Guides/A Riffiter guide
Albums Quincy Jones produced
From Sinatra and big-band jazz to the best-selling album ever made, the most decorated producer in history.
Quincy Jones was an American producer, composer and arranger whose career ran from bebop to global pop and earned a record number of Grammy nominations. This guide collects the albums he produced, including Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time.
Quincy Jones did everything. He arranged for Sinatra, scored Hollywood films, ran a record label, and then, in middle age, produced the three Michael Jackson albums that rewrote what a pop record could sell.
His gift was orchestration on a pop scale, knowing exactly which players, which sounds and which songs to put in a room. These are the albums where that ear is doing the work.
- 1
Off the Wall
★ 4.5 · 5—Their first album together, and the one that freed Jackson from his Motown childhood, disco, funk and ballads arranged with a sophistication pop had rarely heard.
- 2
Thriller
★ 4.5 · 4—The best-selling album of all time. Quincy's production is its secret weapon, pulling rock, funk, pop and R&B into nine flawless songs without a wasted second.
- 3
Bad
Be the first to rate—The hardest, most muscular of the trilogy. Quincy and Jackson chased Thriller and very nearly matched it, with five US number-one singles.
- 4
Give Me the Night
Be the first to rate—Quincy turned a jazz guitarist into a chart star, producing the smooth, irresistible title track.
- 5
I'll Cry If I Want To
Be the first to rate—Quincy produced "It's My Party" as a young A&R man, a number-one hit and an early sign of the pop instincts to come.
- 6
The Dude
Be the first to rate—His own album, and a showcase for everything he did best, home to "Ai No Corrida" and the discovery of a young James Ingram.
- 7
Back on the Block
Be the first to rate—A career-spanning summit that gathered bebop pioneers and young rappers on one record, Quincy connecting every era of Black American music he'd lived through.
- 8
"We Are the World" by USA for Africa
Quincy produced the all-star charity single that became a global phenomenon, presiding over a studio packed with the biggest stars on earth under one famous instruction: "check your egos at the door."
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