Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant (and often satirical) pop songs and for film scores.

Newman often writes lyrics from the perspective of a character far removed from Newman's own experiences, sometimes using the point of view of an unreliable narrator. For example, the 1972 song "Sail Away" is written as a slave trader's sales pitch to attract slaves, while the narrator of "Political Science" is a U.S. nationalist who complains of worldwide ingratitude toward America and proposes a brutally ironic final solution. One of his biggest hits, "Short People" was written from the perspective of "a lunatic" who hates short people. Since the 1980s, Newman has worked mostly as a film composer. His film scores include ''Ragtime'', ''Awakenings'', ''The Natural'', ''Leatherheads'', ''James and the Giant Peach'', ''Meet the Parents'', ''Seabiscuit'' and ''The Princess and the Frog''. He has scored six Disney-Pixar films: ''Toy Story'', ''A Bug's Life'', ''Toy Story 2'', ''Monsters, Inc.'', ''Cars'' and most recently ''Toy Story 3''.

Newman has been nominated for twenty Academy Awards, winning twice. He has also won three Emmys, five Grammy Awards, and the Governor's Award from the Recording Academy. Newman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2007, Newman was inducted as a Disney Legend.

Early life

Songwriter

In various interviews, National Academy of Songwriters to PBS telecasts, Newman has credited The Fleetwoods with giving him his first national break: The trio recorded his song, "They Tell Me It's Summer", as the B side of one of their 11 hit singles, giving Newman great exposure and royalties (piggy-backed on the sale of the Fleetwoods' 1962 hit A side, "Lovers By Night, Strangers By Day"). Two decades later, The Fleetwoods' founder and manager, female lead Vocalist/Songwriter/Arranger Gretchen Christopher selected, from their recordings, two more of Newman's songs to be included among 10 previously unreleased masters, for their 13th album. ''The Fleetwoods - Buried Treasure'' LP and cassette, released in 1982, included Newman's "Who's Gonna Teach You About Love" and "Ask Him If He's Got A Friend For Me".

His early songs were recorded by Gene Pitney, Jerry Butler, Jackie DeShannon, The O'Jays and Irma Thomas, among others. His work as a songwriter met with particular success in the UK: top 40 UK hits written by Newman included Cilla Black's "I've Been Wrong Before" (#17, 1965), Gene Pitney's "Nobody Needs Your Love" (#2, 1966) and "Just One Smile" (#8, 1966); and The Alan Price Set's "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear" (#4, 1967). Besides "Simon Smith", Price featured seven Randy Newman songs on his 1967 ''A Price on His Head'' album.

In the mid-1960s, Newman was briefly a member of the band The Tikis, who later became Harpers Bizarre, best known for their 1967 hit version of the Paul Simon composition "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)". Newman kept a close musical relationship with Harpers Bizarre, offering them some of his own compositions, including "Simon Smith" and "Happyland". The band recorded six Newman compositions during their short initial career (1967–1969).

In this period, Newman began a long professional association with childhood friend Lenny Waronker. Waronker had been hired to produce The Tikis, the Beau Brummels, and The Mojo Men, who were all contracted to the Los Angeles independent label Autumn Records, and he in turn brought in Newman, Leon Russell and another friend, pianist/arranger Van Dyke Parks, to play on recording sessions. Later in 1966 Waronker was hired as an A&R; manager by Warner Bros. Records and his friendship with Newman, Russell, and Parks began a creative circle around Waronker at Warner Bros that became one of the keys to Warner Bros' subsequent success as a rock music label.

Randy Newman recently endorsed jazz singer Roseanna Vitro's album, ''The Randy Newman Project'' (Motéma Music, 2011).

Recording artist

In 1969, he did the orchestral arrangements for Peggy Lee's single "Is That All There Is?", as well as her album with the same title (which also contained her cover versions of two of his songs: "Love Story" and "Linda").

In 1970, Harry Nilsson recorded an entire album of Newman compositions called ''Nilsson Sings Newman.'' That album was a success, and it paved the way for Newman's 1970 release, ''12 Songs'', a more stripped-down sound that showcased Newman's piano. Ry Cooder's slide guitar and contributions from Byrds members Gene Parsons and Clarence White helped to give the album a much rootsier feel. ''12 Songs'' was also critically acclaimed (6th best album of the seventies according to Rolling Stone critic Robert Christgau), but again found little commercial success, though Three Dog Night made a huge hit of his "Mama Told Me Not to Come". The following year, ''Randy Newman Live'' cemented his cult following and became his first LP to appear in the ''Billboard'' charts, at #191. Newman also made his first foray into music for films at this time, writing and performing the theme song "He Gives Us All His Love" for Norman Lear's 1971 film ''Cold Turkey''.

