Wonderful! Wonderful!

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" is a song written by Ben Raleigh and Sherman Edwards that became the A-side of the first 7-inch single recorded by American singer Johnny Mathis. The recording was produced by Mitch Miller and released on November 5, 1956. In the US it was a top 20 hit on the ''Billboard'' charts. In 1958 it was included on Mathis's first compilation, '' Johnny's Greatest Hits''.

Background, release and commercial performance

Johnny Mathis was billed as a jazz singer on his debut album, which was released by Columbia Records in 1956. In the liner notes for his 1993 box set '' The Music of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection'', Mathis is quoted as saying that the head of A&R at Columbia, Mitch Miller, "hated what I was singing, and he hated the way I was singing it." Miller wanted to teach him to sing using the "choirboy quality in his voice". He gave Mathis a stack of demos and sheet music from which he was to select four songs for a recording session on September 21, 1956, with Miller producing. Two of his selections, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" and " When Sunny Gets Blue", were released as his first single on November 5.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" spent 39 weeks on ''Billboard'' magazine's Top 100 record chart, a predecessor to the Hot 100 that combined the statistics from the magazine's Best Sellers in Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts. It was several months into its Top 100 run, however, before it reached its height in popularity. The song debuted on the Top 100 for the week ending January 30, 1957, at number 71 but took a roller coaster ride from there, falling to 81 the following week, surging to 57 by March 6, dropping to 70 the following week, rising to 56 on March 20 and falling to 60 the week after that. When it reached the top 40 on May 1, Columbia ran a full-page ad in ''Billboard'' that impressed upon readers how the song had found success five months after the magazine reviewed it. ''Billboard'' theorized that it was the success of his second single, " It's Not for Me to Say", which had been released on February 25, that propelled "Wonderful! Wonderful!" to the peak positions it achieved. When "Wonderful! Wonderful!" got as high as number 17 on the Top 100, number 14 on their list of the 25 songs Most Played by Jockeys and number 18 on their list of the 30 Best Sellers in Stores on the surveys for the week ending July 13, "It's Not for Me to Say" was several positions higher at numbers 6, 7 and 12, respectively.

When the magazine commemorated the 60th anniversary of Mathis's career in 2016, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" was number 8 on their list of his 10 top-charting hits.

Critical reception

The editors of ''Billboard'' wrote, "Young singer will build reputation with first single for the label. Gets fine delivery into an attractive ballad, with imaginative support from Ray Conniff ork and chorus." '' Cashbox'' magazine gave letter grades to both sides of the single in its review. " When Sunny Gets Blue" received a B+ (meaning excellent), while "Wonderful! Wonderful!" earned a B (very good). Specifically of the latter, they wrote, "Another dreamy love story chanted in the crooner's unique fashion. A chorus assists with a beautiful background. Johnny has a sound and is destined to make the grade. Keep an eye on this lad."

In his review of the 1998 release '' The Ultimate Hits Collection'', Robert Christgau insisted that In a retrospective review, Joe Viglione of AllMusic wrote that the song "has those eerie ''Star Trek''-style other world backing vocals with luscious strings that let Mathis express how ecstatic this love affair is, holding it in, telling only himself, letting it be reflected in his face (and, of course, this song)." He credits Conniff with his Orchestra and Chorus along with the singer for making the Mathis version "the one most remembered" and concludes

Other versions

The song has been covered by various artists. In the United Kingdom, Ronnie Hilton recorded a version in 1957 that reached number 27 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1963, a recording by American soul vocal group the Tymes peaked at number 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 23 on its Hot R&B Singles chart. Their version also spent four weeks at number 2 on the magazine's Easy Listening chart and reached number 7 in Canada.

A cover of the song was created for the ''X-Files'' episode "Home". The reason a cover was used rather than the original was because when Mathis read the episode's screenplay and saw its graphic content, he refused to allow his version to be used in the episode, thus necessitating a cover. David Nutter, an ''X-Files'' producer, originally planned to record the cover himself as he also had a background in music but in the end, another singer was hired because he sounded more like Mathis than Nutter did. The episode's director Kim Manners explains his reason for wanting to use the song because "certain songs ike 'Wonderful! Wonderful!'have a creepy, icky quality that none of us have really openly acknowledged".

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1956 songs
1956 debut singles
1963 singles
Columbia Records singles
Johnny Mathis songs
The Tymes songs
Songs written by Sherman Edwards
Songs with lyrics by Ben Raleigh