Crooner Johnny Mathis has taken his final bow, playing his last ever show at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey.
Earlier this year the singer announced he was cancelling all future shows citing ongoing challenges with his memory. It brings a close to a career that’s spanned seven decades.
Mathis began singing in jazz clubs in San Francisco in the 1950’s and was later signed to Columbia Records where he scored hits like Wonderful! Wonderful and Chances Are. Mathis will celebrate his 90th birthday this September.
His final show saw congratulatory messages from many singing stars including Barry Manilow, Chaka Khan, Patti Labelle, Nile Rodgers and Lionel Ritchie, with many of them citing him as an influence.
For is final show Mathis performed a staggering 32 tunes taking in some classics as 99 Miles from LA, Yesterday, Betcha by Golly Wow, Moon River, When I Fall in Love, and Wild is the Wind. For the encore he signed off with How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
Mathis came out as gay in a 1982 interview with Us magazine, he later said the comment was meant to have been off-the-record. He didn’t speak about his sexuality again until 2006 when he shared that in the wake of the 1982 article he’d been subjected to multiple death threats after the information became public.
While Mathis found success in the 1950’s and 1960’s, his career had enduring success. He was still having chart hits the late 1970’s, teaming up with Deniece Williams for Too Much, Too Little Too Late in 1978. His voice was heard throughout the 80s as he sang the theme tune to the popular sitcom Family Ties.
In the early 1980s he worked with Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, at the same time they were delivering hits for Sister Sledge, Diana Ross and Carly Simon. His record company however refused to release the disco-tinged album I Love My Lady, and it remained in the vaults until 2017.
In 1984 Mathis recorded the track Love Never Felt So Good which was written by Michael Jackson and Paul Anka. A posthumous version from Jackson would be included on his 2014 album Xscape which saw him matched with Justin Timberlake.
Mathis also found huge success singing Christmas carols, his voice filling shopping centres around the globe every December. Over is career Mathis has recorded a whopping 74 albums of material.
In 2017 he released an album of covers of recent chart hits delivering his interpretation of songs made famous by Whitney Houston, Pharrell, Adele, Bruno Mars and Keith Urban.
His most release in 2023 was a new selection of Christmas songs.
