Randy Newman
Randy Newman was born on November 28, 1943 into a famously musical family—his uncles Alfred, Lionel and Emil were all well-respected film composers and conductors. Even Randy’s father Irving Newman—a prominent physician—wrote a song for Bing Crosby. Perhaps then it’s no surprise that at 17 Randy Newman was already a professional songwriter in his own right, knocking out tunes for a Los Angeles publishing house. When his longtime friend Lenny Waronker helped Newman get a recording contract with Reprise Records, Newman dropped out of UCLA where he was studying music and one semester short of graduation. In 1968, he made his debut with the orchestral Randy Newman, and before long Newman’s extraordinary and eclectic compositions were being recorded by an unusually wide range of artists, from Pat Boone to Ray Charles, Peggy Lee to Wilson Pickett.
Critics rightly raved about Newman’s 1970 sophomore effort 12 Songs, and increasingly the public started to take notice with albums like 1970’s Live (likeSongbook, an opportunity to hear Newman playing alone), and even more so with 1972’s classic Sail Away and 1974’s brilliant and controversial Good Old Boys. His musical depth and the literary quality and edge of his character-oriented lyrics struck critics.
With 1977’s Top Ten Little Criminals, Newman experienced a huge left-field smash in the unlikely form of “Short People”—a rare, strange and at times uncomfortable brush with full-blown pop stardom for Newman. Less surprisingly, Newman soon managed to successfully slow any annoying career momentum with 1979’s Born Again—a decidedly barbed piece of work which pictured Newman on the cover in Kiss-styled make-up with a dollar sign on his face. How fitting for a dark piece of work that features “It’s Money That I Love,” a memorable comment on runaway capitalism that’s now reprised on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1.
In the 80s, Newman was dividing his time between film composing and recording his own albums, with the former work seemingly making the later efforts increasingly infrequent. In 1981, Newman released his exquisite score for Milos Forman’s adaptation of E.L. Doctrow’s Ragtime—earning him his first two of 16 Oscar nominations for Best Score and Best Song. 1983 saw the release of Trouble in Paradise, while the next year saw the release of Newman’s Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated score for The Natural.
Following some more film work, Newman finally got around to recording another studio album. 1988’s Land of Dreams was another breakthrough work marked by some of Newman’s most personal and powerful work yet.
In the 90s, Newman enjoyed massive success with his film work, as well as winning a 1990 Emmy for his music in the pilot of Cop Rock. Amusingly and surprisingly to many longtime fans, the cutting social critic and sometime brilliant curmudgeon somehow found himself becoming a beloved children’s entertainer thanks to his outstanding music for films like 1995’s Toy Story, 1996’s James and the Giant Peach, 1997’s Cats Don’t Dance, 1998’s Bug’s Life and 1999’s Toy Story 2. Newman won three more Grammys for his work on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. Still, Newman managed to play to the adult audience as well with his darkly hilarious take on Faust—the 1995 recording of which included performances by Don Henley, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. Towards the end of the decade, Newman put out an impressive four-CD compilation, 1998’s Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman and a strong new album for DreamWorks, 1999’s Bad Love—Newman’s first collaboration with Mitchell Froom. In 2002, Newman finally won his first Oscar for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters Inc.
If it’s not Newman’s style to look forward with optimism, it’s also not his personal preference to look back, whether in anger or in any other emotion. Yet somehow he still does so brilliantly on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. I (2003), his illuminating first effort for the Nonesuch label. The 18-song set finds Newman singing and playing piano on powerful new solo versions of his early classics and his more recent gems, as well as a few examples of the Oscar-winning composer’s film music. The album is an intimate and powerful reminder of the enduring work that has established Newman as a songwriter’s songwriter—one of the most musically and lyrically ambitious singer-songwriters ever to be at play in the fields of popular music.
For more information, visit randynewman.com.
Critics rightly raved about Newman’s 1970 sophomore effort 12 Songs, and increasingly the public started to take notice with albums like 1970’s Live (likeSongbook, an opportunity to hear Newman playing alone), and even more so with 1972’s classic Sail Away and 1974’s brilliant and controversial Good Old Boys. His musical depth and the literary quality and edge of his character-oriented lyrics struck critics.
With 1977’s Top Ten Little Criminals, Newman experienced a huge left-field smash in the unlikely form of “Short People”—a rare, strange and at times uncomfortable brush with full-blown pop stardom for Newman. Less surprisingly, Newman soon managed to successfully slow any annoying career momentum with 1979’s Born Again—a decidedly barbed piece of work which pictured Newman on the cover in Kiss-styled make-up with a dollar sign on his face. How fitting for a dark piece of work that features “It’s Money That I Love,” a memorable comment on runaway capitalism that’s now reprised on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1.
In the 80s, Newman was dividing his time between film composing and recording his own albums, with the former work seemingly making the later efforts increasingly infrequent. In 1981, Newman released his exquisite score for Milos Forman’s adaptation of E.L. Doctrow’s Ragtime—earning him his first two of 16 Oscar nominations for Best Score and Best Song. 1983 saw the release of Trouble in Paradise, while the next year saw the release of Newman’s Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated score for The Natural.
Following some more film work, Newman finally got around to recording another studio album. 1988’s Land of Dreams was another breakthrough work marked by some of Newman’s most personal and powerful work yet.
In the 90s, Newman enjoyed massive success with his film work, as well as winning a 1990 Emmy for his music in the pilot of Cop Rock. Amusingly and surprisingly to many longtime fans, the cutting social critic and sometime brilliant curmudgeon somehow found himself becoming a beloved children’s entertainer thanks to his outstanding music for films like 1995’s Toy Story, 1996’s James and the Giant Peach, 1997’s Cats Don’t Dance, 1998’s Bug’s Life and 1999’s Toy Story 2. Newman won three more Grammys for his work on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. Still, Newman managed to play to the adult audience as well with his darkly hilarious take on Faust—the 1995 recording of which included performances by Don Henley, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. Towards the end of the decade, Newman put out an impressive four-CD compilation, 1998’s Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman and a strong new album for DreamWorks, 1999’s Bad Love—Newman’s first collaboration with Mitchell Froom. In 2002, Newman finally won his first Oscar for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters Inc.
If it’s not Newman’s style to look forward with optimism, it’s also not his personal preference to look back, whether in anger or in any other emotion. Yet somehow he still does so brilliantly on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. I (2003), his illuminating first effort for the Nonesuch label. The 18-song set finds Newman singing and playing piano on powerful new solo versions of his early classics and his more recent gems, as well as a few examples of the Oscar-winning composer’s film music. The album is an intimate and powerful reminder of the enduring work that has established Newman as a songwriter’s songwriter—one of the most musically and lyrically ambitious singer-songwriters ever to be at play in the fields of popular music.
For more information, visit randynewman.com.