Songfacts®:

• This is the title track from 2010 American Idol winner Lee DeWyze's debut album. The song was written by DeWyze with help from Toby Gad, whose other credits include Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy" and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry." The other co-writer was Lindy Robbins who also co-penned Demi Lovato's hit single, "Here We Go Again." Gad and Robbins teamed up the previous year to write "I Need To Know" for the 2009 American Idol winner Kris Allen's debut album.
• This was initially chosen to be the lead single for the Live It Up album, but DeWyze switched to "Sweet Serendipity" shortly before the release. In a telephone interview with radio host Ryan Seacrest, DeWyze explained why he changed his mind, saying that he played the song for a lot of people, and he felt that "Serendipity" is the one that stood out the most. He added that whilst both songs have some similar "Jason Mraz vibes," "Live It Up" is a bit more sleepy than "Serendipity."
• DeWyze co-wrote 10 of "Live It Up's 11 tracks, and this was the song that kick-started the process. He explained to Billboard Magazine: "When I first started talking to (label) people, I told them, 'I just think that it's going to be more me and it's gonna progress better if I have a hand in the writing process, and they were like, 'Well, go write and let's see what happens.' And so we went into the studio and (the song) 'Live It Up' came about. I brought that to the table and they were very happy with it, so that's what kick-started the whole thing."
• DeWyze achieved an unwanted record when Live It Up debuted at #19 on the Billboard album chart with sales of just 39,000, the poorest-selling debut from an Idol champ to date.