"Johnny Mathis has never received his deserved acceptance into the top shelf, back bar, pantheon of American male vocalists.Johnny is a truly unique artist, He's not just another tenor with good range. Mathis is a tenor with exceptonal range as well as possessing a truly wonderful style.His interpretations of the standards that I call "The Great American Song Book"" should be held along side and compared with Sinatra's Tony Bennett's, or Mel Torme's. I bought this set primarily for the "In a Sentimental Mood" CD in order to hear Johnny's take on Ellington's greatest songs. I wasn't disappointed.John is backed by small combo, classic big band and full orchestra and for moments by solo piano. His interpretation of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" is like nothing I've heard him do and my first girlfried and I had "our song," "Chances Are,"in 1957. He bends and turns Ellington's songs into a masterful performance...a homage, if you will.John recoreded five or six of the tracks "live" with no studio multi-tracking, standing in front of a full symphony orchestra, at a church in England because of the acoustics. And they were first takes, I know, from the original CD notes. This is Mathis at his greatest...and make no mistake...Johnny Mathis is one of our greatest singers. Don't just listen to the song. Listen to the singer.Joe M. Hayes"