This marks the first certification for Elvis Presley since the Triple Gold certification of the 'ELV1S 30 No. 1 Hits' compilation in 2003.
Quincy Jones Died
Legendary Music Composer and Producer Quincy Jones Die. He was 91.
His resume of high-profile projects reads like a list of essential cultural touchstones - scoring the TV series 'Roots', producing and composing for the film 'The Color Purple', and conducting and producing the multi-artist song 'We Are the World', to raise money for African famine relief. Jones won an Emmy, an Oscar, a Tony and 28 Grammys (with 80 nominations), plus three special Grammy awards. In 2013, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Jones worked with Billie Holiday at 14, arranged Frank Sinatra records at 29, and teamed with Michael Jackson to produce three albums, including Jackson’s landmark 1982 LP, 'Thriller', which broke sales records of more than 100 million copies worldwide.
In 1956 he played second trumpet in the Dorsey Brothers band on TV’s 'Stage Show', supporting 21-year-old Elvis Presley in his six appearances on the show.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Jones was asked about his opinion on both Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, to which he replied: “[Jackson] was doing some Elvis copying, too. ‘The King of Pop,’ man. Come on!” Jones said.
Over the years, Jones was rarely afraid to share this view, no matter the subject of the question. Having famously taken The Beatles down a peg before apologizing to Paul McCartney, it would seem Jones also had an issue with Elvis Presley and labelled the Graceland icon a “racist”.
While Jones has worked with some of the biggest names in popular culture history, he would never have considered collaborating with Elvis: “No. I wouldn’t work with him,” he said. Given Jones’ role as a fantastic producer and Presley’s penchant for pop hits, one might have considered the match good, but Jones refused to entertain the notion.
“I was writing for Tommy Dorsey, oh God, back then in the ’50s,” Jones elaborated on why he would ignore The King. “And Elvis came in, and Tommy said: ‘I don’t want to play with him.’ He was a racist mother - I’m going to shut up now,” Jones notes without too much of a hint of coming through with his threat. “But every time I saw Elvis, he was being coached by [‘Don’t Be Cruel’ songwriter] Otis Blackwell, telling him how to sing,” he added.
Note: the story is not correct, Elvis Presley and Otis Blackwell never met in person. There is no proof of the Tommy Dorsey quote.
You can read Alanna Nash' complete obituary on the >>> AARP website.
(Source: Martin van den Driessche / BVMI / Alanna Nash / AARP / Far Out magazine / Elvis Information Network)