You Gotta Love the Life
Studio album by
Melissa Manchester
Released2015
RecordedCitrus College, Glendora, California
Genre
LabelLong Run Entertainment, L.L.C.
Producer
Melissa Manchester chronology
When I Look Down That Road
(2004) 		You Gotta Love the Life
(2015)
Singles from You Gotta Love The Life
  1. "Be My Baby (edit)"
    Released: October 2012
  2. "Feelin' For You"
    Released: January 2015
  3. "Big Light"
    Released: June 2015
  4. "You Gotta Love The Life"
    Released: July 2015

You Gotta Love The Life is an album by the Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Melissa Manchester in 2015. Her 20th studio album, and her first since When I Look Down That Road (2004), the fourteen-track album is primarily written by Melissa, with four tracks being covers of well-known standards, and includes a longer version of the 2013, single release of, "Be My Baby",[1] celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Ronettes' release of the song.[2]

You Gotta Love The Life features duets with Al Jarreau and Dionne Warwick with feature instrumentals provided by Keb' Mo', guitars on "Feelin' for You", Joe Sample plays keyboards on "Other End of the Phone", Dave Koz' saxophone on "Claudia" and Stevie Wonder plays harmonica on "Your Love is Where I Live".[3][4]

Melissa, an adjunct professor at the USC Thornton School of Music,[5] was encouraged by her students to make the indie album, they informed her of the availability of crowdfunding opportunities, and in August 2013, Indiegogo was chosen for the album's fundraising platform. The first acknowledgements from the album-insert, thank Melissa's long-time manager, Sue Holder and former student, Barry Harris for spearheading and managing the Indiegogo campaign.[4][6]

A shortened version of "Be My Baby" was released in August 2013, to kick off the crowdfunding campaign; the first single release in connection with the album debut was, "Feelin' for You", written by Melissa Manchester and Sara Niemietz.[7] The song was inspired by a drunk in a juke joint; when his advances were rebuffed by Melissa, he said, "Too bad, cause I got a feelin' for you."[8] "Feelin' for You" was pre-released as a single on January 9, 2015, includes a solo by Keb' Mo', and premiered at #2 on the Smooth jazz charts.[7] A second single, "Big Light", featuring Al Jarreau, with an accompanying music video was released to radio on June 15, 2015.[9] y You

You Gotta Love the Life was released on February 10, 2015,[10] and hit #17 on the Billboard Magazine Jazz Albums chart for the week of February 28, 2015.[11]

Track list

You Gotta Love the Life[4]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."You Gotta Love the Life"Melissa Manchester, Sharon Vaughn4:38
2."Feelin' for You" (featuring Keb' Mo' – guitar)Melissa Manchester, Sara Niemietz3:43
3."Be My Baby" (full version)Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry4:38
4."Big Light" (featuring Al Jarreau)Melissa Manchester, John Proulx4:04
5."Other End of the Phone" (featuring Dionne Warwick and Joe Sample)Melissa Manchester, Hal David4:43
6."You Are My Heart"Melissa Manchester3:45
7."Let's Face the Music and Dance / From This Moment On"Irving Berlin, Cole Porter3:45
8."Claudia" (featuring Dave Koz -saxophone)Steven Cagan4:37
9."Your Love is Where I Live" (featuring Stevie Wonder -harmonica)Melissa Manchester, Tom Snow3:31
10."No There There"Melissa Manchester, Paul Reiser4:00
11."Open My Heart to Your Love"Melissa Manchester, Michael Ochs2:59
12."The Other One"Melissa Manchester3:59
13."I Know Who I Am"Melissa Manchester, Joanna Cotten, Greg Barnhill3:53
14."Something Wonderful" (Bonus: available exclusively on the full album)Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein2:25

Personnel

Production

References

  1. ^ Cole, Christine (20 February 2015). "Grammy winning Melissa Manchester 'at a new beginning'". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  2. ^ Shapiro, Gregg (2015). "Melissa Manchester Loving the life: an interview with Melissa Manchester". ChicagoPride.com. Retrieved 22 March 2015. The thing is that the song is brilliant. True to historical form, brilliant songs should be covered by many artists. It was the 50th anniversary of "Be My Baby" and it seemed appropriate. Again, it was another song that I'd been working on onstage for awhile.
  3. ^ a b Graff, Gary (30 January 2015). "Exclusive: Melissa Manchester ft. Stevie Wonder, 'Your Love Is Where I Live'". Billboard Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  4. ^ a b c You Gotta Love the Life (Media notes). Los Angeles, California: Long Run Entertainment, L.L.C. 2015.
  5. ^ "Melissa Manchester: Adjunct Professor". USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC. Archived from the original on 16 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Melissa Manchester, You Gotta Love the Life". Indiegogo. 19 August 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  7. ^ a b Holleran, Scott (22 January 2015). "Music Review: Melissa Manchester, You Gotta Love the Life". Scott Holleran. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  8. ^ Feinstein, Michael (16 January 2015). "Melissa Manchester On Song Travels". NPR. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  9. ^ Gaug, Andrew (12 June 2015). "Melissa Manchester returns with new jazz album". News-Pressnow. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  10. ^ "YOU GOTTA LOVE THE LIFE: NEW SINGLE GOING FOR ADDS JAN 19, 2015". Melissa Manchester. Archived from the original on 21 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  11. ^ "Jazz Albums: Week of February 28, 2015". Billboard Magazine. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.

External links

Melissa Manchester
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