The best songs by Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones' musical career spans 70 years, during which he has held prominent roles as a musician, songwriter/composer, producer, arranger, entrepreneur and more.

Jones – “Q” for friends and associates, who died late Sunday at age 91 – revolutionized the way audiences around the world listened to popular music, blurring genre boundaries while playing the free spirit of the jazz sounds of his early days . A flair for unique collaborations, outstanding musicianship, bold studio techniques and the groundbreaking integration of Latin and African sounds into pop are just a few of his achievements.

Here are 15 of the most memorable moments from his incredible career:

Quincy Jones – “Boo’s Blues” (1957)
Jones' first full-length album as a bandleader, conductor and arranger (not yet as a producer, that was Creed Taylor's job), This is How I Feel About Jazz is an immediate blueprint for Q's entire career. In his bright, ephemeral composition “Boo's Blues,” Q demonstrated his penchant for neatly layering traditional jazz instruments with some of the era's best session artists, including bassist Charles Mingus, flautist Herbie Mann and alto saxophonist Phil Woods. Jones also coolly reinterpreted a genre – the blues – as seductive and sophisticated. This kind of deconstruction of idioms and clarity of tone became a hallmark of Jones' work from this point on.

Ray Charles – “One Mint Julep” (1961)
While Jones' delicious arrangement of Bobby Timmons' bluesy “Moanin'” for his pal Ray is another example of his genre-bending sound, “One Mint Julep” takes the party a step further. Both tracks come from Charles' big band classic “Genius + Soul = Jazz”. But on “Julep,” Jones turns up the heat on Charles' swinging Hammond B3 organ, brightens up the brass (which includes trumpeter Clark Terry and trombonist Jimmy Cleveland) and gives the track a cha-cha thanks to drummer Roy Haynes -Cha rhythm. “One Mint Julep” reached No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 8 on the Billboard pop charts.

Dinah Washington – “Mad about the Boy” (1961)
Written by Noël Coward in the early 1930s, jazz singer Dinah Washington's version of “Desire at a Distance” was produced and arranged by Jones and played by his orchestra as something slower and more urgent than the usual 4/4 time. Brought to a walking 6/8 tempo by Jones, Washington's intentions got worse than “Mad,” and the string lounge-like production has a sweetly sensual appeal. Quincy arranged and produced titans like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee, but Dinah led the way. What a difference a change can make…

Quincy Jones – “Soul Bossa Nova” (1962)
The cold Christmas of 1962 got hotter when Jones composed and produced this sexy song for his Big Band Bossa Nova album, featuring a trendy take on gentle Brazilian syncopations. What makes Jones' version of bossa nova special to his sound is his usual use of top-class jazz musicians (Lalo Schifrin plays piano, Rahsaan Roland Kirk plays flute) and a cuíca provides the characteristic “giggle” at the beginning of the song. Of course, Mike Myers also deserves pop culture credit for bringing Jones' song into the 21st century with its use as the opening theme of “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (based on the Dream Warriors' 1990 hit “My Definition”) has a “boombastic jazz style” that heavily samples it).

Lesley Gore, “It’s My Party” (1963)
Jones, who not only produced the song but also signed the 16-year-old Gore to Mercury Records, stayed true to his love of Latin percussion and cool, hot brass and created one of pop's most frightening youth hits. With its double-tracked vocals, handclap beat, quirky chord changes, aggressive brass and infectious melody, “It's My Party” explodes Spector's girl group wall of sound at its commercial peak.

Quincy Jones – “The Pawnbroker: Main Title” (1964)
First-time score composer and arranger Jones enhanced film director Sidney Lumet's dark tale of a man trying to escape his horrors while imprisoned in a Nazi camp, toning down his usual major chords and bright brass jazz for a bit Subdued, atmospheric, minor and impressionistic. Most notable in Jones' theme is the use of vibraphone in contrast to the melancholic strings of his orchestra.

Quincy Jones – “You’ve Got It Bad Girl” (1973)

When Quincy Jones got the funk on his album You've Got It Bad Girl, it hit him (sorry) badly: the entire CD is filled with raunchy R&B, laced with tight rhythms and mellifluous melodies. First, he made Lovin' Spoonful's '60s-soulful “Summer in the City” less dirty than deified by slowing it down, relaxing it, and incorporating the lightest of Hammond organs and Valerie Simpson's honeyed vocals into the proceedings. While this track's intro was later sampled by Eminem and the Roots, “The Streetbeater” has a completely different scope of influence. Better known as the theme song to Redd Foxx's NBC television show “Sanford and Son,” Jones catapults Toots Thielemans' raunchy, honking harmonica, Dave Grusin's electric piano and more cowbells into the soundtrack stratosphere than Will Ferrell's Blue Oyster Cult impersonation . Someone please remaster and release “You Got It Bad Girl” ASAP.

