A Message from the People

Quincy Jones produced all ten songs, with Sid Feller, Mike Post and Jones arranging and David Braithwaite engineering. The album peaked at 52 on the Billboard 200 and carries two singles, "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma" and "Hey Mister". Charles wanted songs about some of the wrongs of the country and also about what was beautiful and great. The cover art sketches Robert Kennedy, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, and "Hey Mister" was played at a 1972 congressional subcommittee hearing. It was reissued for its 50th anniversary. Rolling Stone said the gospel overtones on the closing song encourage hearing it anew; the Detroit Free Press ranked the album among his best, while the New York Times found it not among his more memorable.