I first saw – and heard – Randy Newman talking on a documentary that was made to celebrate 20 years of Rolling Stone magazine. He was one of a few – assembled – talking heads. He said funny things like, “I don’t know how Elton John was rated but I always rated him highly. He made 20 albums while I was brushing my teeth”. You could never accuse Randy Newman of not being prolific…

There are people that only want his songs – but he was part of the family business; was always part of the family business. He wrote scores early on in his professional career (I just recently picked up an album from the early 60s that features Newman as co-writer and arranger). He made a set of singular, amazing – wonderful – singer/songwriter albums across the 1970s and into the 1980s. You can laugh at the 1980s albums for their production (if you must) but there are some amazing songs there still. Those seventies albums though…a broad handful – majestic. As good as anyone ever managed.

I was so intrigued by Randy Newman – after hearing him speak on that doco. I had to hear him sing…turns out, of course, I had. I’d also heard him write – You Can Leave Your Hat On, Mamma Told Me Not To Come, I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today, Baltimore – I knew these songs from Nina Simone and 3 Dog Night (and Tom Jones); I knew these, and one or two others, but I connected them (back) with Randy as I started to go through his catalogue.

Short People – too. Obviously…

But on every album there’s something so special in the arrangements, the session players, the playing…

I bought up every Randy Newman album on CD. And then again on vinyl. I realised he scored films I’d seen –  Maverick and films I’d probably never see (The Natural) and his soundtracks worked for me. And then the Pixar connection…

I’m revisiting his Pixar soundtracks now that I’m watching the Toy Story trilogy (again and again) with my son. Proud parent moment, just recently, I’m playing the record Sail Away and Oscar tells me “this sounds like The Princess and The Frog”. Well bud, with good reason…

One of the (many) special things about Randy Newman is that you can listen to Rednecks and it’s really not too far away (musically) from You’ve Got  Friend In Me. One of the (other) special things about Randy Newman is how – ideologically – far away the music from his 70s solo albums is from his 90s/00s soundtracks. Oh, it’s the same guy – what a stroke of genius it was to get a guy who wrote “in character” and of character to write for films. Better yet, given he had three uncles that had already done that job…Randy Newman was just following in the family tradition – his aim, apparently, was to write songs to order, to write for characters…

By fluke as much as by design that pragmatic approach saw him becoming one of the true visionaries – true artistes – true villains and heroes of popular song…

He was (and is) an artist by default, so singular, so brilliant.

I have a dozen favourite Randy Newman albums. The answer – usually – is whichever one I’m playing.

Like Bob Seger and a few others he sounded black – I would have thought he was black had I not seen him talking first. I could understand if anyone thought he was black just by listening to him…

I bought his records up. Listened to them. Loved them. Was baffled when people – others – didn’t love them…

One night, just recently, Debbie Harwood and I drank some whisky and some red wine too. And her husband took to the piano and played us a bunch of Randy Newman songs. He was already in heaven, and I was too. And then I started asking for requests. And he delivered. Guilty. Magical songs like that…those sorts of songs you wonder how they were created, how anyone might have arrived at them…

Randy Newman – satirist, ironist, songwriter, arranger…composer for film…

Randy Newman – comedian, poet, short-story writer…

Most often I think of his lyrics, his songs, as being blithe and lively short-stories. An album like Good Old Boys – one of the best books of short stories I’ve ever heard…

And there’s a new one around the corner. There’s a new soundtrack (or two) every year (or so).

He’s a poet. A philosopher, comedy-writer. A hero.

I used to feel baffled by those convinced they didn’t like him. I was angry – or frustrated – I remember that Family Guy parody, sure it was funny, but I remember thinking of the dullards convinced that was the first and last word on Randy Newman. Did they think he wouldn’t have chuckled at that? Did they think he wouldn’t have been aware of it?
The songs from those first half-dozen albums in particular – and maybe from the last couple too – they’ve had so much impact, meant so much – they’re as good (or better) as any of the poems and stories I studied in school, you know, the ones that stick with you…
The playing on those records is sublime. The orchestra/s. The band/s.

Marc Maron asked Randy Newman if I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today was, now, an American Standard. Randy Newman suggested that only meant that ‘standards’ were dropping…

My dad always tells me the brilliance of Short People is “that Randy Newman is a little guy…”

I (always) tell him that Randy Newman is a six-footer…minimum…my dad is much shorter than that.

Jim Keltner played on several Randy Newman songs. Ry Cooder too Many other great players if I think about that…

And that’s just half the story of the Randy Newman songs in my life…