Randy Newman

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

Since the 1980s, Newman has worked mostly as a film composer. His film scores include Ragtime, Awakenings, The Natural, Leatherheads, Cats Don't Dance, Meet the Parents, Cold Turkey, and Seabiscuit. He has scored seven Disney-Pixar animated films; Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Cars, Toy Story 3, and Monsters University, as well as Disney's The Princess and the Frog and James and the Giant Peach.

Newman has received twenty Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and has won twice in the latter category. He has also won three Emmys, six Grammy Awards, and the Governor's Award from the Recording Academy. Newman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002, and as a Disney Legend in 2007. Newman was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2013.

Randy Newman (album)

Randy Newman is the debut recording by Randy Newman, released in 1968. Unlike his later albums which featured Newman and his piano backed by guitar, bass guitar and drums, Randy Newman was highly orchestral and aimed to blend the orchestra with Newman's voice and piano.

Randy Newman never dented the Billboard Top 200 and was not received as well by critics as Newman's acclaimed 1970s albums 12 Songs, Sail Away and Good Old Boys; indeed, according to Ken Tucker, the album sold so poorly that Warner offered buyers the opportunity to trade the album for another in the company's catalog.Randy Newman was out of print for over 15 years until it was re-released on CD in 1995. It was remastered by Lee Herschberg.

The album is sometimes referred to as Randy Newman Creates Something New Under The Sun, which was written on the reverse of the album sleeve.

Previous versions of songs on this album

As with many of Newman's early albums, several Newman-penned songs had been previously recorded by other artists.

We Belong Together (Randy Newman song)

"We Belong Together" is a song written, composed and performed by Randy Newman for the 2010 movie Toy Story 3. The song was nominated for several Best Original Song awards from various film society and movie awards committees. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 83rd Academy Awards in February 2011.

Description

When he accepted his Oscar, which was presented by Jennifer Hudson, his speech was a humorous one that Moviefone.com says "stole the show". He made fun of advice he was given that "it's not really good television to take a list out of your pocket and thank a lot of people", saying that "I just have to thank these people. I don't want to. I want to be good television so badly."

It was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song at the 16th Annual BFCA Critics Choice Awards in 2011 and Best Original Song at the 2010 Denver Film Critics Society, losing both to "If I Rise" by A. R. Rahman and Dido. It lost Best Original Song awards to Cher's "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" at the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2010 and "I See the Light", from the film Tangled, at the 1st Annual Awards.com Movie Awards.

We Belong Together

"We Belong Together" is a song by American singer Mariah Carey from her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). The song was released on March 29, 2005, through Island Records as the second single from the album. "We Belong Together" was written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johntá Austin, and produced by the former three. As the song samples lyrics from Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and The Deele's "Two Occasions" (1987), several other songwriters are credited. "We Belong Together" is built on a simple piano arrangement with an understated backbeat. The lyrics chronicle a woman's desperation for her former lover to return.

Following her decline in popularity between 2001 and 2005, critics dubbed the song her musical comeback, as many had considered her career over. "We Belong Together" earned her several music industry awards and nominations throughout 2005–06. The song broke chart records in the United States and became Carey's sixteenth topper on the US Billboard Hot 100. After staying at number one for fourteen non-consecutive weeks, it was placed as the second longest running number one song in US chart history, behind Carey's own "One Sweet Day" (1995). Billboard listed it as the "song of the decade" and the ninth most popular song of all time. Additionally, it broke several airplay records, gathering both the largest one-day and one-week audiences in history. "We Belong Together" also topped the charts in Australia and reached the top two in Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

We Belong Together (campaign)

The We Belong Together Campaign is anchored by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Asian Pacific American Women's Forum along with other groups throughout the United States. We Belong Together is an initiative that is taking place all over the United States, which seeks to brings women from across the nation to bring attention to immigration laws that impact women and also gather women together to fight for immigration reform. This campaign was formed to address issues that are not taking into account the experiences of women, who make up the majority of the immigrant population in the United States. The campaign offers a gender based analysis and focuses on the importance of maintaining nuclear families together.

History

We Belong Together (Robert & Johnny song)

"We Belong Together" was a 1958 American rhythm and blues hit written and recorded by Robert & Johnny, with a co-writing credit to Hy Weiss. It reached #12 on the R&B charts and #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Cover versions

The song was later recorded by several others. The Fleetwoods released a version on their 1959 album, Mr. Blue.

A rendition by Ritchie Valens was released in 1959 on the Del-Fi record label and can be found on several of his albums. It's also featured in a scene from the 1987 hit film about Valens, La Bamba in which the song was sung by Los Lobos.

The Belmonts released a remake on the Laurie label, Laurie 3080, in 1961, after they had split with Dion. It was not a hit, but was later reissued on a collector's label because of its musical value.

In 1961, Jimmy Mullins, known as Jimmy Velvit, recorded it in the Dallas, Texas area. It was issued in January, 1962 on M-G-M's Cub Records label (K9105). It attracted a lot of attention and air-play and became the #1 song on the Dallas radio station, KLIF, for a period of six weeks.