Matt Monro discography
The discography of English singer Matt Monro consists of 22 studio albums, five live albums, 23 compilation albums, eight extended plays, and 68 singles. He released 18 studio albums in English prior to his death in 1985, with his first, Blue and Sentimental, released in 1957. A posthumous album was released in 1995 consisting of duets recorded by Monro's son Matt Monro Jnr combined with his father's voice, entitled Matt Sings Monro. Monro also released three albums of recordings in Spanish; his first was Alguien cantó in 1969; his second, released a year later, was an adaption of his English album Close to You, entitled Todos hablan cantado en castellano; and his third was Un toque de distinción, released in 1982. In total, 60 singles sung in English were released by Monro as well as eight sung in Spanish.
Most of Monro's recordings were produced or overseen by George Martin. Unlike his contemporaries, Monro recorded very few Tin Pan Alley standards during his career. Instead, he and Martin searched for material written by promising newcomers and commissioned English lyrics for dramatic melodies written by European composers.
Monro also covered many of the most popular stage and screen songs of the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years, his recordings featured arrangements by Sid Feller, Billy May, John Barry, Buddy Bregman, Kenny Clayton and Colin Keyes, and Martin himself. He also had a long and fruitful musical partnership with British arranger Johnnie Spence. Monro also teamed up with American star arrangers Nelson Riddle and Billy May and leading British bandleader Ted Heath, for concerts broadcast by the BBC.
In 1973, Monro released a vocal version of the popular Van der Valk television series theme, "Eye Level", titled "And You Smiled", with lyrics written by Melvyn Taggart. It was his final hit. In 1977, he recorded the Don Black penned, "If I Never Sing Another Song", which became a latter-day standard among his contemporaries, its lyrics referring to the "heyday" of fan mail, awards, and other trappings of celebrity that had faded for them.
In 1979, Monro recorded his final studio album, the third all-Spanish album, produced by Leonardo Schultz and Gary Mason. Schultz and Mason hoped to capitalise on the success of the earlier hit song "Alguien cantó", which Leonardo Schultz had adapted to Spanish. The album, entitled Un ''toque de distinción'', was recorded in George Martin's Air London Studios as well as in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, and was eventually released in 1982. The album was a critical success and was a hit in various Latin American countries. The song "Volveré alguna vez" from the album made it on to the singles chart, and was subsequently sung by José Feliciano and became a hit.