John Gary - His Voice Dazzled
Posted by BG on November 13, 2007
I’ve often written about crooners, past and present, and have managed to cover quite a few — or at least mention them. But there is a guy who was not only largely unappreciated by the public, but also sort of fell through the cracks in my memory when I was writing those articles. (And those cracks are beginning to widen and approach Grand Canyon size, but enough said about that.)
John Gary was a singer with a three-octave range and amazing breath control, and was admired by many of his contemporaries, but didn’t really reach the level of fame attained by a lot of lesser singers. Although he had a fairly long 
career, appearing in various venues and selling a lot of records, he just never quite managed to attain star status.
The native of upstate New York had a rich musical upbringing and showed early promise, and as he reached adulthood in the 1950’s he began appearing professionally. His route to success was via radio, and he first gained notice as a vocalist on the popular Breakfast Club hosted by Don McNeill.
His smooth, warm voice and obvious talent eventually earned him a recording contract, but by then the 1960’s had arrived and a revolution was taking place. Rock and roll was growing and evolving, fueled by a combination of folk music, surf sound and the British invasion, and it didn’t leave a lot of space for crooners to do their thing.
Although John didn’t find huge success, he was nevertheless a solid fixture on the Billboard album charts throughout the decade, and had some individual songs that did well too. Best known were probably “Soon I’ll Wed My Love,” “The Nearness of You,” “Once Upon a Time,” and “A Little Bit of Heaven.”
In addition to recording, John performed for many years in stage shows, was a talented composer, and for a time had his own TV variety show. Throughout the next couple of decades he was also a frequent guest on many other programs. Even with all that going on he still found time to be a world-class archer and an expert underwater diver, setting some records along the way.
His voice and unique singing abilities made him the envy of many other singers, and although never a superstar, when he died in 1998 he left behind a solid musical legacy. 
November 21, 2007 at 1:19 pm
My folks used to have an album by John Gary that had a song whose lyrics began “Thank the Lord for this Thanksgiving Day.” Does anyone know on what album it was recorded? I can’t seem to locate it. I would play that song on Thanksgiving morning as we made the final clean-ups and preps for the big dinner.
November 21, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Doesn’t ring a bell if that’s the title, Bj. I looked at allmusic.com, which lists dozens of songs by him and it’s not there, but you might take a look and see if any of the others might be it.
December 7, 2007 at 12:57 pm
When Sinatra passed away, there was a lot of mention as to naming Frank the Male Vocalist of that century. While Sinatra’s voice during his commercially successful years was tremendous, stylistic and pleasing, his voice was better in the 1940’s.
In no particular order, I would place the following singers in my top ten of the 20th Century: Sinatra, John Gary, Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole, Bob Hatfield, Gene Pitney, Jerry Vale, Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves and Eddie Fisher. John Gary had the greatest voice of them all and didn’t get the attention that he deserved - - what a great talent.
December 7, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I can’t disagree about Sinatra, Greg. Although he sounded smooth and polished in later years, his youthful voice was a marvel.
Your list of singers contains some surprises, but I love the mix of styles.
December 24, 2007 at 12:47 am
I too love the mix of styles. I would only disagree with Bobby Hatfield and possibly Jerry Vale being in the top 10. I also seem to be the only person on earth who thinks the last 30 years of Frank Sinatra’s singing career, he was resting on his earlier work; his voice just did not have the control, pitch and smoothness of John Gary.
My top two singers of the 20th century would have to be John Gary and Andy Williams. Among John’s best selections, I would have to include “Unchained Melody”, “Hawaiian Wedding Song”, “The Nearness of You”, “If You Love Me”, “Danny Boy”, “My Foolish Heart”. We had the good fortune to have seen John perform live in a small club in Pasadena in the early 80’s, and we were in awe of his amazing voice.
December 31, 2007 at 3:23 pm
John Gary’s misfortune was just bad timing. He came along when the “crooner” era was ending and he couldn’t compete in popularity with the rock and folk singers of the time. But, boy, could he sing. At the time of the early sixties, I had a running disagreement with a friend over who was the best, Al Martino or John Gary. I noticed that Al Martino isn’t included in the list above, so I guess I win the arguement. I don’t know what brought him to my mind this Christmas season, but he was something special.
December 31, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Hey Roland - don’t know if you saw it, but the article I did on The Quintessential Italian Crooner included a reference to Al Martino, and his daughter wrote a comment on it.
April 27, 2008 at 12:09 am
I have a sealed album of john gary. It is entitled The Big Voice of John Gary. RCA Victor 1966. Does anyone know the value or where I can sell it? I have tons of albums from a long gone relative and hate to dump them in the trash. What do you do with this music?
April 28, 2008 at 3:33 am
Hi everyone!
This is a great tribute to my lifelong friend, John Gary.
I met him when I was 10 years old, we became lifelong friends, he was the Godfather of my son, I’ve sung in his shows and we’ve had many John Gary “All-Night” Parties - with John in attendance - when he was in town for concerts.
Check out http://www.johngary.com - this website was put together by John’s family and MANY of John’s albums have been converted to CD - along with VHS/DVD’s his TV shows and John playing King Arthur in Camelot, just 7 months before he passed.
The website is a loving and accurate legacy of a sweet, funny, talented in SO many ways man…my friend, John Gary!