Celebration – The Anniversary Album is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the UK in 1981 (upon the 25th anniversary of his first recording) by the CBS Records division of Columbia. Two of the covers on this release had not previously been included on any Mathis album: Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic" and a new version of Mathis's 1976 song "When a Child Is Born" that was recorded with Gladys Knight & the Pips and reached number 74 on the UK singles chart during a two-week run that began on December 26, 1981.[2]
This album entered the UK album chart on September 19, 1981, and reached number nine over the course of 16 weeks,[3] and nine days later, on September 28, the British Phonographic Industry awarded the album with Silver certification for sales of 60,000 units in the UK.[4] It was released on compact disc in 1990.[1]
Before the music begins for the second track on side one, Mathis provides some narration: "I've been privileged through my life to have had so many wonderful songs to sing. I'm often asked which are the most special and memorable for me. On looking back over my career right up until now, I've been thinking about the songs that have been, well, in a sense, landmarks for me across the years, and it all began with this..."[5] -- "Wonderful! Wonderful!" being the song that he's referring to. He also comments on the occasion of this collection at the beginning of the last track on side two, "If It's Magic".