Johnny Mathis pops up every now and then in books and magazines, either as anecdotal references, or entire chapters in other books, or as the subject of books and magazine articles. Below is a fairly good list of the ones that I used in compiling a lot of the information you find here in The Mathis Chronicles. They will help give the student of Mathis a more rounded view of his enigmatic personality.

BOOKS BY OR ABOUT JOHNNY MATHIS
Book titles provided with hyperlinks are available for purchase through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and other sources.

Johnny
The authorised biography of Johnny Mathis. So far this is the only biography, authorized or otherwise, that has been on the market. As you can probably tell by the way "authorised" is spelled, it's a British book, authored by Tony Jasper. It was published in 1983 in hardcover by W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. (44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB). It was republished in paperback by Comet Books, which is the paperback division of WH Allen, in 1984. ISBN 0 491 03380 X (Allen), ISBN 0 86379 011 9 (Comet).

This book is out of print, and I was once told by someone at Rojon Productions that this book was best left that way. Why I was told this is something only they understand and doesn't really matter anyway; what DOES matter is, I don't agree at all! This book gives us, the general public as well as students of Mathis, yet another crack in the window to look through, and this window is wider than a lot of them that are available.

I believe that this book is basically very informative. It has some spots where the names were gotten wrong, but frankly, it has fewer typos than the latest souvenir book you find at his concerts that was published for the 40th anniversary. It's insightful, and for me answered a lot of questions; it surprised me in places, and the numerous passages from Mathis' three-years-younger brother, Ralph, show how he grew up, and what his relationship was really like with his parents. There are fascinating (to me) passages on how the recording sessions went, especially the decision-making process involved in the release of a recording and who makes those decisions. There are interesting insights into Mathis' character, such as his concern for his friends, family, and the people who work for him, how generous he is with his wealth, and how he got into a little trouble for telling his opinion (!) These are things that would be difficult to get a handle on if you didn't know that much about Johnny Mathis except the sound bites on television and fewer-still tidbits in the magazines from which one draws conclusions.

AMUSING ANECDOTE: The very first account in the book could sum up the personality of Johnny Mathis in a nutshell. A man named Lennie Reynolds, who was with a group called the Black Abbots that toured with Mathis, was a smoker. By that time Mathis had quit that habit, and while golfing in South Africa (!) he asked Reynolds why he smoked; Reynolds couldn't come up with an answer that satisfied Mathis, so Mathis simply pulls the cigarette from his lips, disposes of it, and asks Reynolds to empty his pockets! Mathis not only wants the cigarettes in his pocket, he wants the ones in Reynolds' hotel room!! Even more amazing, Reynolds complied! Later on, I don't know if it's years or months later Reynolds comes to visit Mathis in his dressing room. Upon seeing Reynolds, Mathis throws some flowers he was arranging up in the air, comes over to hug Reynolds and asks him, "you haven't touched cigarettes since?" Reynolds told him, "no", and Mathis smiles, pats Reynolds' hand and says, "OK!"

There's no real "dirt" in the book...I think the author was a little too compliant in respecting Mathis' privacy in that regard; after all, if you're going to tell a story, you ought to be able to tell the WHOLE story, if you want a product that's going to be interesting to anybody over the age of 15. Even the stories of drug use in the book seem like they were fed to the author by a PR firm. I would have liked to have seen accounts such as the 1971 Rolling Stone interview, in which Mathis himself is a lot more graphic describing what he used to do in the 60's (Mathis almost lost his life on several occasions, although not entirely through usage). Jasper could have made this book more interesting by using more sources than he did. He relies too much on the testimony of people who are "on Mathis' side" and as such is unable to be present a purely objective, from-the-outside viewpoint. I mean, as far as I can gather, Jasper's sources are Mathis' business manager, his promoter, his British tour coordinator, the directors of his fan clubs in Britain and America, and his younger brother. Not very objective, is it? But as it is written now, if it were to be a library book there would be a "J" in front of the catalog number, because it is very tame, and not very deep. As it stands now, I believe a truly comprehensive, thoughtful, and insightful book on Johnny Mathis will probably have to be written after his death; one can only hope that at that time, the story will be tastefully done, and there will still be people around who care enough to want to about the man and the place he'll take in music history.

