The Best Days of My Life

For albums of the same name by other artists, see David Soul and BZN.
The Best Days of My Life
Studio album by
Johnny Mathis
ReleasedJanuary 29, 1979[1]
RecordedAugust 23, 1978
September 5, 1978
September 14, 1978
September 15, 1978
November 10, 1978[1]
StudioA&M Recording Studios,
Hollywood, California[2]
GenreVocal[3]
Length37:45
LabelColumbia
ProducerJack Gold[2]
Johnny Mathis chronology
That's What Friends Are For
(1978) 		The Best Days of My Life
(1979) 		Mathis Magic
(1979)

The Best Days of My Life is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis, released on January 29, 1979,[1] by Columbia Records. He scaled back considerably on his more than decade-long practice of recording recent hit songs by other artists. He did, however, cover two standards: "As Time Goes By" and "Begin the Beguine", the latter of which is given a disco arrangement.

The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated February 24, 1979, and remained there for seven weeks, peaking at number 122.[4] It also made it to number 38 during a five-week run on the UK album chart.[5]

The first song from the album to reach any of the charts in Billboard was a duet with Jane Olivor titled "The Last Time I Felt Like This" that was written for the 1978 film Same Time, Next Year[6] and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday.[7] The duet entered the magazine's list of the 50 most popular Easy Listening records in the US in the issue dated February 24, 1979, and peaked at number 15 over the course of 12 weeks.[2] Another track from the album, "Begin the Beguine", entered that same chart five months later, in the July 21 issue, and got as high as number 37 during its five weeks there.[2] The only song from the album to reach the UK singles chart was "Gone, Gone, Gone", which made its debut there the following month, on August 11, and reached number 15 during a 10-week run.[8]

The album was first released on compact disc in 1989,[9] and on January 27, 2015, Funkytowngrooves released an expanded edition of the album on compact disc that included five bonus tracks, two of which were disco mixes that came out in 1979 on a separate 12-inch single.[10]

  1. ^ a b c (2017) The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection by Johnny Mathis [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music Entertainment 88985 36892 2.
  2. ^ a b c d (1978) The Best Days of My Life by Johnny Mathis [album jacket]. New York: Columbia Records JC 35649.
  3. ^ "The Best Days of My Life - Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  4. ^ Whitburn 2010, p. 503.
  5. ^ "Johnny Mathis - Albums". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  6. ^ Whitburn 2007, p. 179.
  7. ^ Wiley & Bona 1996, p. 1128.
  8. ^ "Johnny Mathis". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  9. ^ "The Best Days of My Life - Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  10. ^ "Best Days of My Life [Bonus Tracks] - Johnny Mathis - Release Credits". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved 29 January 2015.