NJPAC - January/February/March 2020

meet the artists
Johnny Mathis
The fourth of seven children,
John Royce Mathis was born on
September 30, 1935 in Gilmer,
Texas to Clem and Mildred
Mathis. As a small boy, the family
moved to Post Street in San
Francisco. It was there that he
learned an appreciation of music
from his father who taught him
his first song, “My Blue Heaven.”
At age eight, his father purchased
an old upright piano for $25.
When he brought it home, it
wouldn’t fit through the front
door. So that evening, Johnny
stayed up all night to watch his
father dismantle the piano, get it
into the small living room of their
basement apartment and then
reassemble it. Clem Mathis, who
worked briefly as a musician back
in Texas playing the piano and
singing on stage, would continue
to teach his son many songs and
routines. Johnny had proven to be
the most eager of the children to
learn all about music. He sang in
the church choir, school functions,
community events, for visitors in
their home as well as amateur
shows in the San Francisco area.
He was also a successful track
& field athlete, and was offered
a chance to compete in the U.S.
Olympic Trials. In the same week
Columbia Records called, so
he chose to go to New York to
record his first album, which was
released on July 16, 1956.
Best-known for his supremely
popular hits “Chances Are,” “It’s
Not For Me To Say” and “Misty,”
Mathis has recorded close to 80
albums, six Christmas albums,
and has sold millions of records
worldwide. During his extensive
career he has had three songs
inducted into the GRAMMY ® Hall
of Fame, achieved 50 Hits on
Billboard’s Adult Contemporary
Chart, and ranks as the all-time
#6 album artist in the history of
Billboard’s pop album charts.
He has received five GRAMMY
nominations and in 2003 was
given the Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Academy of
Recording Arts & Sciences. 1958’s
Johnny’s Greatest Hits started the
industry tradition of “Greatest
Hits” albums, and is noted in
Guinness Book of World Records
for a nearly 10-year run on the
Billboard Top Albums Chart.
In addition to all this Mathis
and his music have appeared in
numerous films and TV shows,
including Lizzie, The Tonight Show,
Silver Linings Playbook,
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