Quincy Jones – “Body Heat” (1974)
With this 1974 album and its sultry title track, Jones managed to leave the sunny funk behind and plunge into the bluesy night of quiet storm romance. Instead of opting for the plucked, plum-colored R&B bass of the 1970s, Jones welcomed his old pal, jazz bassist Ray Brown, and gave this sweet noir ballad a fluid groove and a slow dance kick. Singers Bruce Fisher and Leon Ware also gave the liquid “Body Heat” a strong dose of solid machismo and overheated whispers.

The Johnson Brothers – “Strawberry Letter #23” (1977)
When brothers Louis (bass) and George Johnson (guitar) worked on Chaka Khan's sister Taka Boom's demos, they certainly never knew what would come next when those tracks made their way to Quincy Jones. He didn't sign Boom, but brought the brothers along to perform on his soundtrack for the ABC-TV miniseries “Roots,” welcomed them into his touring band, and then produced their debut album, “Look Out For #1,” in 1976. This lost classic is fun, but 1977's “Right on Time” is better, especially with the sparkling “Strawberry Letter #23.” Rather than sweetening Shuggie Otis' near-hit, producer Jones keeps “23” raw, complex and galloping right down to the strutting bass – adding magic with ethereal backing vocals and a psychedelic swirling guitar solo from jazz great Lee Ritenour.

Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell and Ted Ross – “A Brand New Day” (1978)
Producer Jones and Scarecrow Jackson may have laid the foundation for unprecedented multiplatinum success when they collaborated on Sidney Lumet's 1978 musical The Wiz, but the most cinematic song on his lengthy, funky soundtrack was written by Luther Vandross. Here, in solemn post-disco mode, Vandross' epic vocal artistry and Jones' glossy, French horn-filled production give this yellow brick road song a touch of gold.

Michael Jackson – “I Can’t Help It” (1979)
Highlighting songs from Jones' brilliant work with Michael Jackson is a thankless task, but here we'll avoid the obvious choices. Much like the aforementioned “A Brand New Day,” Jones brings a singer-songwriter whose bridges and sighs have a signature feel associated with their author – Stevie Wonder's subtle, intricate jazziness, those rounded chords and sweet climb – and then he lets go Michael Jackson rages quietly in every verse. It's the slower, breezier side of “Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough,” but with the same sensual insistence. Jones provides a rubbery synth line as Michael breathes heavily, squeals, squeaks and hiccups to the delight of the soul.

Quincy Jones – “Ai No Corrida” (1981)
Jones' 1981 solo album “The Dude” did a lot – including transforming singer James Ingram into a throaty, smooth soul singing sensation of the 1980s with great ballads like “One Hundred Ways” and “Just Once.” But “Ai No Corrdia” returns to Jones' original signature of stabbing jazz brass and monstrous Latin percussion – this time with an irresistible melody penned by Chaz Jankel, the Brit who played guitar with Ian Dury and the Blockheads and also played along. wrote “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” and “Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick” with Dury.

Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (1982)
“Thriller,” the first mid-tempo single penned by Jackson and the best-selling solo album of all time, famously didn’t initially convince the producer due to its long, prescient drum-and-bass intro. Apparently it convinced him.

Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and Chaka Khan – “I'll Be Good to You” (1989)
Jones' 1989 “Back on the Block” album was intended as a genre-bending look at who Q was – and would become – after decades in the music business, with everyone from Big Daddy Kane to Ella Fitzgerald jamming with their mentor on tracks with a touch of modernity Hip hop and new jack swing. Leave it to Jones' oldest pal Ray Charles – with a delicious assist from Chaka Khan – to shape a Brothers Johnson-penned track into an incredibly bouncy R&B hit. As a reward for this mixed musicianship, “Back on the Block” won the 1991 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Queen Latifah, Nancy Wilson and Tone Löc – “Cool Joe, Mean Joe (Killer Joe)” (1995)
Jones' 1995 artist album Q's Jook Joint has a similar feel to Back on the Block, but relies more heavily on the producer's roots in jazz and bop. What better way to celebrate this return than by adapting bop's national anthem, Benny Golson's “Killer Joe,” into a tune-filled big band hip-hop track, complete with the divine Nancy Wilson, the gruff tones of Löc and the…Queen herself. It is Q at his most masterful.