Johnny Mathis - Johnny's Greatest Hits (1958) [Reissue 1988]

If Columbia Records was trying to cash in quickly with this 1958 package before heartthrob Mathis's string ran out, the joke was--happily--on them, since it ended up staying on the Billboard charts for 490 weeks. These, of course, are his earliest smashes, and for the most part, his best: the likes of "Chances Are" and "Wonderful! Wonderful!" are young people's music the way, for instance, the '50s Sinatra wasn't, and Mathis was growing up fast. He'd rarely sound quite so earnestly embracing again. --Rickey Wright