Live It Up! | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | December 11, 1961 [1] | |||
Recorded | April 24–25, 1961 [1] | |||
Genre | Vocal [2] | |||
Length | 37:29 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Irving Townsend [3] | |||
Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Billboard | positive [4] |
New Record Mirror | 5/5 [5] |
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. [6]
This album was released for the first time 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. [7]
Billboard was enthusiastic. "This is easily one of Mathis's best albums", [4] they wrote. "He's really in a swingin' mood, and he gets standout arrangements to match from Nelson Riddle." [4]
From the liner notes for The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection : [1]
That's What Friends Are For is an album by American singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams that was released in July 1978 by Columbia Records. The project was a continuation of the pairing of the artists that began on his previous LP, You Light Up My Life, which included "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late", the duet that was on its way to number one on three different charts in Billboard magazine as the recording sessions for this album got underway.
Johnny's Mood is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on July 18, 1960, by Columbia Records and mixes new material in with covers of hit standards by other artists.
I'll Buy You a Star is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 27, 1961 by Columbia Records and was the first of two album collaborations with arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. This LP includes both ballads and swinging uptempo material throughout a mix of songs that range from the new to the familiar and obscure.
Rapture is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 17, 1962, by Columbia Records and returned him to singing a full line-up of the sort of ballads that he was known for.
Romantically is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on November 18, 1963, by Columbia Records and was also the final original studio album recorded by Mathis for the label prior to his moving to Mercury Records. Mathis had recorded exclusively for Columbia from 1956 to 1963. After a brief stint with Mercury, he returned to Columbia in 1967. His first Mercury project, Sounds of Christmas, was actually released six weeks before this one, on October 4.
Love Theme from "Romeo and Juliet" is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on July 30, 1969, by Columbia Records. Of its 11 tracks, eight had been hits for other performers earlier that year, and one of the remaining three, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", would become a huge success for Dionne Warwick several months later.
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 25, 1970, by Columbia Records and included several covers of chart hits from the previous year along with 1964's "Watch What Happens" and the 1966 tunes "Alfie" and "A Man and a Woman".
Close To You is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on August 19, 1970, by Columbia Records and mostly included his recordings of hits that other artists had that year. The exceptions were the new movie theme "Pieces of Dreams" and the 1967 songs "Wave" by Antônio Carlos Jobim and "Yellow Days", which was an Easy Listening hit for former Mathis collaborator Percy Faith. In the UK the album was retitled after a different song Mathis covered on it, "The Long and Winding Road".
Johnny Mathis Sings the Music of Bacharach & Kaempfert is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in the fall of 1970 by Columbia Records. While one half of the two-record set was a compilation of tracks from his previous albums that were composed by Burt Bacharach, the other consisted of new recordings of songs composed by Bert Kaempfert, including a new version of "Strangers in the Night", which Mathis had already recorded in 1966 for his LP Johnny Mathis Sings. Although the Kaempfert tribute was similar to recent Mathis albums in that he was mainly covering songs made popular by other singers, it was absent of hits from the 12 months previous to its release that had become the pattern of his output at this point. The latest US chartings of any of the Kaempfert compositions as of this album's debut came from 1967 recordings of "Lady" by Jack Jones and "The Lady Smiles" by Matt Monro.
Love Story is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 10, 1971, by Columbia Records and included a recent Oscar nominee, a flashback to 1967 ("Traces"), a new song by Bacharach & David, a lesser-known one by Goffin & King, and two songs that originated in film scores from 1970 and had lyrics added later: the album closer, "Loss of Love", from Sunflower and the album opener from Love Story, which was subtitled "Where Do I Begin". The norm for Mathis projects from this era was to cover recent hits, and the title track of this one was so recent that the version by Andy Williams began a 13-week run to number nine on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in February 1971, coinciding with the release of this LP.
When Will I See You Again is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in March 1975 by Columbia Records and was again predominantly composed of covers of recent hit songs by other artists.
Mathis Is... is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on February 21, 1977, by Columbia Records and reunites the singer with producer Thom Bell for the first time since their collaboration on I'm Coming Home in 1973. As with that project, Mathis Is... focuses primarily on new songs, the one exception being a cover of "Sweet Love of Mine" from the 1975 Pick of the Litter album by The Spinners.
You Light Up My Life is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on March 13, 1978, by Columbia Records. While this LP includes three new songs, it doesn’t stray too far from the format of his albums of recent years in covering established material, including a standard, a country number, something from Broadway, and a few soundtrack tunes.
Mathis Magic is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 17, 1979, by Columbia Records and contained an equal balance of new material and songs associated with other artists.
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 in favor of songs that made the UK singles chart or contemporary hits by other people.
Friends in Love is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on April 5, 1982, by Columbia Records and included six original songs, two of which were duets with Dionne Warwick.
A Special Part of Me is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on January 22, 1984, by Columbia Records and reunited him with his "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" partner Deniece Williams on one of the LP's two duets, "Love Won't Let Me Wait", which is also the only song on the album that was previously recorded and released by another artist. This continuing trend away from the cover album genre would reach its limit with his next studio release, Right from the Heart, which only had original material.
Live is a live album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in October 15, 1984, by Columbia Records and includes performances of some of his classics, songs from recent albums, and three selections that have never appeared on a Mathis studio album.
The Christmas Album is the fifth Christmas album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on October 15, 2002, by Columbia Records and included his first recordings of three traditional carols, three new songs, and a handful of 20th-century offerings.
Johnny Mathis has recorded 73 studio albums, 18 of which achieved sales of 500,000 units and were awarded Gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Five of his greatest hits albums also accomplished this, and of these 18 Gold albums, six eventually went Platinum by reaching sales of one million copies. In 1999, sales figures totaled five million for his first holiday LP, Merry Christmas, and three million for Johnny's Greatest Hits, a 1958 collection that has been described as the "original greatest-hits package" and once held the record for most weeks on Billboard magazine's album chart with a total of 490. His second longest album chart run was the 295 weeks belonging to his Platinum 1959 album Heavenly, which gave him five weeks in the top spot. In a ranking of the top album artists of the last half of the 1950s in terms of Billboard chart performance, he comes in at number two, for the 1960s, number 10, and for the period from 1955 to 2009 he is at number six.