1963 · Album
Plays Hip Hits
Recorded 1963 · Mercury · Produced by Not specified in verified source
Quincy Jones Remakes the Radio Hits
Jones takes songs the whole world already knew and lets his soloists find new angles in them.
In 1963, Quincy Jones decided to take a stack of recent pop and R&B hits and hand them over to his jazz players. The result was Quincy Jones Plays Hip Hits, a record that sits somewhere between a covers album and a jazz reinterpretation project — not trying to outshine the originals, just to see what happens when you put these melodies in front of serious improvisers.
The album brings together Joe Newman on trumpet, Zoot Sims on saxophone, and Phil Woods on alto saxophone. These are working musicians with strong voices, not flashy experimentalists. They take the material — radio-friendly tunes that had already proven themselves — and play them straight enough that you recognize the songs, but with enough swing and personal phrasing that the versions feel lived-in. There's no reinvention happening here, no radical rethinking. Instead, it's the sound of professional musicians doing their job well: stating a familiar melody clearly, then finding room to stretch a little, then getting out of the way. Newman's warm tone carries several tracks, while Sims and Woods add texture without crowding the space.
This is early-to-mid career Jones, working as a bandleader and arranger before his production work began to dominate his time. It's not his most celebrated record, and it's not a natural starting point for anyone exploring his catalog. But if you enjoy straightforward, swinging jazz interpretations of pop material — music that doesn't apologize for being accessible — it deserves a listen. The album reaches listeners who might not have found their way to a pure jazz record, which was part of Jones's consistent gift for finding audiences where they were.
Who's playing
Major Holleydouble bass
Rahsaan Roland Kirkwoodwind
Where next?
More by Quincy Jones
Big Band Bossa Nova 1962
Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux 1993
Back on the Block 1989
Walking in Space 1969
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
