A collection of Quincy Jones’ favourite songs
There weren’t many things in life that Quincy Jones didn’t have a firm opinion on. However, unlike many opinionated people, just about every single one of the late Chicagoan’s were validated by the informed position from whence they came because Jones could do most things. In his 91 years with us, he not only produced and wrote music across a vast range of genres, but he also ran record companies, produced films, raised funds for charity, invented headphones, and kept being creative in myriad ways with all the hours a day afforded him.
In the process, he became the first African American to be nominated for both ‘Best Original Song’ and ‘Best Original Score’, he changed the face of popular music when he conducted ‘We Are The World’, and aside from that skill, his savviness and dedication to egalitarian causes meant he was able to get Steven Speilberg to direct The Color Purple for just $84,000. He was someone the world wanted to work with not only because he always got results but because those results also invariably made the world a better place.
This all started when Jones was just 20. He had been music-crazed since he first heard his next-door neighbour’s sweet gospel piano playing through the walls of his family home. His mother was on the brink of a schizophrenic breakdown at the time, and this music offered a muffled whisp of sweet escape from the portentous situation. In many ways, music remained this muffled vessel to emancipation for Jones, quite literally, it helped to tear down walls.
So, he got busy learning how to play music himself from a young age. He was only around six, but he was buoyed by his father’s own epithet on life: “Once a task is just begun, never leave until it’s done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all”. Jones’ task was music. He earned scholarships, joined road bands, and even met a 16-year-old Ray Charles when Jones himself was 14. But it was touring Europe at age 20 that perhaps provided the most pivotal moment in the journey that led us to the world-changing Jones celebrated today.
“It gave you some sense of perspective on past, present, and future,” he said. “It took the myopic conflict between just black and white in the United States and put it on another level because you saw the turmoil between the Armenians and the Turks, and the Cypriots and the Greeks, and the Swedes and the Danes, and the Koreans and the Japanese. Everybody had these hassles, and you saw it was a basic part of human nature, these conflicts. It opened my soul; it opened my mind”.
This remained an important part of his musical outlook. It was no longer just comforting sounds that echoed through a familial wall, it was, perhaps, a chance to quell these conflicts. In a concert hall, everyone is unified. This typified the music that Jones lent his hand to and simply enjoyed in the years that followed. The songs that moved him most were the ones with a hint of the past, present and future in their sound and a sense of peace in their upbeat disposition.
Thus, it comes as little surprise that when he chose his favourite songs for Tidal, they did indeed span from the past right up to the present. Sam Smith, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd prove that even in his 90s, he still had his finger on the pulse of society and culture. But he also never lost sight of that music through the wall with the likes of George Benson, the stirring blues of Jacob Collier and even his own collaboration with Little Richard entering the mix.
Quincy Jones’ favourite songs:
- ‘Could It Be Over’ – Eli Teplin
- ‘Human Nature’ – Michael Jackson
- ‘Saviour’ – Jacob Collier
- ‘Money Is’ – Quincy Jones & Little Richard
- ‘Suninga (When Will I Ever See You?) – Richard Bona
- ‘You Make Me Wanna Wiggle’ – The Brother Johnson
- ‘Exodus’ – Justin Kauflin
- ‘Brown Ballad’ – Quincy Jones & Toots Thielemans
- ‘El Güije’ – Esperanza Spalding, Pedriot Martinez
- ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ – Quincy Jones
- ‘I Need’ – Clark Beckham
- ‘Velas’ – Quincy Jones
- ‘Hit Me’ – Dirty Loops
- ‘One Hundred Ways’ – Quincy Jones & James Ingram
- ‘You Don’t Own Me’ – SayGrace & G-Eazy
- ‘Maybe God Is Trying to Tell You Something’ – Quincy Jones
- ‘Best Love’ – Yuna
- ‘The Places You Find Love’ – Quincy Jones, Siedah Garrett & Chaka Khan
- ‘Pray’ – Sam Smith
- ‘You Can’t Win’ – Michael Jackson
- ‘Tadow’ – Masego & FKJ
- ‘I’m Yours’ – Quincy Jones, El DeBargo & Siedah Garrett
- ‘Fall’ – Chloe x Halle
- ‘The Lady in my Life’ – Michael Jackson
- ‘Die For You’ – The Weeknd
- ‘Swing 42’ – Andreas Varady
- ‘Home’ – Diana Ross
- ‘City Lights’ – Joey Alexander
- ‘How Do You Keep the Music Playing’ – James Ingram & Patti Austin
- ‘When Will I Learn’ – Ibeyi & Chilly Gonzales
- ‘Just Once’ – Quincy Jones
- ‘Q’ – Emily Bear
- ‘These Walls’ – Kendrick Lamar, Bilal & Anna Wise
- ‘Give Me the Night’ – George Benson