1972's ''Sail Away'' reached #163 on ''Billboard'', with the title track making its way into the repertoire of Ray Charles and Linda Ronstadt. "You Can Leave Your Hat On" enigmatically touches on what it is men find important in relationships, and was covered by Three Dog Night, then Joe Cocker, and later by Keb Mo, Etta James, Tom Jones (whose version was later used for the final striptease to the 1997 film ''The Full Monty''), and the Québécois singer Garou. The album also featured "Burn On", an ode to an infamous incident in which the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River literally caught fire. In 1989, "Burn On" was used as the opening theme to the film ''Major League'', whose focus was the hapless Cleveland Indians.

His 1974 release ''Good Old Boys'' was a set of songs about the American South. "Rednecks" began with a description of segregationist Lester Maddox pitted against a "smart-ass New York Jew" on a TV show, in a song that criticizes both southern racism and the complacent bigotry of Americans outside of the south who stereotype all southerners as racist yet ignore racism in northern and midwestern states and large cities. This ambiguity was also apparent on "Kingfish" and "Every Man a King", the former a paean to Huey Long (the assassinated former Governor and United States Senator from Louisiana), the other a campaign song written by Long himself. An album that received lavish critical praise, ''Good Old Boys'' also became a commercial breakthrough for Newman, peaking at #36 on Billboard and spending 21 weeks in the Top 200.

''Little Criminals'' (1977) contained the surprise hit "Short People," which also became a subject of controversy. In September 1977, the British music magazine, ''NME'' reported the following interview with Newman talking about his then new release. "There's one song about a child murderer," Newman deadpans. "That's fairly optimistic. Maybe. There's one called 'Jolly Coppers on Parade' which isn't an absolutely anti-police song. Maybe it's even a fascist song. I didn't notice at the time. There's also one about me as a cowboy called 'Rider in the Rain.' I think it's ridiculous. The Eagles are on there. That's what's good about it. There's also this song 'Short People.' It's purely a joke. I like other ones on the album better but the audiences go for that one." The album proved Newman's most popular to date, reaching #9 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

1979's ''Born Again'' featured a song satirically mythologizing the Electric Light Orchestra (and their arranging style) entitled "The Story of a Rock and Roll Band".

His 1983 album ''Trouble in Paradise'' included the hit single "I Love L.A.", a song that has been interpreted as both praising and criticizing the city of Los Angeles. This ambivalence is borne out by Newman's own comments on the song. As he explained in a 2001 interview, "There's some kind of ignorance L.A. has that I'm proud of. The open car and the redhead, the Beach Boys...that sounds 'really' good to me." The ABC network and Frank Gari Productions transformed "I Love L.A." into a popular 1980s TV promotional campaign, retooling the lyrics and title to "You'll Love It! (on ABC)". The song is played at home games for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Lakers.

In the years following ''Trouble in Paradise'', Newman focused more on film work, but his personal life entered a difficult period. He separated from his wife of nearly 20 years, Roswitha, and was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr virus. He has released three albums of new material as a singer-songwriter since that time: ''Land of Dreams'' (1988), ''Bad Love'' (1999), and ''Harps and Angels'', which was released on August 5, 2008. ''Land of Dreams'' included one of his most well-known songs, "It's Money That Matters", and featured Newman's first stab at autobiography with "Dixie Flyer" and "Four Eyes", while ''Bad Love'' included "I Miss You", a moving tribute to his ex-wife. (In an interview with Glenn Tilbrook, half of the writing partnership of English pop band Squeeze, to promote the album (probably on BBC radio), Newman acknowledged that ‘I Miss You’ was written for his ex-wife. When asked by Tilbrook how his current wife felt about this, Newman said that though he had always been obedient to his wives in most things there was one area in which he did as he chose; ‘I write what I write’ he said.) He has also re-recorded a number songs that span his career, accompanying himself on piano, with ''The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1 (2003)'' and ''The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2 (2011)''. He continues to perform his songs before live audiences as a touring concert artist.

