A Heart-Wrenching Question in the Face of Loss: When Johnny Mathis Pondered, “What’ll I Do?”
“What’ll I Do,” a song that has become a timeless expression of love and loss, found one of its most poignant interpretations in the enduring voice of Johnny Mathis. Originally a popular tune from Irving Berlin’s 1923 Music Box Revue, it was Mathis’s lush and emotionally resonant 1962 rendition that truly captured the hearts of a new generation. Released as a single and featured on his album “Wonderful Wonderful,” this deeply moving ballad reached number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming another significant entry in his remarkable catalog of heartfelt performances. The album “Wonderful Wonderful” itself was a success, reaching number 11 on the Billboard Top LP’s chart. The song’s meaning is a raw and vulnerable outpouring of grief and disorientation following the departure of a loved one, with the singer questioning the very purpose of his existence and the emptiness of his future without their presence. It transforms a personal moment of profound loss into a universally relatable ballad of loneliness and the desperate search for meaning after heartbreak.
Imagine a quiet, solitary evening, the silence amplifying the absence of a familiar presence, and the sound of Johnny Mathis’s voice, filled with a tender and almost unbearable sadness, echoing the heart’s bewildered question in “What’ll I Do.” His unique ability to convey such profound vulnerability with his seemingly effortless vocal control is truly captivating. Featured on his album “Wonderful Wonderful,” this song showcases Mathis’s remarkable talent for interpreting classic melodies with a depth of emotion that resonates across decades. The simple yet deeply moving arrangement, often featuring gentle piano and strings that seem to weep alongside the singer, creates an atmosphere of profound loneliness, perfectly complementing the heartbreaking simplicity of the lyrics. Mathis’s heartfelt delivery and the song’s universal theme of loss make it a timeless and deeply resonant expression of sorrow.
The story behind “What’ll I Do” lies in the masterful songwriting of Irving Berlin, a composer whose work has become an indelible part of the American songbook. Written in the early 1920s, the song quickly became a standard, its simple yet profound exploration of loss striking a chord with audiences who had known the pain of separation. Johnny Mathis’s interpretation, decades later, brought a fresh wave of emotion to the timeless lyrics, his smooth and tender voice imbuing the song with a palpable sense of vulnerability that connected with a new generation grappling with similar feelings of heartbreak. His version honored the original’s emotional core while adding his own signature touch of heartfelt sincerity.
For those of us who have known the profound ache of losing someone dear, the disorientation and the echoing question of how to navigate life without their presence, Johnny Mathis’s “What’ll I Do” evokes a sense of deep and poignant empathy. It reminds us of the raw vulnerability of the human heart in the face of loss and the desperate search for meaning in the emptiness left behind. Mathis’s tender voice and the song’s simple, heartbreaking melody offer a moment of shared sorrow, a comforting acknowledgment of the universal experience of grief and the profound impact of a love that is no longer there. It remains a beautiful and timeless ballad, a quintessential expression of loneliness and the enduring question that echoes in the silence after love departs: “What’ll I do?”