Quincy Jones Quotes

Whoever hired me might've just heard 'Refugee.' Well, I'm not the secret to 'Refugee.' The secret to 'Refugee' is the song. But if somebody really good calls me up to play on something because they like the way I played on 'Refugee,' then I wind up playing on another really good song.

I don't think a good singer or a great singer is either of those things without a great song.

I've been writing and composing songs since I was 5 years old.

The thing that's tricky is sometimes the best voices - just because someone hits the big notes and sounds amazing - it doesn't necessarily mean they make the greatest artists.

I do have musical background; I sing.

When I got my band in 1983, I knew what I had to do. If I'm going to have a big band, they're going to have to sound equally as good as what I'm used to hearing.

If you're a good singer, you're going to make anything sound good.

There are a lot of singers who cannot sing to save their lives. We have to accept it, but thank God there is such a thing as live shows. It's only when people are faced with live shows that the world gets to know how good or how bad they are.

We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it.

I am just trying to do a song the best possible way I can.

As a musician, I have sung, composed, and played instruments, and a lesser-known fact is that I have composed 20-30 ad jingles as well.

I've been composing and performing for as long as I can remember.

Recording and performing 'Replay' was a learning process throughout, as we focused on the details.

As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm.

I just continue to look for different material, great material, as good as I can find, and try to go in there and do as good a job as I can do in making it a record. That's all you can expect. That's all that you can do.

There are a lot of people who look great but can't sing.

My next record I really just want it to be a collection of great songs, classic songs in a way.

I was trying to do the same thing that I always do which is make an interesting record.

I did record a bunch of stuff, but the thing that usually stops me from doing that is that I'm a terrible singer. I made a bunch of instrumental music, and it feels really good, but just as a singer, I'm not good.

I'm not one for walking the beaches humming a melody. I love the discipline of sitting in the studio, writing and listening. That is my domain.

I do a lot of performing, but don't get a chance to go to the studio and write good music.

If you've got a good song, it's easy to play. But you can't make a bad song sound good no matter who you have to play on it.

There was no such thing as production at Starday. We'd go in with the band, we'd go over the song, I'd look over and tell the steel player to take a break or kick it off, and I'd get the fiddle to play a turnaround in the middle.

That was when Neil discovered Jack Nietzsche. They went off and pretty much came up with that by themselves, but I thought it was a great song, and I was more than happy to do my harmony parts on it.

I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.