western and folk. It's American roots music, and it lies at the bottom of nearly everything that came after in rock 'n' roll, whether it's Buddy Holly (and by extension, The Beatles), Bob Dylan, CCR, or the Eagles. Without Hank Williams, today's popular music, whether country, rock, or whatever else, would be a very different place.

This is a fine collection of eight Hank Williams classics. It might have been a mistake to follow "Your Cheatin' Heart" with the nearly identical "You Win Again," to open the album, but other than that, I have no complaints.

Every drawn-out word is a hillbilly cry, every bit as sad as Sinatra was in the wee small hours. Sinatra cried in a city bar, where Williams sat alone by the fire out on the ranch, but both lamented their plight. When Williams is cheerful, as in "Settin' The Woods On Fire," "Hey, Good Lookin'," or "Jambalaya" (which was apparently on the 1955 release but not on the only one we could find, and which is very much missed on this record), the joy fills his voice just like the cries of the sad stuff.

Bottom line for me is, whether you like country music or not, no American popular music education is complete without a good strong dose of Hank Williams. This album is as good a place as any to start.

Brad's Take:


This isn't a style that I usually listen to on my own, but I enjoyed this memorial album. The tempo and guitar style to some of the songs aren't much different than the Chet Atkins album we reviewed before this, but with vocals and a band, it makes it different enough.

If you have this on as background music, you'll think it's all upbeat and cheesy fun country songs, but when you pay attention to the lyrics, you hear that Hank had his ups and downs in relationships:

If you missed me half as much as I miss you
You wouldn't stay away half as much as you do
I know that I would never be this blue
If you only loved me half as much as I love you

Like my dad said, whether you're a fan of country music or not, Hank Williams would definitely have to fit into the curriculum of The History Of American Music. Artists like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash might have never gotten as popular as they did without Hank Williams' success.

Sings The Rodgers and Hart Songbook Vol. 1, by Ella Fitzgerald (August, 1956)

Brad's Take:

This is a collection of songs written by the duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenzo Hart as performed by the incredible Ella Fitzgerald. In the 24 years that they wrote music together, Rodgers and Hart wrote over 500 songs and 28 stage musicals, including A Connecticut Yankee.

I personally haven't listened to any of the original Rodgers and Hart versions of these songs, at least that I am aware of, so I can't really compare Ella's recordings to the originals. From what I can tell though, I'm sure Ella's beautiful voice does them justice, if they aren't even better.

Ella Fitzgerald reminds me of a female Frank Sinatra. She has that same kind of unmistakable classic voice that Frank had. Another thing that reminds me of Frank Sinatra is that they both had slow melancholy ballads as well as up-tempo swing songs, and they both did each style perfectly. I'm glad neither of them just stuck with one style.

Ella also reminds me of a classy neighbor who'd sing around the house, but was too shy and modest to ever make a recording or perform in public, and would give you cookies if you came over to visit. I just imagine her singing over some of her favorite records while she was cleaning the house or something, and the only way you could really ever watch her sing was peering through the window or putting your ear against the front door, like a creep.

Although all of the songs on this compilation are written by someone else, she makes them her own in these recordings. She sings with just as much passion as she would have if she had written them herself. But you can't forget to mention the beautiful compositions by Buddy Bregman. Ella and Buddy really complimented each other extremely well on this album.

There's no reason why anyone who likes classic jazz and swing music shouldn't have this album in their collection.

Dad's Take:
I've been looking forward to listening to this one. I've never heard it, but I believe that Ella Fitzgerald had one of the greatest voices in the history of recorded music. Unfortunately, I read Brad's review before I started listening. Now I feel like I have to wear my creepy peeping Tom outfit. And here all this time I thought I was done with that part of my life. So I'll grab my trench coat and other gear from the back of the closet and put this album on.

I worried going in that I would know all of the songs, so it would feel like a tribute album. Fortunately, I only recognize a few of the titles. I like that, because part of the fun of this little exercise Brad and I are going through is hearing new music I might not otherwise have picked up. Turns out it wouldn't have mattered. Thanks to Ella's incredible performances and the brilliant arrangements by Buddy Bregman, this record could contain her versions of all the songs I know best, or total gibberish for that matter, and I'd still be enthralled. And, of course, the songs themselves are wonderful.

I find myself not even caring about the songs and just concentrating on Lady Ella's voice. And when she's not singing, the musical arrangements are almost as good. A few times I' even wished she wouldn't sing again for just a little longer during instrumental breaks so I could listen to the music. Of course, those thoughts vanish as soon as her voice kicks in again. I really like that Bergman's work is not mixed as far back as Nelson Riddle's are in In The Wee Small Hours.

It's interesting to compare Ella and Sinatra's versions of "Dancing On The Ceiling." We heard Frank's version on In The Wee Small Hours. Hearing two masters interpret the same song in such different ways is a musical education all by itself. Where Frank imbued the song with an ironic melancholy, Ella makes it a pure romantic dream. If this were a competition, I couldn't pick a winner. Because I prefer Ella's voice, I thought I'd give her the edge, but her version makes me appreciate Sinatra's ability to put an unexpected twist of emotion into a song. We get to compare the two albums again with "It Never Entered My Mind."

I've tried to find both the merits and flaws of each album so far, and I have to admit, I'm having trouble finding any flaws, unless it's that, even with 17 songs, this record is too short. This is about as perfect as it gets and is--unexpectedly--my favorite on our list so far. Lucky for us, Ella Fitzgerald released a volume 2.