John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status and 73 making the Billboard charts to date. Guinness World Records and music charts historian Paul Gambaccini confirms Mathis record sales have surpassed well over 360 million worldwide to date. This makes Johnny Mathis the 3rd biggest selling artist of the 20th century after Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. Although he is frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes traditional pop, Brazilian, Spanish, soul, rhythm and blues, soft rock, show tunes, Tin Pan Alley, blues, country, and even a few disco songs for his album Mathis Magic in 1979.