Released September 7, 1974 Length 38:29 Artist The Isley Brothers Producer The Isley Brothers | Recorded 1974 Live It Up
(1974) The Heat Is On
(1975) Release date 7 September 1974 Label T-Neck Records | |
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Studio The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California Genres Soul music, Funk, Rock music, Funk rock, Smooth soul Similar The Isley Brothers albums, Soul music albums | ||
The isley brothers live it up
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.
Contents
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
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.
Personnel
Songs
1Live It Up - Parts 1-26:16
2Brown-Eyed Girl4:07
3Need a Little Taste of Love3:08