Remembering Quincy Jones: 10 career-spanning songs to celebrate his legacy

Few artists person legacies truthful mammoth their very sanction could beryllium considered synonymous pinch nan euphony industry, but past again, astir musicians are not nan prodigious shaper Quincy Jones.

The larger-than-life fig died Sunday nighttime astatine his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family. He was 91 and scheduled to person an honorary Academy Award later this month.

Across his career, nan 28-time Grammy Award winning Jones worked pinch everyone from Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson pinch hundreds in-between. The champion measurement to observe his legacy, of course, is to perceive to nan euphony he made.

Read on, and past perceive to each of nan tracks connected our Spotify playlist, here.

Those looking to kickstart their Jones listening travel astatine nan very opening of his profession could do truthful pinch “Liza,” from his first album, “Jazz Abroad,” a associated merchandise pinch Roy Haynes. For everyone else, look to his arrangements connected 1963's “Ella and Basie!,” an album by Fitzgerald pinch Count Basie's orchestra. Moving from conscionable vocals and bass earlier building into its ain grandness — not to mention, a delightful scat solo from Fitzgerald — “Honeysuckle Rose” from nan medium is an exemplar of Jones' jazz brilliance.

Teenage heartbreak met its lucifer connected Lesley Gore's “It's My Party,” recorded erstwhile its popular vocalist was still successful her ain adolescence. Jones produced nan record, pinch its addictive melodies, percussion and cheerful horn conception — emotionally and diametrically opposed to its communicative narrative of a woman getting dumped by her fellow for her champion friend connected her birthday. You'd cry, too, if it happened to you.

Jones' bequest is defined by an idiosyncratic expertise to maestro various American philharmonic forms pinch an evident ease. That is nan lawsuit of this canonized screen by Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to nan Moon,” from Sinatra's 1964 album, “It Might arsenic Well Be Swing,” arranged by Jones. The shaper group nan opus to a punchy, swinging hit and wistful flute, and nan remainder is history. You tin besides convey Jones for “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

Jones scored nan 1967 movie “In nan Heat of nan Night,” which includes its R&B-gospel title track, “In nan Heat of nan Night,” performed by his bully friend Ray Charles. It is psyche committed to wax, amplified by nan inclusion of a lusty tenor sax solo.

Perhaps Jones' best-known accumulation business is nan 1 he had pinch Michael Jackson, moving pinch nan King of Pop connected his culture-shifting albums, 1979's “Off nan Wall," 1982's “Thriller” and 1987's “Bad.” The brace met while moving connected nan 1978 movie “The Wiz" — Jones worked connected its soundtrack, and Jackson was its star. “Don't Stop ‘Til You Get Enough," pinch its inventive disco-funk, eager accumulation and Jackson's signature falsetto group nan shape for nan monolithic profession to come.

Put it successful nan pantheon of awesome soft ballads: On Jones' 1981 medium “The Dude,” James Ingram takes complete lead vocal duties for “Just Once,” nan big-hearted and bigger-feelings track.

What songs are much instantly recognizable? An elongated drum and bass lick present “Billie Jean,” 1 of nan awesome genre-averse popular songs of each time, from Jackson's record-breaking “Thriller" album. Here, Jones' accumulation is post-disco, but still funky, still prescient. And clip tells nan top tale: “Thriller” sold more than 20 cardinal copies successful 1983 unsocial and has contended pinch nan Eagles’ “Greatest Hits 1971-1975” among others arsenic nan best-selling medium of each time.

And now for thing wholly different: In 1982, Jones worked pinch Donna Summer connected her self-titled album, a dance-forward grounds that includes nan synth-y popular azygous “Love Is successful Control (Finger connected nan Trigger)," which earned a Grammy information for champion R&B vocal performance, female.

Nearly 4 decades ago, immoderate of nan biggest stars connected nan satellite — Jackson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen among them — came together for an all-night signaling session. The consequence was “We Are nan World,” a popular superhit overseen by Jones, nan 1985 kindness grounds for famine alleviation successful Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are nan World” and was among nan featured singers, would telephone Jones “the maestro orchestrator.”

Back successful 1976, Jones produced nan Brothers Johnson's R&B hit, “I'll Be Good to You,” and past re-recorded nan way pinch Ray Charles and Chaka Khan — an ebullient number pinch modern production, wholly transforming nan classic.

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National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.