Listen: John C. Reilly is Mister Romantic on Debut Album ‘What’s Not To Love?’
Photo Credit: Bobbi Rich
John C. Reilly is a renaissance man. Through four decades in the spotlight, the character actor has featured in too many unforgettable projects to name* on stage and screen. Along the way, he’s made a name for himself as a maker and lover of music, earning acclaim for musical roles in Chicago and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and sharing a stage with Nathaniel Rateliff, Dawes, Beck, Dave Grohl, Sierra Ferrell and more. Today, Reilly has announced What’s Not To Love?, his debut album as Mister Romantic. It’s a wonder it’s taken this long.
Reilly made his debut as Mister Romantic in 2022 with a series of schmaltzy, lovable, vaudeville-inspired performances. He’s now taken the persona to the studio to create a 13-track album, set to release on June 13 as the first offering on his own Eternal Magic Recordings imprint. The songs featured are all well-traveled covers from the annals of the American songbook, including standards like “La Vie En Rose,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Falling In Love Again,” “Moonlight Serenade” and “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
To preview the project, Reilly has offered up a treatment of Johnny Mercer’s 1944 hit “Dream” as a lead single. A smoky arrangement of upright bass, guitar, violin and a distant, gramophone-grade trumpet back up Mister Romantic’s vocals, which smack of warbling, wistful predecessors like Frank Sinatra and Roy Orbison who passed the song down through the years. The cut and wider album are co-produced by Reilly and Grammy-winner David Garza. Listen below.
On the album’s origins, Reilly reflected: “I looked at our weary world a few years ago and tried to think of a way I could spread love and empathy. I decided the most fun way to do that was through performing and singing and telling people I loved them. So the emotional vaudeville show Mister Romantic was born, out of both hope and despair.”
“What’s Not To Love? is a collection of songs from the show with some cinematic audio weaved in,” the artist’s statement continues. “They tell the story of an eternal optimist, Mister Romantic, as he looks for love. Each song moved me enough to want to share it with people and keep each one alive by passing it on like some of my favorite singers did in their time. The lyrics all have something deeply true about them. Someone once said ‘It’s better to light one tiny candle than to curse the darkness.’ Well, this is our little candle in the darkness. We hope it reminds people that it’s good to love. I figured it was worth a try.”
Reilly’s debut album is available to pre-order now. Read on for the full tracklist.
What’s Not To Love? – Mister Romantic:
01 “Just Another Sucker On The Vine”
02 “Dream”
03 “La Vie En Rose”
04 “Johnsburg, Illinois”
05 “You Don’t Know Me”
06 “Falling In Love Again”
07 “I Guess I’ll Get The Papers And Go Home”
08 “Picture In A Frame”
09 “The Song Is Ended (But The Melody Lingers On)”
10 “What’ll I Do?”
11 “Moonlight Serenade”
12 “I’ll Be Seeing You”
13 “What’s Not To Love?”
* But, what the hell: highlights include Boogie Nights, Talladega Nights, Hard Eight, Step Brothers, Magnolia, Chicago, A Prairie Home Companion, Hoffa, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Winning Time, the Tim and Eric universe and the mock biopic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which earned him a Grammy nomination. Pardon my swooning.
