Country Johnny Mathis - '50s Texas music

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 16 Dec 2014 8:13 am

Thought I'd post this because I think he was a great, but really under-rated singer. (Pretty good steel playing, too!) I don't think he's ever been mentioned on the forum, either.

Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1QnB-RD9FQ

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 16 Dec 2014 8:30 am

And he did 2 really good lp's on Little Darlin' records with Lloyd on steel.

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 16 Dec 2014 9:54 am

He was a great singer for sure. I've only heard one of his recordings. Back in the sixties KFOX radio in Long Beach, Ca. played a tune of his quite a bit called "Please Talk To My Heart". I think that was the name of it... Ray Price had a recording called "Talk to your heart" and he later on recorded the Johnny Mathis song. The lyrics went something like this as I remember...

Please talk to my heart because I'm lonely,
Don't worry because I'm so blue.
And don't be afraid because I'm crying,
I'm crying because I need you...

Please, please, I'm so lonesome,
Any love you can give me will do.
And don't be afraid because I'm crying,
I'm crying because I need you......

Another great country singer of that era that's pretty much been forgotten is Bobby Lewis, remember him?..........JH in va.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 16 Dec 2014 12:11 pm

Graham wrote:

Wow, his appearance certainly changed on this album cover. Did he have the operation?

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 16 Dec 2014 3:04 pm

He actually gave up singing country for the most part and just did gospel recordings and his writing.

George Jones alone recorded more than 20 of his songs.

Ron Brown · Post by **Ron Brown** » 16 Dec 2014 3:24 pm

Jerry;
I sure do remember Bobby Lewis. I picked with him back in the late 60's. Also worked with Anthony Armstrong Jones, Penny DeHaven, Gorden Terry & more. Do you remember them??

Ron

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 17 Dec 2014 6:32 am

Besides being a top hand on a fiddle, Gordon Terry was an excellent singer. His 1969 Chart lp "The Gordon Terry Way" has 4 of my favorite songs on it.

Think Lloyd Green might have done the steel work on it as he did the steel work on A.A. Jones' 1969 Chart lp "Proud Mary."

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 17 Dec 2014 6:46 am

Hey Ron, I sure do... didn't Anthony Armstrong Jones have a country hit with "Proud Mary", also I think he was related in some way to Conway Twitty. Gordon Terry and I are both "alumni" of Bonnie Price's Foothill Club in Signal Hill, Calif. but he was there a good while back before me. I remember his recording of "Johnson's Old Gray Mule"... Penny DeHaven, I remember her but can't remember what she recorded... I recall that Bobby Lewis was a former jockey or something and was a little dude. I loved his song "How Long Has It Been" (When's the last time he kissed you)... He really should have been a major artist as he sang better than the majority of the "biggies"..........JH in Va.

Ron Brown · Post by **Ron Brown** » 17 Dec 2014 7:22 am

Another hit for A.A. Jones was a song called "Take A Letter, Maria" and yes,"Proud Mary"

Ron

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 17 Dec 2014 12:10 pm

For Jerry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3KtFRY ... T-_s-VSTFA

Ron Brown · Post by **Ron Brown** » 17 Dec 2014 1:32 pm

For Jerry

PM sent

Ron

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 18 Dec 2014 8:15 am

Hey Graham, thanks a bunch for posting that. I actually like his "original" of that better than Ray Price's cover version...

Ron, thanks for the PM...JH in Va.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 18 Dec 2014 8:48 am

Graham wrote:He actually gave up singing country for the most part and just did gospel recordings and his writing.

Aside form the lyrics, did the musical style change?

George Duncan Sypert · Post by **George Duncan Sypert** » 18 Dec 2014 10:52 am

For those who might be interested you can find Bobby Lewis on Facebook and apparently he is very active today. And country Johnny Mathis was a very good singer. I may be able to find out some info on his recordings from a friend in Nashville.

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 18 Dec 2014 2:03 pm

Ernest:
That I don't know. Have not heard any of his recordings done after the Little Darlin' records. His singing style on both of those is very similar except on a couple of the slow gospel songs.

Jerry:
A little know fact about that song: He wrote it and traded the rights for it to a music store to pay off what he owed on his acoustic guitar. That night, somebody stole the guitar from his hotel room!

He sold the rights for "Am I That Easy To Forget" for $15 and spent the money playing pinball and on a 5th of vodka.

