Yuletide Jukebox
The Music That Makes the Season
Featured Record
Johnny Mathis — Merry Christmas
Columbia Records, 1958
Some Christmas records feel like productions. Others feel like memories. Johnny Mathis’s Merry Christmas belongs firmly to the second category.
Released in 1958 and framed by Percy Faith’s lush arrangements, the album catches Mathis in peak form: warm, polished, and effortlessly intimate. From “Winter Wonderland” to “O Holy Night,” these performances feel made for lamplight, snowfall, and a room that has gone quiet enough to listen.
What has kept Merry Christmas alive for so many seasons is its balance of grandeur and nearness. Mathis never oversings these songs. He welcomes you into them. For many listeners, Christmas has not fully arrived until Johnny Mathis does.