JOHNNY MATHIS

pop singer

“You know, we weren’t poor, but we didn’t have a lot of money because I come from a large family. So I don’t remember ever buying a record. What I did was I listened to the music on the radio and went to friends’ houses who had recordings.

“But the way I heard most of my first music was it was played for me by my dad, who was a good singer and piano player. He taught me the first two albums worth of songs that I recorded. After I had a hit record or so, I was left on my own really to find the songs that I wanted to sing, so I reverted to the ones that my dad sang. Those are the ones that I put on the first couple of albums like ‘Heavenly’ and ‘Warm.’

“He also would bring home records of what he called ‘sweet music’ - records by singers like Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine and Peggy Lee. He liked music with a jazz influence.”