At the end of the book, there's a very comprehensive discography--they call it a facturama--which includes chart data and lists the releases in the UK and America up til publication date, including picture sleeves, colored vinyl, LPs, and promotional material. It also lists "non UK/US releases of general and special nature", and single records not found on LP in either Britain or America. There's an alphabetical song list that gives the name of a song and what albums it appears on. There's a listing of motion pictures Mathis has been featured in complete with nominated songs, a list of television specials in Britain and America, a list of his extended-play recordings (EPs), and a list of all the trips he made to Great Britain, naturally. There's even a list of the 30-second radio transcripts of commercials he did voiceovers for. Finally, there's a glossary of the different people and places important in Johnny's life and career, and a list of all the conductors and musicians for all tours from 1966 to publication.

My conclusion is that there's nothing all that wrong with this book that a little polishing won't fix. I think Tony Jasper did the best job he could with what little material he had to work with. Again, it's my hope that a more well-rounded (not so one-sided) "unauthorized" biography with adult issues will appear in the future, again not likely before Mathis' death. Anyway, the information in the back of the book alone is worth the price you may pay for it. (It costs more now than when it first came out. At the bookstore I bought it from, I paid the equivalent of $18 American.) Clean up the typos, double-check the fact checking to get the names and dates right, and I think you have a book that's at least as good as any other biography meant for a teenager or young adult that's out there. These are things which a second edition could put right...even though it isn't likely that there'll be one.

Johnny Mathis LPs. Vol. 10 I don't own this one, but I understand it's a very comprehensive listing of Johnny Mathis albums, and I don't know about Vols. 1 through 9...you might ask the publisher.

There's one other book that's worth a mention. Cooking For You Alone , by Johnny Mathis, published by T.E.C. Publishers, Fullerton, CA, a small, spiral-bound cookbook of Mathis' favorite recipes that was published in 1981. Mathis has said, "The recipes are designed for people who cook for themselves or don't want to spend two or three hours in the kitchen. Nothing is too complicated, and you don't have to spend a fortune." He also recently indicated it was kind of a hassle to produce because of the need then to verify the recipes. What editors won't make you do, huh?

Now that I've actually been able to get my hands on one, I can see that it's really a well-designed little book that's meant to be USED. There are no "fanclubby" pictures of Mathis; this book emphasizes the FOOD. I think this is appropriate. Full-color photos illustrate each of six sections; there's a small black-and-white photo of Johnny Mathis in the Introduction. Real thought was put into the hard cover which folds into a self-supporting unit and has coated pages which are washable with a damp sponge.

These are even harder to come by than the biography...do yourself a favor and avoid the more popular online auction like eBay where one or two Mathis fanatics drive the price impossibly high. (One has sold at auction over $120 American.) Instead, inquire at various small bookstores, even the ones in Canada or overseas, where the exchange rate works to your advantage; you'll be more likely to find one at a decent price.

OTHER BOOKS WHICH MENTION JOHNNY MATHIS

The Melody Lingers On (1996) by Jules and Jo Brooks Fox. Chapter with photograph.
Who's Who of Black Millionaires (1984) by Frank J. Johnson. Chapter with photograph.
Stepping Out: Nine Walks through New York City's Gay and Lesbian Past (1997) by Daniel Hurewitz. Partial chapter reference with photograph.
Showtime at the Apollo: 50 great years of entertainment from Harlem's World Famous Theatre (1983) by Ted Fox. Anecdotal references, photograph.
Sessions! (1994) by Norman Seeff. Photographs and anecdote.
Sing Out! Gays and Lesbians in the Music World (1997) by Boze Hadleigh. Chapter.
Nat King Cole (1994) by Daniel Mark Epstein. Several anecdotal references.
Double Exposure Take Four (1999) by Roddy McDowall. Photograph.
Sharing Christmas (1990) by Deborah Raffin. Personal anecdote and photograph.

OTHER SOURCES
A good resource for researchers looking for written material on Johnny Mathis is called ABE Books. Here, various small bookstores list their inventory at this common source, and it saves hopping from website to website looking for material. Good hunting!

God Bless You, Mr. Mathis.

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