Interview with sound engineer Frank Laico, conducted by Joe Manning on November 6, 2009.

Manning: Had you worked with Johnny Mathis before ‘Misty' was recorded?

Laico: Yes, but I didn't do his first two albums. When I was asked to record him, Mitch Miller and I worked in the studio trying to get the right sound on his voice.

Manning: What kind of a sound were you looking for?

Laico: A sound that was going to sell records. We tried all kinds of things: equalization, echo, just about everything. I spent a good hour of the first session while the musicians just hung around. Finally, Mitch and I got the sound we wanted. At that point, we never changed the way we recorded him.

Manning: What was different about your first album with him as compared to his first two albums?

Laico: He was trying to be a jazz singer, but the albums didn't go anywhere. That's when Mitch Miller stepped in and told Johnny he was going to work with him to do something different.

Manning: There is a lot of echo on 'Misty.'

Laico: Yes, there is echo. When Columbia started the studio on 30^th Street, Mitch and I found an empty room in the basement that was just storing junk. We emptied it out and spent quite a bit of time with microphones and speakers to make our own echo chamber.

Manning: Was Johnny patient with your experiments to get his voice to sound the way you wanted it?

Laico: Yes, he was patient. His manager, Helen Noga, made sure that he was patient. She kept him on a tight string. There was no problem. He was willing to keep going until we were satisfied.

Manning: When you were experimenting, was he actually singing the songs that were going to be on the album?

Laico: Oh, sure.

Manning: Did you have a long association with Glenn Osser?

Laico: Yes, I did.

Manning: What was special about his arrangements?

Laico: He arranged his charts as if he wrote the songs himself. He had such a clear idea how to make an interesting arrangement for any song. He did so many different kinds of songs. He's a great artist.

Manning: When you were doing ‘Misty,' did you think it was going to turn out to be something that would wind up being special?

Laico: Well, it couldn't have come out any better. Most of the time I did records, I was hearing, but I wasn't paying attention to the lyrics or other little things. But this was one of those that I was really listening to.

Manning: Was ‘Misty' the biggest record you ever engineered?

Laico: I can't say. I also did Tony Bennett's ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco.' But on those records, you would never see my name, because they would never give the engineers credit.