Merry Christmas That magical music that is the hallmark of this classic album is by the great Percy Faith and his Orchestra. This is a man who was a prodigy as a classical pianist who wrote his own songs, but his hands were destroyed by a fire, after which he concentrated on the composing and arranging part of his career. He was musical director of the popular music division at Columbia Records (imagine even having such a division nowadays!), but he recorded for RCA Victor and Decca before that. He's best known for the movie score to the 1960 movie "A Summer Place". He's no longer alive, having died in 1976.
	Rapture, Johnny
	Live It Up Who Nelson Riddle was, and what a phenomenal talent he was, is best described, I think, by his son Christopher, who pays tribute to his father with a site of his own.
	Faithfully, Johnny's Mood B. 1914 in Michigan. Orchestra leader and composer. Lead Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue. Composed songs with Bob Thiele on the Bob Thiele Trio recording Lion-Hearted Later on, Musical Consultant to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. Osser's "Beguine for Band" is a very popular piece for both professional and university orchestras; in 1994 it was performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
	Johnny Mathis: A new sound in popular song. This was Mathis' first album. Gil Evans (d.1988) Teo Macero was a jazz producer at Columbia records from 1957 until the late 1980's. He played tenor and baritone saxophone, and he produced some of Miles Davis' records. He has some records of his own on Stash records.
Open Fire, Two Guitars was the first studio album to do away with the orchestral backing. It featured Al Caiola and Tommy Mottola.
	Killing Me Softly Wth Her Song, Me and Mrs. Jones, The First Time Ever, Song Sung Blue Jerry Fuller produced several singles by Paul Revere & the Raiders and also Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. All four albums he produced for Johnny Mathis made the Top 40, and besides the Thom Bell/Johnny Bristol recordings, I consider them four of the best albums Mathis ever recorded. Four Mathis singles produced by Fuller achieved success; Evie, Make It Easy On Yourself, and the medley Soul and Inspiration/For Once in My Life got to the Top 40; and If We Only Have Love and Arianne made the national charts as well, according to Mr. Fuller's website.
	I'm Coming Home, Mathis Is Thom Bell is one of the founders of the phenomenon called Philly Soul. He's even produced an album for Elton John called, oddly enough, "The Complete Thom Bell Sessions", which I thought was the strangest Elton John album ever, and at the time I had all of them. Don't know if he's still actively producing, though.
	The Heart of a Woman Johnny Bristol produced one of Boz Scaggs' first albums, and he was a fantastic "Philly Soul" performing artist in his own right. I remember him being on my then-favorite show, "Soul Train". His records featured him singing with himself, a process called overdubbing, in my opinion a neat technique they don't do much of anymore. The Carpenters were masters at this, as well.
	Close To You, The Best Days Of My Life, That's What Friends Are For, Friends in Love Jack Gold produced records for Barbara Streisand, too. I understand that the end of his life, Mr. Gold suffered horribly from Parkinson's disease. Loyal Mathis continued to use him as a producer until his death.
	Hold Me, Thrill Me Kiss Me; The Best Days Of My Life, That's What Friends Are For, Mathis Magic Produced and conducted a lot of the Mathis albums from the late 70's/early '80s, and was responsible for the music on the Mathis/Williams #1 hit, Too Much, Too Little, Too Late. Gene Page died at age 58 on Aug. 24, 1998.
	Special Part of Me, Right From The Heart Produced and conducted a lot of the Mathis albums from the early to mid '80s. Denny Diante knew his way around a recording studio; he was a drummer and singer for some obscure surf bands in the 60's, then got in to music arranging. He was also Vice President of A&R for Columbia Records. (I'm not sure what A&R means.) He left CBS for a similar position at MCA in 1989, then started his own label, called OutWest, in 1996.
	Archival producer. He writes good, informative liner notes. In fact, liner notes seem to be his specialty! He's also produced a lot of CBS/Sony's recent compilation recordings, especially the 16 Most Requested Songs series by various artists. He also seems to be in charge of the production of various re-issued recordings.
	The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (single) Prolific songwriter, musician, and producer; started out with the group Skylark in the 70's.
	All About Love I remember this guy. He and his brothers had a band called the Ramones. Phil went on to produce. Probably better money. This man is also sought out for his technical knowledge, so apparently he's got quite a head on his shoulders.
	Because You Loved Me A friend of David Foster's, and a recording engineer who's done some producing, worked with Foster on the St. Elmo's Fire soundtrack. He's won a Grammy award for his engineering work, but I don't know what for yet. He's done a wonderful job on this album.
	Mathis On Broadway Now Senior VP of A&R at Angel Records, Jay Landers produced Barbara Streisand's Higher Ground, but he's also done albums for James Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Art Garfunkel, Roberta Flack, Melissa Manchester, Julio Iglesias, just a whole slew of folk. It was Jay Landers who suggested to Mathis the wonderful selections on this first album of the year 2000. But I don't know who the bonehead was who suggested the album be so short!
Barry Rudolph is another recording engineer who worked on Johnny Mathis' early '70's albums, notably Me & Mrs. Jones. He's a nice guy, too, for answering my e-mail. Read his story about his days from working with Mathis. Another helpful acquaintance, Brad Bigelow, has compiled an exhaustive and impressive reference guide of arrangers and producers of this style of music. Pay him a visit. And tell him I sent you. I'd be truly remiss if I didn't mention the phenomenal D'Arneill Pershing. According to his widow, Mr. Pershing died of a heart attack at the age of 37 back in 1981. Sadly, there is next to nothing available, on the 'net at least, that would educate the public about this great talent. Such wonderful arrangements he did for Johnny Mathis in the early 70's! He seems to have had a varied career, even doing an album of soap opera music called "Great Love Themes from Daytime Television" Nova LPS-00001, a British release. These are some other interesting musicians who have worked with Mathis who have pages of their own. Read about them: Roy Rogosin. Along with D'Arneill Pershing, Rogosin was the musical director and one of the creative geniuses behind the most beautifully-done live album you're ever going to hear, Johnny Mathis Live in Las Vegas. And along with another collaborator, his wife (and former Mouseketeer) Eileen, he's now the founder artistic director of the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Jorge Bermudez Abraham Laboriel I understand this is a top-notch bass guitarist in the genres of jazz and Christian music! Steve Pemberton Joanna Jordan --harpist Gary Mule Deer --comedian (ok, so he's not a real musician!) D. Cooper Getschal --"writer, producer, artist" Merl Saunders --pianist Dobie Gray --singer. Mr Gray didn't work with Mr. Mathis per se...but he wrote the concert favorite "Welcome Home" with another songwriter Bud Reneau...this song appears on the Mathis CD All about Love. Mark Portmann keyboard man. You'll notice the name of the album had changed.

God Bless You, Mr. Mathis.