Randy Newman

Singer-Songwriter

• Born: November 28, 1943
• Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California

MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER

Newman became a premier film composer and singer-songwriter. His songs often challenge the liberal pieties of his audience.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Music; entertainment

Early Life

Randy Newman, the son of Irving Newman, a physician, and Adele Newman, was born into a musical family. Randy Newman’s uncles, Alfred, Lionel, and Emil Newman, were successful film composers, and his cousins, David and Thomas Newman, would also compose music for motion pictures. As a child, Randy Newman visited the film studios to watch his Uncle Alfred conduct orchestras, and Newman’s own songs would be greatly influenced by film music. Another of his inspirations was the music of New Orleans, particularly the piano playing of Fats Domino. While his father was stationed in Sicily during World War II, Newman and his mother lived in New Orleans, and he would later return there. In 1948, his family settled in Los Angeles, where he began playing the piano when he was seven.

Newman’s childhood friend, Lenny Waronker, worked at Metric Music, the music publishing subsidiary of Liberty Records. In 1960, Waronker hired Newman to write songs for Metric. Newman attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied music, but he dropped out before receiving his degree. By the time he left college, many of his songs had been recorded by other singers, including Dusty Springfield, Judy Collins, and Rick Nelson, and his work would later be covered by Harry Nilsson, Peggy Lee, and Three Dog Night, among others. Newman married Roswitha Schmale in 1967, and they had three children before divorcing in 1985. He married Gretchen Preece in 1990, and the couple had two children.

Life’s Work

Newman’s first album, Randy Newman, featuring eleven of his own songs, was released in 1968. The album was praised by critics but was a commercial failure. On his next album, Twelve Songs, released in 1970, Newman’s voice had changed from a style that, in the words of critic Greil Marcus, "could be called Jewish to one that can only be called black." He sang with "a lazy, blurred sound, where words slide into each other, where syllables are not bitten off, but just wear out and dissolve." Unlike the other singer-songwriters of the 1970s, such as Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, or James Taylor, Newman’s songs were not autobiographical but were about the lives of characters he had created, and he often sang in his characters’ voices. His work puzzled most listeners who were used to taking the words of rock songs literally, believing they were the singer-songwriters’ confessions, and it took some time for him to develop an audience that understood his ironic wit.

Newman’s songs were also sometimes interpreted as politically incorrect in an era in which singer-songwriters typically expressed liberal opinions outright. In 1972, for example, the title tune on his Sail Away album was sung from the perspective of a white slave captain, who recruits Africans to come to the United States, where they will, among other things, "sing about Jesus and drink wine all day." Good Old Boys, a collection of songs about the South released in 1974, similarly explored racism. In "Rednecks," a chorus of southerners acknowledged their racism but pointed out that people in other parts of the country also discriminated against African Americans. Such satire was not always apparent to or popular with audiences.

Little Criminals, released in 1977, featured Newman’s only Top Ten hit single, "Short People," in which he declared that he did not "want no short people ’round here," again speaking as a biased narrator to make a point about prejudice. As often happened with Newman’s music, listeners failed to understand the song’s humor, and he was publicly denounced for making fun of little people. Born Again, released in 1979, included "It’s Money That I Love," in which he proclaimed he was more interested in money than in the "starving children of India." Trouble in Paradise, which came out in 1983, contained one of Newman’s best-known songs, "I Love L.A.," an ode to the California city presenting both its good and bad aspects.

In the mid-1980s, Newman began to release fewer albums and to focus on composing film scores. His first score had been for the film Cold Turkey (1971), and a decade later he created the music for Ragtime (1981). He followed this with numerous other film projects, including The Natural (1984); Gotcha! (1985); Three Amigos!, for which he cowrote the screenplay with Steve Martin and Lorne Michaels, in addition to writing the music and lyrics; Parenthood (1989); Avalon (1990); Awakenings (1990); Maverick (1994); The Paper (1994); Michael (1996); Meet the Parents (2000); Seabiscuit (2003); Mr. 3000 (2004); Meet the Fockers (2006); Leatherheads (2008); and Marriage Story (2019).

Newman also composed music for the groundbreaking computer-animated feature Toy Story (1995), which was created by Pixar in conjunction with Walt Disney Pictures. This collaboration brought attention to his work from audiences old and young. He went on to work on other films for the two companies, including many of Pixar's most notable hits. Some of his Disney and Pixar soundtracks included James and the Giant Peach (1996), Cats Can’t Dance (1997), A Bug’s Life (1998), It’s Tough to Be a Bug (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), The Princess and the Frog (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Monsters University (2013).

As a film composer, Newman received the kind of awards and mainstream recognition that had previously eluded him. He received twenty Academy Award nominations for his original scores and songs; he won awards for Best Original Song in 2001 for "If I Didn’t Have You" from Monsters, Inc. and in 2011 for "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3. Some of his other nominated songs include "I Love to See You Smile" from Parenthood, "You’ve Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story, and "Almost There" and "Down in New Orleans" from The Princess and the Frog. His film music has also received six Grammy Awards, including best song for motion picture, television, or other visual media for "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2, "If I Didn’t Have You" from Monsters, Inc., and "Our Town" from Cars, best instrumental composition for The Natural and A Bug’s Life, and best score soundtrack album for Toy Story 3. "It’s a Jungle out There" and "When I'm Gone," his theme songs for the television series Monk, earned Emmy Awards in 2004 and 2010.

In addition to his film and television work, Newman continued to record his own songs and albums, including The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1, a collection of solo performances of many of his well-known songs, released in 2003, and Harps and Angels, issued in 2008. The latter album featured several songs critical of the state of the nation during the last years of President George W. Bush’s administration. Newman released the song "Putin" in 2016 about the Russian leader, who often poses for bare-chested photos. The song was included in Newman's album Dark Matter, which was released in 2017 and praised for its lyrical bite. During the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020, Newman released the song "Stay Away." Proceeds from the song, which can be downloaded, are donated to the Ellis Marsalis Center to support underserved children in New Orleans.

Significance

Newman has demonstrated his versatility as a musician through his prolific work as a composer, an arranger, a conductor, a singer, and a pianist. He has challenged the conventions of singer-songwriters by eschewing confessional, autobiographical music in favor of songs sung by his self-created characters, and in so doing, he has broadened the parameters of rock music. Newman went on to a successful career as a film and television composer, creating songs that continue to express his unique sense of humor and his ability to write in the voice of other characters. Newman has won many awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010.

Bibliography

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Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Randy Newman: Biography." AllMusic. AllMusic, 2016. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

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Smith, Jim. "Friend in Me: Disney Legend Randy Newman." Facts & Figment, 11 Mar. 2024, factsandfigment.com/disney-legend-randy-newman/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Steinberg, Neil. "A Little Randy Newman for Christmas." Chicago Sun Times, 21 Dec. 2023, chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2023/12/21/24010769/randy-newman-80-birthday-songwriter-short-people. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.