Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Chris Walter/WireImage
Quincy Jones had the magic contact when it got here to music manufacturing, so when he teamed up with Michael Jackson, they have been destined for greatness.
The legendary producer, who died in November 2024 on the age of 91, labored with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra earlier than hitching his wagon to Jackson within the late Nineteen Seventies. Jackson, in the meantime, was a pop sensation after singing along with his brothers within the Jackson 5 as a child earlier than branching out into solo work.
“Everyone mentioned, ‘You possibly can’t make Michael any larger than he was within the Jackson 5,’” Jones recalled by way of the Los Angeles Occasions. “I mentioned, ‘We’ll see.’”
Jones didn’t let naysayers get in his means, collaborating with Jackson on his first solo album, Off the Wall, launched in 1979 to essential success. Their second collaboration, the generation-defining Thriller, got here out in 1982 and received eight Grammy Awards. The document stays one of the best promoting album of all time, promoting an estimated 70 million copies worldwide.
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Jones and Jackson teamed up for a 3rd time in 1987 for Unhealthy, which yielded 5 No. 1 hits for the “King of Pop,” who died June 2009 on the age of fifty.
All through their friendship — and following Jackson’s demise — Jones was vocal concerning the highs and lows that they confronted. In the end, he was grateful to be one in all Jackson’s greatest collaborators.
Scroll all the way down to see Jones most memorable quotes about working with Jackson:
Origins of Their Partnership
The twosome first crossed paths on the set of The Wiz in 1978. Jackson performed the Scarecrow within the musical, whereas Jones was one of many composers on the venture, an enormous display screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, itself an African American tackle The Wizard of Oz. Jones recalled in a Time journal situation revealed in 2009 that Jackson used to maintain items of paper with quotes from well-known thinkers with him on set.
Jones remembered asking about one passage written by Socrates, which Jackson pronounced “SO-crayts.” Jones mentioned after correcting him, saying, “Michael, it’s SOCK-ra-tees,” that he was impressed to work with Jackson additional.
“The look he gave me then, it simply prompted me to say, as a result of I’d been impressed by all of the issues I noticed in him throughout the rehearsal course of, ‘I might like to take a shot at producing your album,’” Jones mentioned. “And he went again and instructed the folks at Epic Data, and so they mentioned, ‘No means — Quincy’s too jazzy.’ Michael was persistent, and he and his managers went again and mentioned, ‘Quincy’s producing the album.’ And we proceeded to make Off the Wall. Satirically, that was one of many greatest Black-selling albums on the time, and that album saved all the roles of the folks saying I used to be the flawed man. That’s the way in which it really works.”
‘The Wiz’ Child
Jones instructed The Hollywood Reporter in Might 2021 that he met Jackson “when he was 12 at Sammy Davis’ home, and he instructed me after we determined to do [The Wiz].” It was throughout that encounter that Jones recalled Jackson asking him, “I would like you to assist me discover a producer. I’m on the brink of do my first solo album.”
When the pair labored on The Wiz, Jones was impressed. “He knew the right way to do his homework, whether or not it was with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly or whoever, James Brown. He was performing some Elvis copying, too,” Jones mentioned. “‘The King of Pop,’ man. Come on!”
Studio Shenanigans
Wanting again at their recording periods, Jones instructed The Guardian in September 2014, “It was as free as you will get! We’d be joking and having enjoyable. Are you kidding? You gotta know the right way to celebration. If you happen to get uptight, the music’s going to sound like nothin’. I used to say, ‘At all times go away a bit of room for God to stroll within the room.’”
The studio time wasn’t all enjoyable and video games, particularly when Jackson introduced his snake, Muscle groups, in with him. “He wrapped himself round my leg,” Jones recalled of the unusual pet encounter. “He used to crawl throughout the console … I wasn’t very snug with that.”
The ‘Thriller’ of it All
Thriller made Jackson and Jones icons of their respective fields after the alum bought an estimated 70 million copies worldwide. It’s nonetheless the best-selling album of all time. Jones, nevertheless, knew that they had one thing large from the beginning.
“Musically, we knew we had ‘it’ with Thriller. To today I can hear artists making an attempt to copy its sonic energy,” Jones mentioned in an interview with the Library of Congress in June 2016. “It’s no accident that greater than three a long time later regardless of the place I’m going on the earth, in each membership, like clockwork on the witching hour you hear ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Beat It,’ ‘Wanna Be Beginning One thing,’ and ‘Thriller.’ In each language on the planet, from jail yards in Thailand to Thrilltheworld.com, Thriller continues to be giving folks ‘goosebumps.’ It’s fairly astounding and really satisfying as an artist.”
Michael the ‘Machiavellian’
Jones brought about some controversy in February 2018 when he claimed to Vulture that Jackson wasn’t at all times an innovator like followers thought. “I hate to get into this publicly, however Michael stole a variety of stuff,” Jones alleged. “He stole a variety of songs. [Donna Summer’s] ‘State of Independence’ and ‘Billie Jean.’”
He claimed, “The notes don’t lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they arrive.” Jones additional alleged that Jackson was “grasping,” saying that on his hit music “Don’t Cease ‘Til You Get Sufficient” Jackson ought to have given Greg Phillinganes, who wrote the C part of the observe, “10 p.c of the music,” however he “wouldn’t do it.”
Jones’ feedback got here after he received a lawsuit in 2017 over a royalty’s dispute towards Jackson’s property.
All Love
“He wished us to get again collectively,” Jones instructed the Los Angeles Occasions in 2017 of his friendship with Jackson earlier than his demise. “However we have been shut, man. At all times shut. You possibly can’t do these sorts of information with out love, belief and respect. You possibly can’t do it.”
Lack of a Legend
Following Jackson’s demise in 2009 — he suffered cardiac arrest and his demise was later dominated a murder after an overdose of propofol administered by his physician — Jones wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Occasions.
The producer mentioned he was “devastated by the information that Michael Jackson had abruptly left the room.” Jones then praised Jackson as “a distinct type of entertainer. A person-child in some ways, he was past skilled and devoted.”
Jones gushed about their partnership, saying, “We shared the Eighties, reaching heights that I can humbly say could by no means be reached once more.” He added, “There will probably be quite a bit written about what got here subsequent in Michael’s life, however for me all of that’s simply noise. I promise you in 50, 75, 100 years, what will probably be remembered is the music.”