Ep. 96: Quincy Jones – Top 7 Songs Produced

July 30, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode is on the music legend Quincy Jones. With his career spanning over 70 years Quincy Jones is one of those unique people left on the planet that has seen and been involved in more history than you can imagine. He has worked with countless stars such as Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson and that is just to name a few.

He has worked on numerous film scores, along with producing film and TV, which has all paid dividends being nominated and winning a myriad of awards too numerous to mention.

Today’s mnemonic is on his top seven songs produced.

So, with no further ado, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quincy_Jones_May_2014.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer.[1] His career spans 70 years, with 80 Grammy Award nominations,[2] 28 Grammys,[2] and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.

Jones came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor before working on pop music and film scores. He moved easily between genres, producing pop hit records for Lesley Gore in the early 1960s (including "It's My Party") and serving as an arranger and conductor for several collaborations between the jazz artists Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. In 1968, Jones became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Eyes of Love" from the film Banning. Jones was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood, making him the first African American to be nominated twice in the same year. Jones produced three of the most successful albums by the pop star Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). In 1985, Jones produced and conducted the charity song "We Are the World", which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia.[3]

In 1971, Jones became the first African American to be the musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards. In 1995, he was the first African American to receive the academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the second most Oscar-nominated African American, with seven nominations each. In 2013, Jones was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the winner, alongside Lou Adler, of the Ahmet Ertegun Award.[4] He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.[1]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy_Jones]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quincy_Jones_studio.jpg

Mnemonic

Quincy Jones – Top 7 Songs Produced Mnemonic – DUMB HIT

(Picture Michael Jackson asking Quincy Jones what he thought of Thriller after they had just finished producing it, and Quincy replied “Well, it’s no dumb hit”)

1. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson

2. USA For Africa: We Are the World – Various Artists

3. Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson

4. Bad – Michael Jackson

5. Hot Stuff – Donna Summer

6. It’s My Party – Lesley Gore

7. Thriller – Michael Jackson

Five Fun Facts

1. Quincy’s first experience with music was when he and his brother broke into a recreation centre and he discovered a piano at age 11. From then on, he was hooked and was mentored by jazz piano legend Count Basie.

2. Quincy lived in poverty while young and also at one stage was addicted to heroin. After falling down five flights of stairs while high he hit his rock bottom and then turned it all around.

3. Quincy moved to Paris in the late 1950s where he lived across the street from Picasso. In Paris he studied classical composition under the tutelage of French composer Nadia Boulanger.

4. Quincy Jones has been married three times. Firstly, to Jeri Caldwell 1957-1966, the second to Ulla Anderson 1968-1974 and his third marriage was to Peggy Lipton 1974-1990. He has had seven children with five different women.

5. Quincy Jones is the most nominated artist in history, receiving 80 Grammy nominations, and has won 28. He received his first Grammy Award in 1964 for the Best Instrumental Arrangement, and he also received a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.

6. Bonus Fact: Quincy Jones actually helped Oprah get the role of Sofia in The Colour Purple. He had purchased the rights to Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple and convinced Stephen Spielberg to direct. He came across Oprah in Chicago where she was a young reporter. He thought it was serendipitous as Oprah’s name spelt backwards is Harpo who the character Sofia is married to in the movie.

Now this week there will be no Mutley Moment because just about everything that comes out of Quincy Jones mouth is a lot funnier!

For instance, when discussing Marlon Brando Jones commented “He would "f*** anything. Anything! He’d f*** a mailbox.”

When discussing Michael Jackson, he said: “I hate to get into this publicly, but Michael stole a lot of stuff. He stole a lot of songs, (Donna Summer's) State of Independence and Billie Jean. The notes don't lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come.”

Finally, Donald Trump: “I used to hang out with him. He's a crazy mother f***er. Limited mentally — a megalomaniac, narcissistic. I can't stand him.” He then finished that statement off with "I used to date Ivanka [Trump], you know." And this claim that he had dated Ivanka was back in 2006, when he was 72 and Ivanka was just 24!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quincy_Jones_1975_(cropped).jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. What is Quincy Jones’s middle name? Options are Delight or Knight

Q.2. What was the name of Quincy Jones’s production company that he formed in 1975? Options are Quest Productions or West Productions

Q.3. Quincy Jones was diagnosed with how many brain aneurysms in 1974? Options are one, two or three

Bonus Q. Did Quincy Jones win an academy award? Yes or No

Mnemonic Recap