Live It Up! (Johnny Mathis album)

Live It Up!
Studio album by
Johnny Mathis
ReleasedDecember 11, 1961[1]
RecordedApril 24–25, 1961[1]
GenreVocal[2]
Length37:29
LabelColumbia
ProducerIrving Townsend[3]
Johnny Mathis chronology
Portrait of Johnny
(1961) 		Live It Up!
(1961) 		Rapture
(1962)

Live It Up! is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on December 11, 1961,[1] by Columbia Records and was the second of two album collaborations with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. The singer again eschewed ballads as he had on Swing Softly and selected a balance of new and established material.

The album debuted on Billboard magazine's album chart in the issue dated February 24, 1962, to begin a stay of 39 weeks, during which time it got as high as number 14.[4] it also debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the issue dated February 17, 1962, and remained on the chart for the totals of 40 weeks, peaking at number eight.[5]

This album was released on compact disc in a two-disc set with his other Riddle project, 1961's I'll Buy You a Star, on June 9, 2009.[6] Live It Up! was also included in Legacy's Mathis box set The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection, which was released on December 8, 2017.[7]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Billboardpositive[8]
New Record Mirror5/5[9]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[10]

Billboard was enthusiastic. "This is easily one of Mathis's best albums",[8] they wrote. "He's really in a swingin' mood, and he gets standout arrangements to match from Nelson Riddle."[8]

Cashbox claims Mathis "soft, feelingful tones are expertly backed by the Nelson Riddle ork which provides a suitable accompaniment to his vocalizing in addition to being a sales plus."[11]

Variety wrote that "Johnny Mathis is in a peppy mood dishing out energetic vocal sounds that really bounce across the grooves."[12]

Ralph Vaughan Williams of American Record Guide thought "Prehaps his voice has deepend, or else he has abandoned some of his vocal affectations, or maybe Nelson Riddle, who did the arrangements and also conducts, has had some effect."[13]

Jimmy Watson of New Record Mirror wrote "Johnny swings at mighty pace and lifts the songs right into new dressings, giving it five-star rating."[9] the album received three-star rating from The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.[14]

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Live It Up" (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman) – 3:28
  2. "Just Friends" (John Klenner, Sam M. Lewis) – 4:01
  3. "Ace in the Hole" from Let's Face It! (Cole Porter) – 2:46
  4. "On a Cold and Rainy Day" (Lee Pockriss, Paul Vance) – 3:06
  5. "Why Not" (Otis G. Clements, Sydney Shaw) – 2:08
  6. "I Won't Dance" from Roberta (Dorothy Fields, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, Jimmy McHugh) – 3:58

Side two

  1. "Johnny One Note" from Babes in Arms (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers) – 2:39
  2. "Too Much Too Soon" (Marvin Fisher, Jack Segal) – 2:51
  3. "The Riviera" (Cy Coleman, Joseph Allen McCarthy) – 3:03
  4. "Crazy in the Heart" (William Engvick, Alec Wilder) – 3:55
  5. "Hey, Look Me Over" from Wildcat (Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) – 1:48
  6. "Love" from Ziegfeld Follies (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin) – 3:46

Charts

Chart (1962) Peak
position
US Top LPs (Billboard)[4] 14
US Cash Box[5] 8

Recording dates

From the liner notes for The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection:[1]

  • April 24, 1961 — "Ace in the Hole", "Johnny One Note", "Just Friends", "Live It Up", "The Riviera"
  • April 25, 1961 — "Crazy in the Heart", "Hey, Look Me Over", "I Won't Dance", "Love", "On a Cold and Rainy Day", "Too Much Too Soon", "Why Not"

Personnel

References

  1. ^ a b c d (2017) The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection by Johnny Mathis [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music Entertainment 88985 36892 2.
  2. ^ "Live It Up! - Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e (1962) Live It Up! by Johnny Mathis [album jacket]. New York: Columbia Records CS 8511.
  4. ^ a b Whitburn 2010, p. 503.
  5. ^ a b Hoffmann (1988), p. 244.
  6. ^ "I'll Buy You a Star/Live It Up! - Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  7. ^ "The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection - Johnny Mathis". allmusic.com. All Media Network, LLC. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "Spotlight Albums of the Week". Billboard. February 3, 1962. p. 24.
  9. ^ a b Watson, Jimmy (March 10, 1962). "Johnny Mathis: Live It Up" (PDF). New Record Mirror. No. 52. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2022. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
  10. ^ Larkin (2007), p. 922.
  11. ^ "Album Reviews: Popular Picks of the Week". Cash Box. Vol. 23, no. 20. February 10, 1962. p. 22.
  12. ^ "Variety Record Reviews: Mathis Live It, Kingston's Concert, Washington's Tears Top News LPs". Variety. Vol. 225, no. 10. January 31, 1962. p. 50.
  13. ^ "Unlikely Corners". American Record Guide. Vol. 28, no. 7. March 1962. p. 604.
  14. ^ Larkin (2007), p. 1498.

Bibliography

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