Johnny Mathis began working with Jack Gold in 1969 and the producer helped nudge the singer into the modern age, having him cover songs from Rod McKuen, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach & Hal David, and songs from hit films. Gold continued with this formula on 1970's Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, an album filled with modern classics, including selections from McKuen, Webb, and three from Bacharach & David. These are overshadowed by numbers by George Harrison ("Something"), Paul Simon ("Bridge Over Troubled Water"), and Fred Neil ("Everybody's Talkin'"), every one of which defines the transition from the '60s to the '70s. Mathis, who last saw the inside of Billboard's Top 40 in 1963, had his eyes on the times, as did Gold, who helped give the LP a feel that's certainly lush but determined to dodge the Mitch Miller-endorsed middle of the road. Perhaps it's possible to read Mathis' interpretation of "Alfie" as pushing homoerotic boundaries, but the message at best feels coded. "Alfie" is best understood as part of the dominance of sophisticated craft in MOR at the dawn of the '70s, a horizon to which Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head is proudly a part of. The songs are known and the arrangements are comfortably plush, which means it felt cozy in 1970 and it remains comforting decades later, because it manages to meld memories of Mathis' Mitch Miller peak with the paisley overtones of the '60s hangover, so it feels of its time and out of it.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo