Remembering Quincy Jones: 6 essential tracks from the legendary producer and musician
The soundtrack to the 20th century.
The world of pop music has lost an all-time great. Quincy Jones, the legendary producer and musician who worked with everyone from Micheal Jackson to Frank Sinatra, has died aged 91.
Jones passed away Sunday night, November 3rd 2024, in his Bel Air, Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
Whether on the road as a gigging jazz musician in the 1950s, or orchestrating some of the biggest pop songs of all time through the 1980s and beyond, Quincy’s musical virtuosity saw his skills touch every corner of the pop culture landscape.
It’s not an overstatement to say his work was the soundtrack to the 20th century. Narrowing it down to just a handful of tracks — when you could easily pick 30 Quincy-produced Michael Jackson tunes alone — is a tall order. But for a whistle stop tour of one of the greatest producers the world’s ever seen, here’s six essential Quincy Jones tracks.
1. Michael Jackson — Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough
You could do an entire list that runs down the best work Jones did with his most famous collaborator, Michael Jackson. The entire Thriller and Bad albums for starters — we were tempted to put the track Beat It in here just for the inspired decision to get Eddie Van Halen in the studio to do the electrifying solo. But it’s Off The Wall, the album that sees Jackson go from Jackson 5 boy to solo superstar, that sees Quincy’s production is at its most refined and bouncy. Opening track Don't Stop Til You Get Enough is the highlight. From that opening bass stab to that killer string soar to Jackson’s constant falsetto, pop might have peaked right here.
2. Frank Sinatra — Fly Me To The Moon
Quincy Jones’s other most-famous collaborator, Frank Sinatra, saw Jones lean into his big band jazz roots to make some of the most swinging sounds ever committed to tape. It’s a wonderfully realised production — the confidence to let Sinatra’s velvety smooth vocal work sit powerfully at the front of the mix for the first half of the song and then, BAM! About a minute in, the way that orchestra just explodes with joyous abandon. It’s a masterclass in dynamics.
3. Lesley Gore — You Don’t Own Me
Quincy Jones also produced Lesley Gore’s teenage-heartbreak-party-anthem It’s My Party, but his best work with the teenage singer was You Don’t Own Me. An early stereo production, its proto-feminist lyrics are matched in the forward-gazing stakes by its grand sound and mega-panning mix.
4. The Brothers Johnson — Strawberry Letter 23
Jones wasn’t always the first to a track — but when it came time to work up a cover version, it was his that usually stood the test of time. Taking Shuggie Otis’s 1971 Strawberry Letter 23, Jones works it up with the Brother’s Johnson into a funk-sci-fi love story epic, with one of the most distinctive solos of all time. Referenced by stars as diverse as Vic Reeves and OutKast, its original vinyl releases saw it come in strawberry-scented packaging.
5. Quincy Jones — Soul Bossa Nova
What, you’ve never heard of Soul Bossa Nova? Are you sure? …What if I told you it was the theme tune to the Austin Powers movies? Ahhh, there you go! It’s hard to imagine another song that more encapsulates the feeling of the swinging 60s. But considering it's a song that sums up an entire decade, Quincy Jones composed it all in a mere 20 minutes.
6. Various artists — We Are The World
Everything’s bigger stateside, so it’s no wonder that, when Quincy Jones and his pals Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson saw what Bob Geldof was doing to help the Ethiopian famine of the mid-80s with Band Aid, that Jones would look to up the ante once again. We Are The World is a bit syrupy and overblown, sure — but just look at the talent and egos that needed to be wrangled to get this charity-funding mega hit out there: Richie, all the Jacksons, Steve Wonder, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Lindsey Buckingham, Huey Lewis, Hall and Oates. That’s not even the entirety of collected stars on this gospel-inspired mega song. Heck, you’ve even got Smokey Robinson on this, and he’s just part of the ensemble chorus. Madness.
Image Credit: Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Global Down Syndrome Foundation
