Johnny Mathis is celebrating two major milestones this year and next: He turns 70 on September 30th, 2005, and in 2006 he will have been in the music business for 50 years, with no plans to stop or even slow down!

Texas Born,
California-Bred

Mathis was born in 1935, in Texas, but grew up in San Francisco. His father, Clem, encouraged his musical talents, buying an old piano for the family when Johnny was 8 years old.

The biography on the singer's official Web site, JohnnyMathis.com says Clem Mathis had been a musician in Texas. When Johnny was 13, Clem helped arrange a job for Johnny with a voice teacher. She gavem him lessons and he did odd jobs around her house. That partnership continued for six years.

Dad Knows Best

The biography also says that if not for his father's influence, you might be reading about Johnny Mathis, Olympic athlete. He was a track star in high school and later at San Francisco State College, where he set a high jump record that's still on the college record books.

He was invited to try out for the 1956 Olympic team, about the same time that he was offered a chance to record for Columbia records. It was his father who suggested that Johnny head to New York, and that's what he did. That first album had a jazz flavor and it didn't do all that well on the charts.

Enter Mitch Miller

As head of Columbia's A&R department, Mitch Miller already had a reputation for matching singers with songs and song-styles. He decided that Johnny's voice was perfect for romantic ballads like "Wonderful, Wonderful" and "It's Not For Me To Say".

Those two releases were followed by Johnny's first Number 1 hit, "Chances Are", in June, 1957. During this period, the official biography says, Johnny frequently had as many as four albums on the charts at any one time.