In the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe of 2005, Newman's "Louisiana 1927" became an anthem and was played heavily on a wide range of American radio and television stations, in both Newman's 1974 original and Aaron Neville's cover version of the song. The song addresses the deceitful manner in which New Orleans's municipal government managed a flood in 1927, during which, as Newman asserts, "The guys who ran the Mardi Gras, the bosses in New Orleans decided the course of that flood. You know, they cut a hole in the levee and it flooded the cotton fields." In a related performance, Newman contributed to the 2007 release of ''Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino'' (Vanguard), contributing his version of Domino's "Blue Monday". Domino had been rescued from his New Orleans home after Hurricane Katrina, initially having been feared dead.

Film composer

Newman has scored six Disney/Pixar feature films; ''Toy Story'', ''A Bug's Life'', ''Toy Story 2'', ''Monsters, Inc.'', ''Cars'', and ''Toy Story 3''. He has earned at least one Academy Award nomination for each of the films he has scored for Pixar, winning the award for ''Monsters, Inc.'' and ''Toy Story 3'', both times in the category of Best Original Song. Additional scores by Newman include ''Avalon'', ''Parenthood'', ''James and the Giant Peach'', ''Seabiscuit'', ''Awakenings'', ''The Paper'', ''Overboard'', ''Meet the Parents'', and its sequel, ''Meet the Fockers''. His score for ''Pleasantville'' was an Academy Award nominee. He also wrote the songs for Turner's ''Cats Don't Dance''.

One of Newman's most iconic and recognizable works is the central theme to ''The Natural'', a dramatic and Oscar-nominated score, which was described by at least one complimentary critic as "Coplandesque".

Newman had the dubious distinction of receiving the most Oscar nominations (15) without a single win. His losing streak was broken when he received the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2001, for the ''Monsters, Inc.'' song "If I Didn't Have You", beating Sting, Enya and Paul McCartney. After receiving a standing ovation, a bemused but emotional Newman began his acceptance speech with "I don't want your pity!"

Besides writing songs for films, he also writes songs for television series such as the Emmy-Award winning current theme song of ''Monk'', "It's a Jungle out There". Newman also composed the Emmy-Award winning song "When I'm Gone" for the final episode.

In October 2006, it was revealed that Newman would write the music for the Walt Disney movie ''The Princess and the Frog'', which was released in December 2009. During the Walt Disney Company's annual shareholder meeting in March 2007, Newman performed a new song written for the movie. He was accompanied by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The New Orleans setting of the film played to Newman's musical strengths, and his songs contained elements of Cajun music, zydeco, blues and Dixieland jazz. Two of the songs, "Almost There" and "Down in New Orleans", were nominated for Oscars.

In total, Newman has received twenty Oscar nominations with two wins, both for Best Original Song (including 2011's win for "We Belong Together"). In accepting the 2011 award, he joked "my percentages aren't great".

Filmography

Musical theatre

In the 1990s, Newman adapted Goethe's ''Faust'' into a concept album and musical, ''Randy Newman's Faust''. After a 1995 staging at the La Jolla Playhouse, he retained David Mamet to help rework the book before its relaunch on the Chicago Goodman Theatre mainstage in 1996. Newman's ''Faust'' project had been many years in the making, and it suffered for it; a central joke was Newman's depiction of Faust as a shallow heavy metal music fan in thrall to Satan, and this had to be modified to accommodate the less-than-devil obsessed age of grunge rock that was in fashion by 1995.

In 2000, South Coast Repertory (SCR) produced ''The Education of Randy Newman'', a musical theater piece that recreates the life of a songwriter who bears some resemblance to the actual Newman. Set in New Orleans and Los Angeles, it was modeled on the celebrated American autobiography, ''The Education of Henry Adams''. Newman, together with Jerry Patch and Michael Roth, surveyed Newman's songs to find those that, taken together, depict the life of an American artist in the last half of the 20th century. After its premiere at SCR, it was reworked with additional songs written specifically for the show by Newman and presented in Seattle by ACT.

In 2010, the Center Theatre Group staged ''Harps and Angels,'' a musical revue of the Randy Newman songbook, interspersed with narratives reflecting on Newman's inspirations. The revue premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and included, among other songs "I Think It’s Going to Rain Today," "Sail Away," "Marie," "Louisiana 1927," "Feels Like Home," "You've Got a Friend in Me" and "I Love L.A." The revue was directed by Jerry Zaks and featured Ryder Bach, Storm Large, Adriane Lenox, Michael McKean, Katey Sagal and Matthew Saldivar.

