So what's with this supposed Chic-produced Johnny Mathis Record?

this needs to surface

ya what the hell

Hey, I run the www.chictribute.com site and I can tell you that CHIC finished a full album with Johnny Mathis in 1981, it was not released because his management at the time thought it would alienate his audience. So it's still on the shelf.

I have a special page on this album with some quotes about it and a audio clip of a demo from that album. Check it out. And if you can try to spread the word and write to Sony/Columbia that you want it released.

Link: http://www.chictribute.com/disco/chic/mathis.html

you are among friends here

i don't think this was produced by Chic, but here's a Johnny Mathis disco track from 79 called "Gone, Gone, Gone" that's fucking great.

http://robotsinheat.com/temp/GoneGoneGone.mp3

^^sounds like boz scaggs of all people

at this point you'd think sony had nothing to lose by putting this out

Mathis had already made an album produced by Thom Bell in 1973 (I'm Coming Home), where they gave him a full-on Philly Sound treatment. And it didn't alienate his fan base, it broadened it for the next six or seven years, giving him a young soul audience that he didn't already have. So coming off of that, what would a record produced by Chic have to lose?

Jaxon, no CHIC didn't do that track.

Rev.Hoodoo, I don't know, but something's up with that album he did with CHIC, why else would it sit on the shelf for 27 years?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLOZtTOd3Do

The first track (the original first single?) from the album right there. Supposedly some of the album was meant to be coming out as part of a chic box this year. http://discodelivery.blogspot.com/2008/11/chic-johnny-mathis-collaborations-to.html

somewhere (on ILM? can't remember) I think Matos has an essay about this.

I think I'll just stick with the old Johnny.

Oh weird, I hadn't realized there was a thread on this on ILM before -- last year at EMP in Seattle Andy Zax gave a presentation on this album, great to hear. Here's my blog entry on it but I'll just go ahead and copy/paste my summary of it:

Andy Zax, “Lost in Lost Music: Rediscovering Johnny Mathis‘ I Love My Lady” — the opposite of a keynote speech! Clip of the title track played and Andy talks about wanting to do a Chic Organization box set a few years back. Chic felt underappreciated, so time for product! In August 2007 he scrounges the Warner Brothers Vault for tapes — and love the sketchy cataloging! So he scrounges and scrounges. Bring your hand cleaner and check everything because you never know what you might find! Like the Chic/Mathis tapes! A pretty big deal, A GREAT LOST ALBUM! But what does lost mean? A shorthand for a set of interactions, involving availability and knowledge and more. Music removed from the marketplace is another example, out in the world and allowed to disappear. Then there’s undocumented music, mythological music etc. like this unheard album. Clip played, very smooth and lovely, hearing the kick of the bass against Mathis’s voice. Origins of the project detailed, Chic were huge with their work and with others, Mathis was at a career crossroads in turn after years of popularity, had a large audience still and “Too Much Too Little Too Late” promised a new route back to pop. But initial attempts flamed out. So this was a risk — Chic had their process, Mathis his deliberation. Chic had total control of the sound, something to deliver to the artist. In this case, stuff that Mathis “should have been doing.” Recording details offered, less funk and more jazz, like Weather Report but with bright melodic hooks. Sounds like Al Jarreau’s This Time and Steely Dan’s Gaucho (minus the boring stuff!) Fonzie Thorton did guide vocals, a change of pace. Album recorded and ready to go and then… Mathis’s performances are solid but also detached. Rodgers figures that the assembly line approach failed here in the end. Chic continued on but nobody said anything over at Columbia and a best of album came out instead. Who rejected it? Rodgers says that the blame on Mathis management is misplaced, their own track record is solid. Is the album good? Nice but one of those rejuvenation albums like Sinatra’s “Watertown” or the like. Streisand goes rock, Minelli and the Pet Shop Boys etc. Where does that leave us? Sony doesn’t want to release it, Mathis doesn’t mind, the Chic set will have three tracks. Leaks are coming out now, Rodgers would love to see it come out and maybe rerecord bits. Another clip played, “It’s All Right to Love Me,” upbeat and we’re done!

that must have been what I was thinking of, definitely remember reading a full length piece about this record.

Didn't know Mathis had admitted to his homosexuality.

I think I Love My Lady wipes the floor with any of the Minelli/Pets album! Now i say that as a huge fan of the boys.
I can't quite get over how fresh and modern this sounds.

From F'book:

Hello everyone.

Great news!

Ahead of the forthcoming Nile Rodgers & CHIC shows in London, Isle Of Wight and France, Jazz FM's Ralph Tee has agreed to play another track from the unreleased Johnny Mathis album produced by Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards for The CHIC Organization Ltd in 1981.

"Love And Be Loved" will be aired on "Ralph Tee's luxury Soul"
show this Sunday (5th September) from 17:00 hours (UK time). Be sure to listen in to Ralph's show hear this very rare CHIC Organization track.

Big thanks go to Simon and Ralph for making this happen.

Best, Graham.

Here is the link:

http://www.jazzfm.com/?p=25113

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htW4OPrqSQ4

Blimey, re. the above.

Until someone gets around to releasing this, here are my thoughts on his 1977 double album chart-topping "best of".

Some of this has shown up on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE0qWjiO6I8

I gather there's still no official release.

This all showed up on his boxed set:

https://www.amazon.com/Voice-Romance-Columbia-Original-Collection/dp/B071JQXPC7

And on an Record Store Day vinyl LP: https://www.discogs.com/Johnny-Mathis-I-Love-My-Lady/release/11896499

Yep. And I still can’t find this motherfucker anywhere.

Found on Soulseek. Pretty damned good, as it turns out.

Anything on this as good as I Love My Lady?

lousy sleeve

https://img.discogs.com/y4ZY0PtIh8gs_XQnqqrX2Vsk0w4=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-11896499-1524324318-6718.jpeg.jpg

Lots of good Nile and Bernie playing on it, and the songs sound phenom while they're playing, but I defy you to remember a single one of them 2 hours later.

Disagree. Is it on the level of diana? No. But first track, "I Want to Fall In Love" has that intensely repetitive/neo-chant thing going on in the chorus that "I Want Your Love" has. "Something to Sing About" has tremendous ensemble vocals, a great stop/start groove and is super catchy to boot.

Apparently, Johnny became a crazy party animal around the time of this recording, terrifying most of the people around him. So I suspect there was some belief that this record would push him further in that direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj-QxYabLpc