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Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head (Johnny Mathis album)

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Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
Studio album by
Johnny Mathis
ReleasedFebruary 25, 1970[1]
RecordedOctober 14, 1969
January 6–7, 1970
January 22, 1970[2]
GenreVocal[3]
Length35:28
LabelColumbia
ProducerJack Gold[4]
Johnny Mathis chronology
Give Me Your Love for Christmas
(1969) 		Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
(1970) 		Close to You
(1970)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link
Billboardpositive[5]

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 25, 1970, by Columbia Records[1] and included several covers of chart hits from the previous year along with 1964's "Watch What Happens" and the 1966 tunes "Alfie" and "A Man and a Woman".

The album's producer, Jack Gold, added lyrics to the instrumental theme from "Midnight Cowboy", and it became the first song from the album to be released as a single. While it did manage to reach number 20 on Billboard magazine's Easy Listening chart during the five weeks it spent there that began in the issue dated November 15, 1969,[6] an instrumental version by Ferrante and Teicher had debuted there just two weeks earlier and surpassed the Mathis showing by reaching number two[7] in addition to peaking at number 10 on the magazine's Hot 100.[8] "Odds and Ends" was the second single from this album and had its first appearance on the Easy Listening chart in the March 21, 1970, issue, beginning a three-week run that took the song to number 30.[6] The album itself started a run of 26 weeks on their Top LP's chart just a few issues later and got as high as number 38.[9]

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head was released for the first time on compact disc in 1995 as one of two albums on one CD, the other LP being the 1971 Mathis title Love Story.[10]

Reception

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Joe Viglione of Allmusic remarked that "Mathis rarely gets credit for the way he can bend and shape notes, obvious on "Something" as well as his reading of "Honey Come Back", Glen Campbell's 1970 hit."[3] He also praised the album as a whole. "The sound with Jack Gold steering the ship is much more restrained than when Percy Faith and Nelson Riddle added their magic to Mathis's voice, but for the time it was just perfect."[3]

Track listing

[edit]

Side one

[edit]
  1. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 2:36
  2. "Honey Come Back" (Jimmy Webb) – 3:02
  3. "Watch What Happens" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Norman Gimbel, Michel Legrand) – 3:20
  4. "Something" (George Harrison) – 2:34
  5. "Alfie" from Alfie (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 3:15
  6. "Midnight Cowboy" from Midnight Cowboy (John Barry, Jack Gold) – 2:49

Side two

[edit]
  1. "A Man and a Woman" from A Man and a Woman (Pierre Barouh, Jerry Keller, Francis Lai) – 3:25
  2. "Odds and Ends" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 3:04
  3. "Jean" from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Rod McKuen) – 3:44
  4. "Everybody's Talkin'" from Midnight Cowboy (Fred Neil) – 3:02
  5. "Bridge over Troubled Water" (Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel) – 4:37

Recording dates

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From the liner notes for The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection:[2]

  • October 14, 1969 – "Midnight Cowboy"
  • January 6, 1970 – "A Man and a Woman", "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"
  • January 7, 1970 – "Everybody's Talkin'", "Odds and Ends", "Something", "Watch What Happens"
  • January 22, 1970 – "Alfie", "Bridge over Troubled Water", "Honey Come Back", "Jean"

Personnel

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  • Johnny Mathis – vocals
  • Jack Gold – producer[4]
  • Ernie Freeman – arranger and conductor (except where noted)[4]
  • Al Capps – arranger and conductor ("Midnight Cowboy")[4]
  • Phil Macy – engineer[4]
  • Guy Webster – photography[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b (1993) The Music of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection by Johnny Mathis [CD booklet]. New York: Columbia Records C4K-48932.
  2. ^ a b (2017) The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection by Johnny Mathis [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music Entertainment 88985 36892 2.
  3. ^ a b c "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head – Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f (1970) Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head by Johnny Mathis [album jacket]. New York: Columbia Records CS 1005.
  5. ^ "Album Reviews". Billboard. 1970-03-13. p. 46.
  6. ^ a b Whitburn 2007, p. 178.
  7. ^ Whitburn 2007, p. 94.
  8. ^ Whitburn 2009, p. 341.
  9. ^ Whitburn 2010, p. 503.
  10. ^ "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head/Love Story – Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 21 September 2016.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Whitburn, Joel (2007), Joel Whitburn Presents Billboard Top Adult Songs, 1961-2006, Record Research Inc., ISBN 978-0898201697
  • Whitburn, Joel (2009), Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 1955-2008, Record Research Inc., ISBN 978-0898201802
  • Whitburn, Joel (2010), Joel Whitburn Presents Top Pop Albums, Seventh Edition, Record Research Inc., ISBN 978-0-89820-183-3
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