A buddy gave me Quincy Jones’ Soul Bossa Nostra for Christmas, and let’s put it this way- it’s not the worst present I’ve ever gotten, but it sure ain’t the best one either.
There’s a few quality cuts that I actually like with Everything Must Change by BeBe Winans and Jennifer Hudson’s You Put A Move On My Heart at the head of the list. Mary J. Blige’s Betcha Wouldn’t Hurt Me is also worthy and Q Tip is smart enough to hang in the background on this one. Snoop Dogg’s Get The Funk Out of My Face is goofy fun I suppose. But the prevalence of rappers and auto-tune on this thing for the most part made these reinterpretations of 15 Q classics pretty unnecessary. I mean, why mess with perfection to begin with? Akon murdered Strawberry Letter 23, sucking the soul out of it completely; it’s absolutely robotic. Jamie Foxx’s Give Me The Night is simply inferior to Benson’s. Amy Winehouse’s It’s My Party is so bad it’s good I suppose. P.Y.T. in the hands of Robin Thicke and T-Pain is, well, PAINful. It sounds like an android singing lead. And is the world really waiting for a rap version of the Sanford & Son theme?
Barry White really didn’t need to make a comeback from beyond for this one, folk.
Hey, while we’re at it, how about a rap and auto-tune re-interpretation of the What’s Going On and Songs In The Key Of Life albums? Have Akon and Robin Thicke and a crew of rappers with auto-tune to spare massacre them both. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Or T-Pain and Three 6-Mafia can do the Sinatra Songbook. How about Amy Whinehouse does Ella Fitz? Ludacris and David Banner can take on Bobby Darin; doesn’t Mack The Knife need auto-tune and an obligatory rap right smack in the middle?
It’s virtually unlimited!
Anyway before I start ranting…this one’s for Quincy Jones completists and the youngsters who just don’t know better.
Evan Ginzburg
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