Background and career
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his career with singles of standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century. He became highly popular as an album artist, with several of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts. Mathis has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for three recordings. Although frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Latin American, soul, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, soft rock, blues, country music, and even a few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic in 1979. Mathis has also recorded seven albums of Christmas music. In a 1968 interview, he cited Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, and Bing Crosby among his musical influences.
Mathis was born in Gilmer, Texas, on September 30, 1935, the fourth of seven children of Clem Mathis and Mildred Boyd, both domestic cooks. Mathis is African-American and has said that he has Native American ancestry on his mother's side. The family moved to San Francisco when Mathis was five, settling on 32nd Avenue in the Richmond District, where he grew up to be an active member of the student body at George Washington High School. Mathis would perform for his classmates, already a clear vocal talent. Clem Mathis worked in vaudeville as a singer and pianist, and on realizing his son's talent, bought an old upright piano for $25 (equal to $457 in 2025) and encouraged Mathis's musical pursuits. He began learning songs and routines from his father, and his parents also ran his fan club. Mathis's first song was "My Blue Heaven", and he started singing and dancing for visitors at home, school, and church functions. When Mathis was 13, voice teacher Connie Cox accepted him as her student in exchange for housework. Mathis studied with Cox for six years, learning vocal scales and exercises, voice production, and classical and operatic singing. The first band he sang with was formed by his high school friend Merl Saunders. Mathis eulogized Saunders at his funeral in 2008, thanking him for that first chance to be a singer. Mathis was a star athlete at George Washington High School in San Francisco. He was a high jumper, hurdler, and basketball player. In 1954, he enrolled at San Francisco State College on an athletic scholarship, competing in both basketball and track and intending to become an English and physical education teacher. There, he set a high jump record of 1.97 m (6 ft 5+1⁄2 in), still one of the college's top jump heights and only 7 cm (3 in) short of the 1952 Olympic record of 2.04 m (6 ft 8+1⁄2 in). Mathis and future National Basketball Association star Bill Russell were featured in a 1954 sports section article of the San Francisco Chronicle demonstrating their high-jumping skills; at the time, Russell was No. 1 while Mathis was No. 2 in the city of San Francisco.
While singing at a Sunday afternoon jam session with a friend's jazz sextet at the Black Hawk Club in San Francisco, Mathis attracted the attention of the club's co-founder, Helen Noga. She became his music manager and found him a job singing on weekends at Ann Dee's 440 Club. In September 1955, Noga learned that George Avakian, head of Popular Music A&R at Columbia Records, was on vacation near San Francisco. After repeated calls, Noga persuaded Avakian to hear Mathis at the 440 Club. After hearing Mathis sing, Avakian sent his record company a telegram reading: "Have found phenomenal 19-year-old boy who could go all the way. Send blank contracts." At San Francisco State, Mathis became noteworthy as a high jumper and was asked to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team that traveled to Melbourne in November 1956. However, on his father's advice, Mathis opted to embark on a professional singing career. Mathis's first album, Johnny Mathis: A New Sound In Popular Song, was a slow-selling jazz album, but he stayed in New York City to sing in nightclubs. His second album was produced by Columbia Records vice president and record producer Mitch Miller, who helped to define the Mathis sound. Miller preferred that Mathis sing soft romantic ballads, pairing him with conductor and music arranger Ray Conniff, and later Ray Ellis, Glenn Osser, and Robert Mersey. In late 1956, Mathis recorded two of his most popular songs: "Wonderful! Wonderful!" and "It's Not for Me to Say". That same year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him to sing the latter song in the movie Lizzie (1957).
In June 1957, Mathis appeared on the TV program The Ed Sullivan Show, which helped increase his popularity. Later that year, he released his second single to sell one million copies, "Chances Are". In November, he released "Wild Is the Wind", which featured in the film of the same title and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis performed the song at the ceremony in March 1958. The week before Mathis appeared at the Academy Awards, Johnny's Greatest Hits was released. The album spent an unprecedented 490 consecutive weeks (nearly nine and a half years) on the Billboard top 200 album charts, including three weeks at number one. It held the record for the most weeks on the top Billboard 200 albums in the U.S. for 15 years, until Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (March 1973) reached 491 weeks in October 1983. Later in 1958, Mathis made his second film appearance for 20th Century Fox, singing the song "A Certain Smile" in the film of that title. The song was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. By the end of the year, Mathis was set to earn $1 million a year. Critics called him "the velvet voice". In 1959, Mathis released his album Heavenly, which topped the Billboard album chart for five weeks during its historic 295-week run. In 1962, Ebony magazine listed Mathis as one of 30-35 millionaires on its list of "America's 100 Richest Negroes". He had two of his biggest hits in 1962 and 1963, with "Gina" (number 6) and "What Will Mary Say" (number 9).
In October 1964, Mathis sued Noga to void their management arrangement, which Noga fought with a countersuit in December. After splitting from Noga, Mathis established Jon Mat Records, incorporated in California on May 11, 1967, to produce his recordings, and Rojon Productions, incorporated in California on September 30, 1964, to handle all his concert, theater, showroom, and TV appearances, and all promotional and charitable activities. (Previously, Mathis had founded Global Records to produce his Mercury albums.) His new manager and business partner was Ray Haughn, who helped guide Mathis's career until his death in 1984.
While Mathis continued to make music, the ascent of the Beatles and early 1970s album rock kept his adult contemporary recordings off the pop singles charts until he experienced a career renaissance in the late 1970s. Mathis had the 1976 Christmas number one single in the UK with the song "When a Child Is Born", and two years later, he recorded "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" with singer Deniece Williams. Nat Kipner and John McIntyre Vallins arranged its lyrics and music. Released as a single in 1978, it reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, number nine on the Canadian Singles Chart, and number three on the U.K. Singles Chart. It also topped the US R&B and adult contemporary charts. "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" was certified gold and silver in the U.S. and the U.K. by the RIAA and the British Phonographic Industry, respectively. It was his first number one hit since "Chances Are". The duo released a follow-up duet, their version of "You're All I Need to Get By", that peaked at number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1983, they were credited with performing "Without Us", the theme song for the American television sitcom Family Ties from its second season onward. The success of his duets with Williams prompted Mathis to record duets with various partners, including Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, Jane Olivor, Stephanie Lawrence, and Nana Mouskouri. A compilation album, also called Too Much, Too Little, Too Late, was released by Sony Music in 1995 and featured the title track among other songs by Mathis and Williams.
