The Maestro’s Disco Surprise: When “The Voice” Hit the Dance Floor
Few voices possess the elegant timelessness of Johnny Mathis. For those of us who grew up listening to the radio with the earnest hope of hearing “Chances Are” or “Misty,” Mathis was, and remains, the Voice of Romance, a purveyor of sophisticated, velvet-smooth balladry. Yet, the late 1970s presented an irresistible challenge to every major artist: the disco phenomenon. Always the astute artist willing to adapt without compromising his core grace, Johnny Mathis stepped onto the dance floor in 1979 and gave us a surprisingly soulful, groove-driven gem: “Gone, Gone, Gone.”
This track was a highlight from his 1979 album, The Best Days of My Life, an album that saw Mathis tentatively, yet successfully, venturing into the contemporary sounds of the day. The single was a particularly strong performer in the United Kingdom, where it became a genuine hit, charting on the UK Singles Chart and peaking at a respectable Number 15 in August of 1979. While it didn’t achieve the massive crossover success of his 1978 duet with Deniece Williams, “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” (which hit Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100), “Gone, Gone, Gone” still captivated audiences who appreciated its sleek production and, most importantly, Mathis’s unmistakable vocal brilliance.
The song was written by L. Russell Brown and Lisa Hayward, who crafted a lyric that perfectly suited Mathis’s dramatic sensibility. Far from a cheerful party track, “Gone, Gone, Gone” is a beautifully melancholy piece built around a powerful sense of finality. It is the story of a lover accepting the painful reality that a relationship—and all the joy and promise it held—is completely and irrevocably over. The triple repetition of the title word drives home the ultimate, crushing realization of emptiness: “Gone, gone, gone is my beautiful love.” It manages to take the grand theatricality of a classic ballad and distill it into a four-minute emotional statement.
What makes Mathis’s version so fascinating, and a source of such fond, nostalgic reflection, is the arrangement. This wasn’t just a ballad with a kick drum; it was a full-throated disco record, complete with pulsating bass lines, sweeping orchestral strings, and an irresistible four-on-the-floor beat, all expertly handled by arranger Gene Page. The track gained particular traction as a “Special Disco Version,” expertly mixed by the legendary John Luongo, which stretched the mournful sentiment out over an extended run time, making it a staple in dance clubs across the UK and Europe.
For those of us who remember the late seventies, this song is a snapshot of an era when established stars embraced the disco beat, adding a dash of their signature class to the dance floor frenzy. It was a time when you might slow-dance to “Misty” one minute, only to be pulled onto the floor for the upbeat heartbreak of “Gone, Gone, Gone” the next. It proved that Johnny Mathis could navigate the transition from the golden age of pop to the shimmering excess of the disco era without losing an ounce of his inimitable, romantic soul.