At the tender age of sixty four, on May 28, 1998 at New York's Sony Music Studios, Johnny Mathis gathered with an orchestra and audience to perform song requests.
These requests came from phone-ins and emails, and the selections and respective arrangements were uniformly excellent.
For ninety minutes Mathis performed an array of his greatest hits, plus a few more less well known selections. His voice was a bit more mature as was his appearance, but not much: the tone was fine and he looked great.
At one point Denice Williams joined him for a duet, "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" (#1 hit from '78). And a surprise caller-in turned out to be Nancy Reagan, who first identified herself as a "great fan."
One wondered just how impromptu the occasion was as requests were made: no musicians shuffling to locate or organize scores; the parts were miraculously in place on stands.
The renditions brought back the 50s nostalgically, with all the fabulous recordings and film soundtracks made by this unique icon.
Mathis was also interviewed between numbers, and he came across as a pleasant personality. Nothing very deep there, just a niceness that doesn't try to convey more than what it is: a smooth, lyric and beautiful baritone that's instantly recognizable from any other singer in the world.
All I can say is, "Wonderful, Wonderful."