Notable performances and appearances

Discography

Albums

Compilations

Other Contributions

Film scores

Awards and honors

References

External links

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He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in blues-rock, roots music from the United States, and, more recently, for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.

Cooder's solo work has been an eclectic mix, taking in dust bowl folk, blues, Tex-Mex, soul, gospel, rock, and much else. He has collaborated with many important musicians, including The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Earl Hines, Little Feat, Captain Beefheart, The Chieftains, John Lee Hooker, Pops, Mavis Staples, Gabby Pahinui, Flaco Jiménez, Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club), Freddy Fender and Ali Farka Touré. He formed the Little Village supergroup with Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, and Jim Keltner.

Cooder was ranked 8th on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." A 2010 ranking by Gibson placed him at number 32.

Career

1960s

Cooder was a guest session musician on various recording sessions with the Rolling Stones in 1968 and 1969, and his contributions appear on the Stones' ''Let It Bleed'' (mandolin on "Love in Vain"), and ''Sticky Fingers'', on which he contributed the slide guitar on "Sister Morphine". During this period, Cooder joined with Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and longtime Rolling Stones sideman Nicky Hopkins to record ''Jamming with Edward''. Cooder also played slide guitar for the 1970 movie ''Performance'', which contained Mick Jagger's first solo single, "Memo from Turner". The 1975 Rolling Stones compilation album ''Metamorphosis'' features an uncredited Cooder contribution on Bill Wyman's "Downtown Suzie", which is also the first Rolling Stones song played and recorded in the open G tuning.

Ry Cooder also collaborated extensively with long-time friend and like-minded individual, Lowell George of Little Feat. Cooder can be heard on the original version of Little Feat's "Willin'." He played slide guitar on that track after Lowell cut his finger whilst making model airplanes.

1970s

1980s

1990s

In 1995 he performed in ''The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True'', a musical performance of the popular story at the Lincoln Center in New York to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT), and was issued on CD and video in 1996.

In the late 1990s Cooder played a significant role in the increased appreciation of traditional Cuban music, due to his collaboration as producer of the ''Buena Vista Social Club'' (1997) recording, which became a worldwide hit and revived the careers of some of the greatest surviving exponents of 20th century Cuban music. Wim Wenders, who had previously directed 1984's ''Paris Texas'', directed a documentary film of the musicians involved, ''Buena Vista Social Club'' (1999), which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.

2000s

Cooder's next record was released in 2007. Entitled ''My Name Is Buddy'', it tells the story of Buddy Red Cat, who travels and sees the world in the company of his like-minded friends, Lefty Mouse and Rev. Tom Toad. The entire recording is a parable of the working class progressivism of the first half of the American twentieth century, and even has a song featuring executed unionist Joe Hill. ''My Name Is Buddy'' was accompanied by a booklet featuring a story and illustration (by Vincent Valdez) for each track, providing additional context to Buddy's adventures.

Cooder produced and performed on an album for Mavis Staples entitled ''We'll Never Turn Back'', which was released on April 24, 2007. The concept album focused on Gospel songs of the civil rights movement and also included two new original songs by Cooder.

Ry Cooder's album ''I, Flathead'' was released on June 24, 2008. It is the completion of his California trilogy. Based on the drag racing culture of the early 1960s, the album is set on the desert salt flats in southern California. The disc was also released as a deluxe edition with stories written by Cooder to accompany the music.

In late 2009, Cooder toured Japan, New Zealand and Australia with Nick Lowe, performing some of Lowe's songs and a selection of Cooder's own material, mainly from the 1970s. Joaquim Cooder (Ry's son) provided percussion, and Juliette Commagere and Alex Lilly contributed backing vocals.

The song "Diaraby", which Cooder recorded with Ali Farka Touré, is used as the theme to ''The World's'' Geoquiz. ''The World'' is a radio show distributed by Public Radio International.

In 2009, Cooder performed in ''The People Speak'', a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's ''A People's History of the United States''. Cooder performed with Bob Dylan and Van Dyke Parks on the documentary broadcast on December 13, 2009 on the ''History Channel''. They played "Do Re Mi" and reportedly a couple of other Guthrie songs that were excluded from the final edit. He also traveled with the band Los Tigres del Norte and recorded the 2010 album ''San Patricio'' with the Chieftains, Lila Downs, Liam Neeson, Linda Ronstadt, Van Dyke Parks, Los Cenzontles, and Los Tigres.

2010s

Awards

Discography

Solo albums

Compilations

Collaborations

Soundtracks

Performs on:

Written works

References

External links

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