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 18 Dec 2014 2:15 pm

Bobby Lewis - this was his biggest hit - #6 on the charts in 1966.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4fybnCB-tQ

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 19 Dec 2014 11:35 am

[

He sold the rights for "Am I That Easy To Forget" for $15 and spent the money playing pinball and on a 5th of vodka.[/quote]

I always thought that was a Carl Belew song as he was a great songwriter too......JH in Va.

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 20 Dec 2014 10:17 am

For anybody interested, Bobby Lewis has 2 current cd's for sale here:

http://hillbillyhits.com/hotrecords/bobbylewis.html

Heart of Texas Records has some real good artists right now - Tony Booth; Curtis Potter, Darrell McCall; Georgette Jones; Amber Digby and Bobby Lewis. Others as well + a good Christmas compilation cd and a real good gospel compilation cd. Bobby does one song on each of the comp. discs.

Walter Stettner · Post by **Walter Stettner** » 21 Dec 2014 1:16 am

Country Johnny Mathis started as part of the duo Jimmy & Johnny in the 1950s. Bear Family has a CD of their work out (BCD 15771). They did the original of "If You Don't, Somebody Else Will".

Kind Regards, Walter

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 21 Dec 2014 5:33 am

Funny you should mention that, Walter. He sold his writing share of that song for $125.00 in 1954. Song was recorded by at least 11 major artists and was a BMI award winner. The song still bears his name in writer credits tho'.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 22 Dec 2014 11:16 am

Earnest Bovine wrote:
Aside form the lyrics, did the musical style change?

IMHO, yes. His early stuff has all the "edge" and power of Webb Pierce, while his later stuff is more subdued and Jones-like, not as powerful..and with more (attempted?) emotion. I really liked his '50s stuff, but the later gospel stuff sounds weak and bland, in compatison.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 22 Dec 2014 12:11 pm

Donny Hinson wrote:
Earnest Bovine wrote:
Aside form the lyrics, did the musical style change?
IMHO, yes. His early stuff has all the "edge" and power of Webb Pierce, while his later stuff is more subdued and Jones-like, not as powerful..and with more (attempted?) emotion. I really liked his '50s stuff, but the later gospel stuff sounds weak and bland, in compatison.

I asked because I've seen cases where the same song has been "re-purposed" for a different market. The instrumental track, singer, and style remain the same, but with a small change in the lyric of "love", carnal lust morphs into profound adoration of the Deity.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 22 Dec 2014 3:01 pm

He sold the rights for "Am I That Easy To Forget" for $15 and spent the money playing pinball and on a 5th of vodka.

I always thought that was a Carl Belew song as he was a great songwriter too......JH in Va.

Jerry, according to Wikipedia, "Am I That Easy To Forget" was written by Carl Belew and W.S. Stevenson and published in 1958.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am_I_That_Easy_to_Forget

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 22 Dec 2014 3:42 pm

You can be sure W.S. Stevenson had absolutely nothing to do with writing it.

It's a fake name for Bill McCall, best known as the founder of the 4 Star label in the mid 40s.

His name is on over 600 songs at BMI alone.

Only because he owned the labels and/or publishing companies for which the songs were first recorded. "Yeah, gimme half and I'll put it out".

He did this with Belew, Patsy Cline, the Maddox Brothers, and many others.

Look who's credited on "Hot Rod Lincoln". Our hero.

He had Patsy Cline and Webb Pierce under contract in their earliest years and was notoriously difficult to deal with.

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 23 Dec 2014 6:38 am

From the Classic Country Music website - one of the paragraphs on the page "Songwriter" about Country Johnny Mathis:

It gives a partial list of songs written or co-written by him along with the artists who recorded them. It closes with this paragraph:

Note: Johnny sold “Am I That Easy To Forget” outright for $15, and it does not bear his name on the songwriter credits today. This song was recorded by Sonny James, Englebert Humperdinck, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Debbie Reynolds, Jim Reeves, Skeeter Davis, Don Gibson, Leon Russel, The Browns, Jeannie C. Riley, Prairie Oyster, Carl Belew, Eddy Arnold, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, Patti Page, Kitty Wells and many others. The song is credited to Carl Belew, Shelby Singleton & W.S. Stevenson (a pseudonym used by Bill McCall). The song has achieved the BMI One Million Performances Award for having been performed over one million times on radio and television. Record sales pertaining to this song are in the millions.

You can check the whole site on him here:
http://classiccountryrevival.com/