Johnny Mathis & Columbia/Legacy prepare MASSIVE box set, new album for Fall 2017!

Well, with Mr. Mathis, in the beginning, he was a singles person, then evolved into an album person.By the early 1960s his singles were slipping but he was a strong album seller for Columbia. While at Mercury that fell. By the time he returned to Columbia a few years later, he was almost, knowingly or not, more of a covers artist albums guy, covering the big hits of the day. Once in a while he would stray from that, like "I'm Coming Home", but he was the king of cover records. And he must have done well for Columbia, he stayed with him, with his "JonMat Records" licensing music to Columbia.

That being said, he made a marvelous album dedicated to Duke Ellington in 1990...and I would propose that nobody...even Tony Bennett...has had a more consistent, good catalog than Johnny Mathis from then on. He even made Diane Warren dreck listenable.

 

Yes, I think that is absurd. It makes the set something far from perfect. At that price, they should have included it all.

 

At this point, do any "insiders" believe that those suppliers listing it on "back-order" will ever have it? Or is it now out-of-print and gone. I don't mind a delay.

importcds still lists it as back-ordered more than 3 weeks after I placed my order.

 

Today, when three corporations control maybe 98% of all music (just my guess), staying with one "company" is not unusual.

 

I would love to know his post mercury contracts. I bet they threw a ton of money at him. We knew they let him own his masters.

 

I'm thinking that Sony never imagined there would be much of a demand for the box, considering its price and demographic appeal.

 

Perhaps there are licensing issues that prevent it from happening.

 

importcds just canceled my order without any request from me. This set was poorly planned if an order placed a few days after`release could not be filled. Unless a bargain pops up, I am done with this set.

 

Well, Import CDs cancelled my order, so that's that. I'm not spending $500 for a set without the hits.

 

I thoug

I thought it was complete. It seems like a total blunder.

 

Total blunders are sitting on a sale table at Barnes & Noble for $18.99--sets that are getting $499.00 a month after their release are a big success.

Look, I used to work for a couple of the big record companies. It's all about the money. If they suspect there is a market for product, or if they think selling that product will make them look good, they will sell it. The price they sell product for? As much as they can get. It's a business and you can save yourself a lot of frustration if you always keep that in mind.

All that being said, I think their marketing strategy on this has been brilliant. Most younger consumers don't get that until the late 1970s, there were two separate and distinct business models in the music industry: singles and albums. Johnny Mathis began recording during the mid-1950s. As a result, he was firmly ensconced in that business model. He released singles, which were free standing releases and intended for younger listeners and AM radio but he also released albums, which were purchased by older (i.e., wealthier) listeners and played on FM radio.

Assembling and marketing his recorded oeuvre as "singles" and "albums" thus makes some sense. They were two distinct bodies of work, and some fans would be interested in one set but not the other. As to the Global Records complete albums box and the Columbia Records complete albums box, they are what they are advertised to be--Mathis's complete studio album recordings with two separate and distinct record companies. Separating them out like this thus makes sense to me.

Frankly, my guess is that the Global Records box was a test to see if there was a market for a larger set of the Columbia Records. If the newer box had contained all of the Mercury recordings, some who had purchased the earlier set would be howling that they were being forced to repurchase those recordings they had previously purchased.

The "market" for an entire run of albums by an artist as productive as Mathis has to be small. Very small. I would be astonished if they end up selling more than 10,000 copies of this box when they sell out of the copies with the certificates (but remember they are moving about 100,000 CDs for each 1,500 sold--that's terrific in these times of dismal album sales). I agree that they could have included the original greatest hits album in the set, for its historical value, but one can pick that up for $7 on amazon. The Spanish stuff also might be of interest to some, but if that's the case, trust me, you'll see it marketed as a separate release soon.

 

Who remastered these recordings?

 

Mastering Engineer: Mike Piacentini
Compilation Producers: Didier C. Deutsch, Mike Piacentini

 

Too bad it wasn't Vic Asenti.

 

Anesini? You know...he's not the only good mastering engineer at Sony/Battery. They have a pretty stellar bench. Never heard of Mike Piacentini, but I'd bet he's a disciple of Anesini, Wilder, etc.

 

Yeah, maybe. But he's pretty effing incredible!

 

Check out Amazon.co.uk, the set has just been reduced to £220.74. VAT will be removed for non-EU residents, bringing it down to £187.53 including international shipping (about US$254).

 

After deciding to pass after importCD fell through, this deal grabbed me, and I grabbed it. Thank you for the tip.

That is half price.

 

Some SONY classical boxes come in their own special cardboard shipping container which provides extra protection from the typically poor amazon shipping. Does anyone know if the Mathis box is well protected by the manufacturer?

 

Mine came from amazon.de with the second cardboard container. This was only a simple cardboard box, which fit the shrinkwrapped set rather tightly, but the set arrived in perfect condition. I have found that even that minimal extra protection makes a positive big difference.

And congratulations on getting this set at a good price. The more I'm listening to mine, the happier I am with the purchase. It's really a terrific set.

 

I actually received a box set from amazon USA (a Bear Family set) where they pasted their shipping label directly to the manufacturer's shrink wrap. Really! No box at all. Of course it was damaged and went straight back without even being opened. Amazon must have great staff training programs.

 

Oh my goodness! I have yet to have packing that bad.

To be clear, my package from amazon.de contained the Mathis box, which was shrinkwrapped and enclosed in another cardboard box, a second, much smaller box of Richter's Eurodisc CDs, and a single inflated plastic pillow, all contained in a larger cardboard box. Both items were fine.

 

My box set from JPC came in a perfectly fitting custom Johnny Mathes cardboard box. There was a label on that box that you sometimes see on dedicated boxes that had artist name the contents etc. etc. That was placed in a larger box, and had tons of bubble wrap and padding.


While the custom cardboard box was sealed, the actual set itself was not in shrinkwrap. But it was in perfect condition and had not been opened.

It is number 200 out of 1500.

 

Many thanks for this tip. I was watching importcds based on advice here and when it never came back and orders were being cancelled I thought I simply wouldn't be able to get it. I wouldn't have thought to check foreign Amazon sites. I jumped on this and it is on its way for exactly half of the original Amazon USA price (which has now been reduced to $365.62).

 

The set came in from amazon uk. When I learned that the box did not include the singles, I thought their` rationale that it was "original albums only" seemed to justify deleting the singles. But many of` the CDs in this box contain bonus tracks not on the original LP. Noting that, I cannot understand deleting many of the singles from the box.