Johnny Mathis

THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC OF JOHNNY MATHIS: A PERSONAL COLLECTION

(Columbia/Legacy)

I've always felt that Nat King Cole was probably the best holiday singer of them all -- the guy's voice is the very personification of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But after I get through all the current novelties (Everclear's "I'll Be Hating You for Christmas" and Fountains of Wayne's "I Want an Alien for Christmas" top this year's list), the platter I'll splatter all over the walls is gonna be by that old sock warmer, Johnny Mathis. For one thing, PC angst prevents me from being truly able to enjoy Nat melting over the words "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas." And in the end, like Sinatra, Nat's just too damn limber for Christmas music. Johnny's voice is gauzy and almost eerily sedated, with none of the heavy-handed, tyrannical phrasings of a Burl Ives or a Bing Crosby; comforting in its unshakable, reliable immutability. It's as warm and impersonal as a Hallmark card, as calculated and intimate as Christmas itself.

-- Carly Carioli

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