Question: The Very Best of Johnny Mathis had a cover of a Christmas song that had what basic melody?

Context articles: Johnny Mathis (album)
Johnny Mathis Sings
Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis
The Complete Christmas Collection 1958–2010
The Very Best of Johnny Mathis
The Classic Christmas Album (Johnny Mathis album)
Gold: A 50th Anniversary Christmas Celebration
When a Child Is Born
In the Still of the Night (album)
The Best of Johnny Mathis 1975–1980

Johnny Mathis is the debut studio album by vocalist Johnny Mathis that was released by Columbia Records in 1956.
 The subtitle "A New Sound in Popular Song" can be found on the back cover but not on the front of the album or the disc label; in fact, this Mathis LP has been referred to as "the jazz album".
Johnny Mathis Sings is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released by Mercury Records on March 10, 1967 and was the last of his 11 studio projects for the label.
 Eight of the twelve tracks were recorded since the completion of his previous LP, "So Nice", while four of the tracks were leftovers from the recording sessions for previous Mercury albums.
 The finished product included a number from Broadway's "The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd", a cover of the Beatles hit "Eleanor Rigby", two offerings from songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and three cuts that originated in film scores but had lyrics added later: the melody for "Strangers in the Night" was written for "A Man Could Get Killed"; "Somewhere My Love" began as "Lara's Theme" from "Doctor Zhivago"; and "Lovers in New York" started out as the instrumental title track from "Breakfast at Tiffany's".
Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis is a Christmas album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in September 1986 by Columbia Records.
 This was Mathis's fourth holiday-themed LP and focused exclusively on secular material.
The Complete Christmas Collection 1958–2010 is a three-disc box set by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in 2015 by Real Gone Music under license from Columbia Records.
 The set includes Mathis's five holiday albums from the period in their entirety: "Merry Christmas", "Sounds of Christmas", "Give Me Your Love for Christmas", "Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis", and "The Christmas Album".
 It also compiles all of Mathis's holiday songs that were only released as singles, as well as thematically-appropriate tracks from his non-holiday albums: "When a Child Is Born" from "I Only Have Eyes for You", the holiday version of "What a Wonderful World" from "Let It Be Me", and his two recordings of "Ave Maria" from "Good Night, Dear Lord", which bookend the set.
The Very Best of Johnny Mathis is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the UK in 2006 by Sony BMG and peaked at number six on the UK albums chart that same year.
 This collection has nine of his 17 UK singles chart entries, including his number-one solo version of "When a Child Is Born" and his number-three duet with Deniece Williams, "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late".
The Classic Christmas Album is a Christmas compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 7, 2014, by Columbia Records and includes two 1961 recordings that were previously unavailable: "Ol' Kris Kringle" and the original version of the title track from his 1969 Christmas album "Give Me Your Love for Christmas".
 Three other songs ("Christmas in the City of the Angels", "Sign of the Dove" and "The Very First Christmas Day") make their debut on compact disc as of this release, and two other non-album singles ("Christmas Is..." and "My Kind of Christmas") can be counted among the rarities here.
 The collection also includes a selection or two from several of Mathis's Christmas studio albums—"Sleigh Ride" from "Merry Christmas", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from "Sounds of Christmas", "Calypso Noel" from "Give Me Your Love for Christmas", "The Christmas Waltz" and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" from "Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis", and "Home for the Holidays" from "Sending You a Little Christmas"—as well as his duet with Bette Midler from her 2006 holiday album "Cool Yule", which was a medley of "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow!
 Let It Snow!
 Let It Snow!
".
Gold: A 50th Anniversary Christmas Celebration is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 19, 2006, by Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings.
 It includes selections from four of the first five Christmas albums that he had recorded: "Merry Christmas", "Sounds of Christmas", "Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis", and "The Christmas Album".
 Two tracks that were recorded with other artists are also included: "O Tannenbaum", which comes from Mannheim Steamroller's 2001 album "Christmas Extraordinaire", and a medley duet of "Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow!
 Let It Snow!
 Let It Snow!
" with Bette Midler from her 2006 holiday album "Cool Yule".
"When A Child Is Born" is a popular Christmas song.
 The original melody was "Soleado", a tune from 1974 by (alias Zacar), composer for Italy's Daniel Sentacruz Ensemble, and Dario Baldan Bembo.
 The tune was based on Damicco's earlier tune "Le rose blu" published in 1972.
 The English language lyrics were written a few years later by Fred Jay (Friedrich Alex Jacobson IPI number 00015195204, who wrote many hits for Boney M such as Rasputin and Ma Baker).
 They do not make specific mention of Christmas but the importance they attach to looking forward to the birth of one particular child somewhere, anywhere, suggests a reference to the birth of Jesus Christ, and the citing of "a tiny star" that "lights up way up high" may allude to the Star of Bethlehem.
 Fred Jay's lyrics have been sung by many artists, most successfully by Johnny Mathis in 1976.
In the Still of the Night is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in August 1989 by Columbia Records and continues the trend that began with his 1986 collaboration with Henry Mancini, "The Hollywood Musicals", in that the project is devoted to a specific theme that ties the songs together.
 Mathis hints at the theme for this album in the liner notes for his 1993 box set "The Music of Johnny Mathis: A Personal Collection", where he gives his thoughts on the 1964 Little Anthony and the Imperials song "I'm on the Outside Looking In" that he covered for his 1988 album "Once in a While": "That was group singers' kind of material.
 I was singing other stuff.
 It wasn't the picture of the lone crooner standing in the spotlight.
 That's what I was doing when all this other stuff was going on.
 I never listened to it until it was brought to my attention by [that album's producers] Peter Bunetta and Rick Chudacoff."
 Mathis chose to continue his work with Bunetta and Chudacoff on this project, which focuses on "this other stuff" that Mathis refers to: pop and R&B hits from the 1950s and 1960s.
The Best of Johnny Mathis 1975–1980 is a compilation album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the fall of 1980 by Columbia Records.
 This collection is similar to his last major compilation, 1972's "Johnny Mathis' All-Time Greatest Hits", in that it excludes many of his American radio hits of this period ("Arianne", "Begin the Beguine", "Do Me Wrong, but Do Me", "Loving You-Losing You", "One Day in Your Life", "Stardust", "Yellow Roses on Her Gown", and "You're All I Need to Get By", all of which made the Adult Contemporary chart in "Billboard"