Love Story is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 10, 1971, by Columbia Records and included a recent Oscar nominee ("What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?"), a flashback to 1967 ("Traces"), a new song by Bacharach and David ("Ten Times Forever More"), a lesser-known one by Goffin and King ("I Was There"), and two songs that originated in film scores from 1970 and had lyrics added later: the album closer, "Loss of Love", from Sunflower and the album opener from Love Story, which was subtitled "Where Do I Begin". The norm for Mathis projects from this era was to cover recent hits, and the title track of this one was so recent that the version by Andy Williams began a 13-week run to number nine on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in February 1971, coinciding with the release of this LP.
The Mathis recording of "Ten Times Forever More" was released as a single on January 21 of that year and spent two weeks on Billboard magazine's Easy Listening chart in March that included a peak position at number 32. The album's debut on the magazine's Top LP's chart was in the issue dated March 13 and led to a number 47 showing over the course of 18 weeks.
Love Story was released for the first time on compact disc in 1995 as one of two albums on one CD, the other LP being his Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head album from 1970.
Allmusic's Joe Viglione found much to praise retrospectively about the album and Mathis. "His rendition of '(Where Do I Begin) Love Story' is riveting, a sweeping and majestic piece to lead off the record, and not the usual Jack Gold musical movement, but more pronounced and determined." Viglione was especially fond of how Lynn Anderson's country hit "Rose Garden" was given a mainstream arrangement. "As a pure pop tune, it works very well, a standout performance chock-full of backing vocalists and unique instrumentation. This could have been a hit for Mathis, as it goes beyond the usual formula of 'let's put some sweet accompaniment behind the voice and let Johnny do his thing.'" He describes side two as "careful and pleasant", except for its closing song, "Loss of Love", which "brings a sense of grandness back to the project and concludes an important component of the vast Johnny Mathis catalog." [Courtesy Wikipedia]
Tracklist:
01 (Where Do I Begin) Love Story (From ''Love Story'')
02 Rose Garden
03 Ten Times Forever More
04 It's Impossible
05 I Was There
06 What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life? (From "The Happy Ending")
07 We've Only Just Begun
08 Traces
09 For The Good Times
10 My Sweet Lord
11 Loss of Love (From ''Sunflower'')
Arranged and Conducted by Perry Botkin, Jr.
Engineer • Phil Macy
Photography By [Cover] • Jim Marshall
Producer • Jack Gold
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