Johnny Mathis, the Grammy Hall of Fame and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award legendary singer, made a stop on his Voice Of Romance tour at Cerritos Center For The Performing Arts on September 9th.
The 87-year-old superstar still has maintained his remarkable, powerful tenor voice with the unmatched vibrato.
Mathis, with a career spanning 67 years, brought all of his adoring fans back in time, while singing all of his greatest hits, and more. As usual, his charisma oozed into the audience.
He has spent his entire lifetime dedicated to keeping his voice finely-tuned, and there is no sign of him slowing down.
Thanks to Columbia Records discovering him and signing him to a record contract at the age of 19, he would become the longest-running recording artist in their stable of singers, many of his albums reaching gold and platinum status, and selling 350 million records worldwide.
73 of his albums found their way to the Billboard top album charts.
Mathis is also a trailblazer. His album, "Johnny's Greatest Hits" (1958) was the first of its kind and would spawn other artists to carry on that tradition of greatest hit albums.
He had a quality orchestra backing him up.
He started the concert singing "When I Fall in Love," and the audience were so feeling the spirit of the song, many shouted out to Mathis that they loved him.
Mathis' created a set list that included a wide range of covers as well as his original hits.
Some other songs he sang in his first set were his anthems, "It's Not For Me To Say" and "Chances Are." He even paid tribute to Henry Mancini by singing his anthem, "Moon River."
When Mathis returned to the stage for the second half of the show, he entertained the audience by singing some Broadway tunes, starting with "April in Paris," and then moving into "Strangers in Paradise," among others. "Strangers" is one of his staple Broadway songs.
He even paid tribute to the Beatles, singing "Yesterday." Every song he sings turns gold.
Then he sang some more of his biggest hits, including "Wonderful! Wonderful!," "Misty," and my personal favorite "The Twelfth of Never."
Near the conclusion of the concert he treated the audience to a few Brazilian songs and then ended it all with "Let The Good Times Roll," dancing all the while, and then, of course, received a standing ovation.
Mathis is one of those rare and talented individuals that continues to have the love and passion for his art after all these years in the music business.
Everybody left the theater feeling "wonderful."
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