You Light Up My Life (soundtrack)


You Light Up My Life: Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 1977 film of the same name starring Didi Conn and Joe Silver. The soundtrack was composed, arranged and produced by Joseph "Joe" Brooks and released in October 1977 by Arista Records.
Originally released on LP, cassette and 8-track tape, the soundtrack album peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 chart in November 1977, was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.
The title song "You Light Up My Life", performed by Kvitka Cisyk for the film's soundtrack and later recorded by Debby Boone, received the Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song as well as the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. In the film, the song was lip synched by actress Didi Conn.
Cisyk's original soundtrack recording of "You Light Up My Life" was included on the soundtrack album which was rush-released by Arista Records after Boone included her version on her first solo album and within less than three weeks, the soundtrack album was certified Gold by the RIAA, making it one of the fastest-breaking records in the label's history at that time.
Boone's single reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a then record-setting 10 consecutive weeks while Cisyk's version of the song was released simultaneously as a single to bolster sales of the soundtrack album. Cisyk's single was credited to "Original Cast", not to Cisyk herself, and although Brooks is listed on the A-side, the "Original Cast" B-side charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and only reached #80. Brooks also released an instrumental version of the song from the soundtrack as a promotional single, but that version failed to chart.
Following the huge success of Boone's hit version of the song and with sales of over five million copies of the single, "You Light Up My Life" ultimately became the biggest hit of the 1970s.

Track listing

Side 1:
  1. "You Light Up My Life" – 3:35
  2. "The Morning Of My Life" – 1:50
  3. "It's A Long Way From Brooklyn" – 1:38
  4. "Phone Call" – Joe Brooks
  5. "You Light Up My Life" – 3:02
Side 2:
  1. "Rolling The Chords" – 2:52
  2. "Do You Have A Piano" – 3:32
  3. "Ride To Chris' House" – 0:59
  4. "California Daydreams" – 3:28
  5. "You Light Up My Life" – 3:35

    Personnel

Album

Single

Year-end charts

Awards and nominations

Brooks received three awards, from four nominations, for the song/album "You Light Up My Life".
YearAwardCategoryResult
1978Academy AwardBest Original Song
1978Golden Globe AwardBest Original Song – Motion Picture
1978Grammy AwardSong of the Year
1978Grammy AwardBest Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special