The First 25 Years – The Silver Anniversary Album

The First 25 Years – The Silver Anniversary Album
Compilation album by Johnny Mathis
Released	1981
Recorded	1956–1959 1969–1980
Genre	Vocal Stage & Screen R&B Pop/Rock[1]
Length	1:06:38
Label	Columbia
Johnny Mathis chronology
I Love My Lady (1981) The First 25 Years – The Silver Anniversary Album (1981) Celebration – The Anniversary Album (1981)

The First 25 Years – The Silver Anniversary Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 1981 by Columbia Records. It made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated July 25, 1981, and remained there for four weeks, peaking at number 173.^[2]

The back cover of the album notes that there are four new tracks ("It Doesn't Have to Hurt Every Time", "Nothing Between Us but Love", "There! I've Said It Again", and "The Way You Look Tonight").^[3] A cover of the Commodores hit "Three Times a Lady" had been released on the UK version of his 1980 album Different Kinda Different, which was retitled All for You, but the Mathis rendition of the song makes its US debut here.^[4]

This release has a gatefold cover that opens to a gallery of photos of Mathis, many of which include other celebrities such as Jack Benny, Mike Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, Henry Mancini, Jane Olivor, Prince Charles, Karen Valentine, Dionne Warwick, and Flip Wilson.^[3]

The album was encoded with the CX noise reduction system.^[3]

Track listing

Side 1

1. "Misty" (Johnny Burke, Erroll Garner) – 3:34
   • Al Ham, Mitch Miller – producers^[5]
   • Glenn Osser – arranger, conductor^[5]
2. "Begin the Beguine" (Cole Porter) – 4:16
   • Jack Gold – producer^[6]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[6]
3. "Didn't We" (Jimmy Webb) – 2:43
   • Jack Gold – producer^[7]
   • Ernie Freeman – arranger, conductor^[7]
4. "It Doesn't Have to Hurt Every Time" (Jim Andron, Candy Parton) – 3:41
   • Jack Gold – producer^[3]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[3]
5. "Wonderful! Wonderful!" (Sherman Edwards, Ben Raleigh) – 2:49
   • Al Ham, Mitch Miller – producers^[5]
   • Ray Conniff – arranger, conductor^[5]

Side 2

1. "It's Not for Me to Say" (Robert Allen, Al Stillman) – 3:05
   • Al Ham, Mitch Miller – producers^[5]
   • Ray Conniff – arranger, conductor^[5]
2. "Stardust" (Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parish) – 3:27
   • Jack Gold – producer^[8]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[8]
3. "Three Times a Lady" (Lionel Richie) – 4:15
   • Jack Gold – producer^[3]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[3]
4. "The Way You Look Tonight" (Dorothy Fields, Jerome Kern) – 3:17
   • Jack Gold – producer^[3]
   • Arnold Goland – arranger, conductor^[3]
5. "Deep Purple" (Peter DeRose, Mitchell Parish) – 3:31
   • Jack Gold – producer^[9]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[9]

Side 3

1. "Chances Are" (Robert Allen, Al Stillman) – 3:02
   • Mitch Miller – producer^[10]
   • Ray Conniff – arranger, conductor^[10]
2. "All the Things You Are" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) – 3:33
   • Jack Gold – producer^[11]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[11]
3. "Love Theme from 'Romeo and Juliet' (A Time for Us)" (Larry Kusik, Nino Rota, Eddie Snyder) – 2:53
   • Jack Gold – producer^[7]
   • Ernie Freeman – arranger, conductor^[7]
4. "Nothing Between Us but Love" (Ray Parker, Jr., Candy Parton) – 3:21
   • Jack Gold – producer^[3]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[3]
5. "There! I've Said It Again" (Redd Evans, David Mann) – 2:46
   • Jack Gold – producer^[3]
   • Arnold Goland – arranger, conductor^[3]

Side 4

1. "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" performed with Deniece Williams (Nat Kipner, John Vallins) – 2:55
   • Jack Gold – producer^[12]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[12]
2. "As Time Goes By" (Herman Hupfeld) – 4:35
   • Jack Gold – producer^[6]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[6]
3. "When Sunny Gets Blue" (Marvin Fisher, Jack Segal) – 2:40
   • Al Ham, Mitch Miller - producers^[5]
   • Ray Conniff - arranger, conductor^[5]
4. "Ready or Not" performed with Deniece Williams (Amber DiLena, Jack Keller) – 2:51
   • Jack Gold – producer^[13]
   • Gene Page – arranger, conductor^[13]
5. "I'm Coming Home" (Thom Bell, Linda Creed) – 3:24
   • Thom Bell – producer, arranger, conductor^[14]

Song information

Two of the four new tracks on the album had previously been recorded by other artists. "The Way You Look Tonight" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song^[15] after it was performed in the 1936 film Swing Time by Fred Astaire,^[16] whose recording of the song spent six weeks at number one that same year.^[17] The second of the two, "There! I've Said It Again", had two number-one outings, the first of which, by Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra, enjoyed six weeks atop the Most Played by Jockeys chart in Billboard magazine in 1945 and sold one million copies;^[18] Bobby Vinton's rendition of the song stayed in the top spot for four weeks on the magazine's Hot 100^[19] and for five weeks on its Easy Listening chart^[20] in addition to reaching number 34 on the UK singles chart in 1964.^[21]

Personnel^[3]

• Johnny Mathis – vocals
• Deniece Williams – vocals ("Ready or Not", "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late")
• Nancy Donald – design
• Mary Francis – design
• David Vance – front cover photography

References

Notes