Johnny Mathis singles

Of The Singles' four CDs, every track up through disc 3, track 14 (the 1969 B-side, "Whoever You Are, I Love You") is in mono. The remainder of disc 3 and all of CD 4 is in stereo.

Or the majority of it, anyway: the transition to stereo doesn't occur where one might expect it to. The changeover comes four seconds into disc 3, track 15 ("For All We Know," a 1970 B-side, which is not the Carpenters tune), just before the orchestra joins the opening piano during the intro. The edit point is fairly obvious.

As has been written elsewhere online, the caveat with this singles set is that it omits Johnny's Columbia singles that were pulled from albums. While that means some long-elusive standalone A and B sides are finally seeing the digital light of day, it also means a few notable top-40 hits like "Misty" and "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" are missing, as is the twice-charting, but sub-40 "Maria."

I have very few original Mathis 45s, so somebody else will have to compare them to the mono tracks on this set to see how they match up. As one might expect with this particular artist, The Singles set has not been subjected to loudness madness.

These top-40 tracks are all in mono on The Singles:

Wonderful! Wonderful!
It's Not For Me To Say
Chances Are
The Twelfth Of Never
Wild Is The Wind
No Love (But Your Love)
Come To Me
All The Time
Teacher, Teacher
A Certain Smile
Call Me
Let's Love
Someone
Small World
Starbright
Gina
What Will My Mary Say
Every Step Of The Way