Quincy Jones Was On Opium When He Recorded The Sanford And Son Theme Song



(image via cdlib)

President-elect Barack Obama can be forgiven his campaign stump speech lapse in mistaking Fred Sanford's catch-line with the name of George Jefferson's wife and not the dearly departed "Elizabeth" if the composer of the "Sanford and Son" theme song was actually on "the poppy" during its composition. Amid Artie Lange's bittersweet tale today on The Howard Stern Show about attempted suicide (more on that in the next post), is an interesting conversation between the comedian and his boss, MadTV Executive Producer Quincy Jones, who is no stranger to bad behavior. From Marksfriggin:

"Artie said Quincy (Jones) told him about writing the Sanford and Son theme song and how it only took him about 20 minutes to write it. He said Quincy told him that he was on opium when he wrote it too. Artie said it's like one of the best theme songs ever and it took him 20 minutes to write it."

It does seem, on second sailing, kind of "poppy":


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