Live at the Olympia in Paris
Liza Minnelli's final A&M Records live album, recorded in Paris.
Live at the Olympia in Paris is the second live album by American singer and actress Liza Minnelli, released in 1972 on A&M Records. Recorded during her December 1969 concerts at the Olympia theater in Paris, it mixed contemporary pop songs with established standards. The album was her final project with A&M Records and was produced and arranged by Larry Marks.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Liza Minnelli
- Released
- April 1972
- Recorded
- 11 & 13 December 1969
- Venue
- Olympia, Paris
- Genre
- Pop
- vocal
- traditional pop
- Label
- A&M
- Producer
- Larry Marks
Facts from the source article.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consider Yourself / Hello, I Love You / I Gotta Be Me / Consider Yourself (Reprise) | Lionel Bart, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison, Walter Marks | 2:57 |
| 2 | Everybody's Talkin' / Good Morning Starshine | Fred Neil, James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Galt MacDermot | 3:20 |
| 3 | God Bless the Child | Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog | 3:09 |
| 4 | Liza with A 'Z' | Fred Ebb, John Kander | 3:30 |
| 5 | Married / You Better Sit Down Kids | Fred Ebb, John Kander, Sonny Bono | 4:45 |
| 6 | Nous On S'Aimera / We Will Love One Another | Frank Gerald, Claude Bolling | 1:50 |
| 7 | I Will Wait for You | Norman Gimbel, Michel Legrand | 3:20 |
| 8 | There Is a Time (Les Temps) | Charles Aznavour, Jeff Davis, Gene Lees | 2:13 |
| 9 | My Mammy | Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young, Walter Donaldson | 3:04 |
| 10 | Everybody Loves My Baby | Jack Palmer, Spencer Williams | 1:45 |
| 11 | Cabaret (from the Broadway musical Cabaret) | Fred Ebb, John Kander | 4:26 |
| Total length | 32:39 | ||
Track listing from the source article.
Production and recording
The recordings were made over two nights at the Olympia theater in Paris, where Minnelli had previously performed in 1966 at the International Festival of Variety Shows. The set list combined contemporary songs with standards, similar to the program she had been performing for the previous four years. Most tracks came from the December 11, 1969 concert, with some selections replaced by those from December 13. The album was produced and arranged by Larry Marks, with orchestral direction by Jack French. Art direction was by Roland Young, photography by Guy Webster, and color technique by Sandra Darnley. The album does not represent the complete show; songs such as a French version of "All I Need Is The Boy," "Where Did You Learn To Dance?," and an instrumental track were omitted because the label deemed a double album commercially unfeasible, and those recordings were erased from the archives. Minnelli returned to the same venue for performances in 2011.
Release
Live at the Olympia in Paris was Minnelli's fourth and final release of original material for A&M Records and her second live album, following Live at the London Palladium (1965). The release was primarily due to contractual obligations, as the recording had been stored for a considerable period before being issued. France, Australia, and Japan received the album before the United States. A&M Records, underestimating potential audience interest, kept it on the sidelines until the success of Minnelli's film Cabaret and her television special Liza with a Z prompted the label to release it. The album never received a domestic CD edition in the United States, though a brief overseas CD edition existed. Its track list and cover art were included in the 2008 collection The Complete A&M Recordings. The album cover photo was used on the reissue of The Liza Minnelli Foursider titled A&M Gold Series, which includes five tracks from this album.
Critical reception
Billboard magazine wrote that Minnelli's electrifying performance at the Paris show was captured effectively, highlighting songs such as "I Will Wait for You," "There is a Time," "Nous On S'Aimera," and "Cabaret," the latter concluding an excellent concert. Rex Reed of HiFi Stereo Review found the repertoire tired and Minnelli's voice similarly worn, stating the work fell short of its studio-recorded predecessor and that most songs had better recordings on previous albums; he concluded by hoping the album would only bridge the gap between past achievements and better things to come. In August 1972, Morgan Ames of High Fidelity wrote that Minnelli had become one of the most electric performers of any time, a quality reflected in the album. Record World described the album as especially rewarding because it captures an entire show, performed partly in French but mostly in English, and noted that while comparisons to her mother Judy Garland were inevitable, Minnelli's performance stood on its own. In a contemporary review, William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that the repertoire is a curious mix of old pop standards and current pop/rock material sewn together by the performer's own enthusiasm, and that Minnelli is so lively and animated that she overcomes all contradictions and pleases an audience that must be as shocked as she is by her French accent.
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