Any good music must be an innovation.

In a sense, a hit belongs to the person who made it popular, but if a tune is good enough to attain tremendous success, then it certainly deserves more than one version, one treatment, one approach.

Regardless of who originally made it popular, any hit song becomes a challenge to the ingenuity and imagination of other musicians and performers.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

I did the Broadway album unfortunately in a year when there were no hits.

I don't try to make 15 musicians sound like two each.

Under my contract with Capitol, I have complete freedom to do just about anything I want in my own way.