"Live a Little" is the title of a song written by David Lee Murphy

David Lee Murphy

David Lee Murphy is an American country music artist. Signed to MCA Nashville Records in 1994, Murphy made his first appearance on the Billboard country charts that year with "Just Once", a song from the soundtrack to the 1994 film 8 Seconds. A year later, Murphy's debut album Out with a Bang was...

 and Shane Minor

Shane Minor

Shane Allen Minor is an American country music artist. Signed to Mercury Nashville Records in 1999, Minor released his self-titled album that year, and it produced three hit singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts...

, and recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Kenny Chesney

Kenny Chesney

Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S...

. It is the third single from his 2010 album Hemingway's Whiskey

Hemingway's Whiskey

Upon its release, Hemingway’s Whiskey received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, based on 6 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable...

, and it was released to radio in March 2011.

Background and writing

Chesney told the Nashville Music Scene that the song defines him as a person. Co-writer David Lee Murphy told The Boot that the two were just sitting around and Minor said he had a good idea for a song called "live a little, love a lot." They wrote the song at the end of summer and Murphy said "we had our windows down, just singing at top of our lungs."

Critical reception

Bill Frisicks-Warren of The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

described the song negatively in his review of the album, saying that "Nothing — not even the singer's self-deprecating, Everyday Joe persona — can redeem [it]." Giving the single a "thumbs down", Karlie Justus of The 9513 thought that Chesney's singing sounded disinterested; she also thought that its subject matter was too similar to other songs of his, and that it had a very similar melody to his 2005 single "Keg in the Closet

Keg in the Closet

"Keg in the Closet" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Chesney. It was released in 2005 as the sixth and final single from his 2004 album When the Sun Goes Down...

".

Stuart Munro of The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

called the song a "good-timing singalong". A positive review also came from Bobby Peacock of Roughstock, who gave it four stars out of five. His review said that the song was "delightfully unhurried" and that Chesney "has rarely sounded better."

Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song a C grade, saying that the song starts with a "pure pop/rock intro" and then transitions into acoustic country but eventually "disintegrates to generic Chesney: loud but not assertive, cute but not clever, upbeat but not uplifting."

Chart performance

Chart (2011)	Peak position