Max Martin Can’t Stop Listening to Chet Baker

Chet Baker (image by Erzsebet Nagy SAAR (cropped) via Wikimedia Commons)

Max Martin, song writer and pop producer extraordinaire, did the rarest of things recently. He talked. That is, the man responsible for more #1 billboard hits than anyone not named Lennon or McCartney gave an interview to Jan Gradvall. Among the fascinating things revealed was that Martin is on a Chet Baker kick. He can’t stop listening to the late jazz man. Martin confesses:

“I love Chet Baker. It’s driving my daughter crazy. ”Oh no, not Chet Baker again. She’s heard me play his music so much that by now she knows all his songs.”

[LEFT: Let’s Get Lost: The Best of Chet Baker Sings]

Martin says hes not “equipped” for jazz, and that it won’t creep into his own songs. But can that be true? Here’s a friendly list of great Chet Baker music. It’s a trip down a road that music has traveled and just might — despite Martin’s protestations — travel again. After all, if it’s in Max Martin’s ear, some day it’ll probably be in yours, too. Many consider Let’s Get Lost: The Best of Chet Baker Sings to be the entryway to the Baker catalog, but you can start anywhere — as Max Martin’s daughter can tell you.

9 More Scintillating Chet Baker records, on Amazon and iTunes

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Chet Baker Sings