Nostalgic Rambler: Johnny Mathis Love Songs

Welcome to the Nostalgic Ramber

Hans Jeff Borger is heard on WRGE 97.9 FM in Ocala, FL featuring Christian programming.

"The Nostalgic Rambler" radio show can be heard on Youtube. Just search for Hans Jeff Borger Nostalgic Rambler.

Why a blog? I wrote a book "The Little Grownup: a nostalgic Michigan boyhood" which should appeal to most baby boomers. A mass market book? Well, not yet...but the potential is there! (Be sure to buy it at "finer on line bookstores" everywhere!)

The comments presented in "The Nostalgic Rambler" probably won't be of interest to the masses...anymore. If grandma and grandpa and their friends were still alive, then it would be a different story.

I live in the past. My time warp is a comfortable cocoon even if it sometimes drives my wife crazy. The music of the 1940s and 50s, the stars of those days were big stuff in their day, but are now almost forgotten. Oddly enough, I was born in '64 so those iconic years were for the most part over by that time.

Through "The Nostalgic Rambler" I maybe can help share my love and knowledge for those times and things...all at one time important pieces of Americana but now a bit faded in memory.

The woman who did the blog about cooking all of Julia Childs' French Cuisine Cookbook in a year got a sweet movie deal out of her blog experience. I wouldn't mind that but would be happy to know that you are reading this....and maybe enjoying my time warp, too.

Hans Jeff Borger

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Johnny Mathis Love Songs

With Valentine's Day around the corner, the nostalgic rambler looks at some of the most romantic love songs ever recorded.

According to the experts.....After Elvis and Sinatra, Johnny Mathis is the artist who has sold the most albums. He has recorded everything from religious to jazz, but his main claim to pop fame is his love song output.

His 1958 album "Johnny's Greatest Hits" is chocked full of beautiful sounds. It spent nine and half years on the top 100 album chart listings! I recall hearing somewhere that more people "made out" to Johnny's album than any other. I don't know how you could verify that, but it sounds possible.

Here are a few selections from that album you might like. Click here for Wonderful! Wonderful! and click here for The Twelfth of Never. The harp on that song will melt your heart!

I have Johnny's first album. It is nothing like his later years where his sound was molded by Columbia Records icon Mitch Miller. His first album even has him singing the Desi Arnaz theme "Babalu," not exactly a smooth silky love ballad! It's an interesting collector's piece but I don't play it much.

I do play the other albums in my collection and there are quite a few Mathis gems in there. "Open Fire, Two Guitars" is a beautiful one I would recommend highly. Of course if you don't have "Johnny's Greatest Hits," that would be the place to start. It's Wonderful! Wonderful!