Live It Up (The Isley Brothers album)

Live It Up
Studio album by The Isley Brothers
Released September 7, 1974
Recorded 1974
Studio The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California
Genre Soul, funk, funk rock, rock, smooth soul
Length 38:29
Label T-Neck Records
Producer The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers chronology
3 + 3
(1973)		 Live It Up
(1974)		 The Heat Is On
(1975)

Live It Up is the twelfth album released by The Isley Brothers on September 7, 1974, their second major distributed album with Epic Records under their T-Neck subsidiary.

The album was remastered and expanded for inclusion in the 2015 released CD box set "The RCA Victor & T-Neck Album Masters, 1959–1983".

Recording

Like their previous recording, their breakthrough 1973 album, 3 + 3, the album was assisted by the team of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. The album also continued their growing trademark of mixing funky dance songs mixed with softer soul ballads, which set the precedent for their landmark 1975 release, The Heat Is On.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Robert ChristgauB[2]
Pitchfork8.8/10[3]

The album spawned hit singles such as the title track, which topped at number eight on the US R&B charts, while another single, "Midnight Sky", was also a top ten R&B success, while both songs received some modest play on the pop and rock stations. The album's ballads including their slower rendition of Todd Rundgren's hit, "Hello It's Me", which was their only cover on the album, became popular alongside the folk rock influenced ballad, "Brown Eyed Girl".

The album track, "Need a Little Taste of Love", was later covered by The Doobie Brothers, while their version of "Hello It's Me" was covered by neo soul duo Groove Theory and was partially interpolated in Whitney Houston's single, "One of Those Days". Another track, "Ain't I Been Good to You", would be sampled by UGK on the track "One Day". On the album charts, Live It Up peaked at number eight on the US pop albums chart and peaked at number-one on the R&B albums chart, instantly going gold selling half a million copies, making it their first number-one R&B album ever in their career.

Track listing

All tracks written by Rudolph Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper, except where noted. 

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Live It Up (Part 1 & 2)"   6:14
2. "Brown Eyed Girl"   4:14
3. "Need a Little Taste of Love"   3:03
4. "Lover's Eve"   4:40
Side two
No. Title Length
5. "Midnight Sky (Part 1 & 2)"   6:56
6. "Hello It's Me" (Todd Rundgren) 5:32
7. "Ain't I Been Good to You (Part 1 & 2)"   8:29

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1974) Peak
position
US Billboard Pop Albums[4] 14
US Billboard Top Soul Albums[4] 1

Singles

Year Single Chart positions[5]
US
Pop		 US
R&B
1974 "Live It Up" 52 4
"Midnight Sky" 73 8

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lytle, Craig. The Isley Brothers – Live It Up at AllMusic. Retrieved 03 September 2011.
  2. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "The Isley Brothers – Live It Up". Robert Christgau. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  3. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (September 11, 2015). "The Isley Brothers: The RCA Victor and T-Neck Album Masters". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "The Isley Brothers US albums chart history". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  5. ↑ "The Isley Brothers US singles chart history". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
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