| Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me | |
| Type: | album |
| Artist: | Johnny Mathis |
| Cover: | Mathis-Hold.jpg |
| Released: | August 15, 1977[1] |
| Recorded: | April 20, 1977 May 31, 1977 June 9, 1977 June 13, 1977 |
| Studio: |
|
| Genre: | Vocal[3] |
| Length: | 28:30 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | Jack Gold |
| Prev Title: | The Mathis Collection |
| Prev Year: | 1977 |
| Next Title: | You Light Up My Life |
| Next Year: | 1978 |
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on August 15, 1977,[1] by Columbia Records and found him firmly planted in the cover album genre once again in that no original songs were included. Allmusic's Joe Viglione did feel, however, that "they seem to be trying to cover all the bases here,"[3] meaning that it had a variety of selections, including a standard from 1939 ("All the Things You Are"), a hit that charted in both the 1950s and '60s ("Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me"), a country crossover ("The Most Beautiful Girl"), and recent offerings from stage ("One", "Tomorrow") and screen ("Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)", "I Always Knew I Had It in Me").
Although the album did not reach Billboard magazine's Top LPs & Tapes chart, it did spend a week in the issue dated September 17, 1977, at number 201 on the Bubbling Under the Top LPs chart,[4] which, according to Joel Whitburn, "listed albums that were on the rise in sales that did not quite achieve the sales necessary to make Billboards main 200-position pop albums chart."[5] For its release in the UK, the album was entitled Sweet Surrender,[6] which was also the name of the song that was added on to the original track listing but had first appeared on his 1973 album Me and Mrs. Jones.[7] Sweet Surrender spent its one week on the UK album chart at number 55[8] but received Silver certification for sales of 60,000 units in the UK from the British Phonographic Industry on January 4, 1978.[9]
In 1995 the title track from the album was used in the film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar[10] but was not included on the soundtrack recording.[11]
Viglione, writing retrospectively, also described the album as "a fine mixture of classic Mathis"[3] and "a pleasant album from a performer who delivers the goods with ease."[3]
For the Sweet Surrender album in the UK, the succeeding title track was inserted at the end of side one, but the order of the original 10 songs was unchanged.
This album's CD release as part of the 2017 box set included two bonus tracks:
Before this, "Experience" had not been issued, and "If It's Magic" had only been available on the 1981 UK compilation Celebration – The Anniversary Album.
From the liner notes for :[1]
From the liner notes for the original album:[2]