Lieberson was noted for his personal elegance, taste and style, and was renowned as a wit, bon vivant and international traveller, whose circle of friends and acquaintances included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Rodgers, W. Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward and John Gielgud.

[6] The LP was particularly well-suited to Columbia's long-established classical repertoire, as recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Leonard Bernstein.

Lieberson was also a lifelong friend of musician, recording artist, TV personality and Columbia A&R manager/producer Mitch Miller, having met Miller when the two were studying music at the Eastman School of Music in the 1930s[7] He was promoted to president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971 and again from 1973 to 1975.

In 1977, Lieberson co-wrote and produced the CBS-TV special They Said it with Music: From Yankee Doodle to Ragtime, a salute to American songwriters throughout the ages, starring Bernadette Peters,[9] Tony Randall, Jason Robards,[10] Jean Stapleton[11] and Flip Wilson,[12][13] with appearances by Thurl Ravenscroft and Jimmy Griffin, a founding member of the soft-rock band Bread.

[14] The show aired July 4,[15] thirty-seven days after Lieberson died of cancer in New York City on May 29, 1977, aged 66.