Randy Newman

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Randy Newman (2008)

Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman (born November 28, 1943 in Los Angeles ) is an American singer , songwriter , pianist and composer . He is a multiple Oscar and Grammy award winner.

Life

Newman was born into a musical family; his three uncles Alfred Newman , Emil Newman and Lionel Newman were successful film music composers ; Alfred Newman was the most famous of these. His father, the medical doctor Irving Newman , was also a hobby songwriter. Randy Newman is also a cousin of Thomas Newman and David Newman .

Newman grew up in New Orleans ( Louisiana ) - his mother came from there - and Los Angeles and began at age 17 to work as a songwriter. After studying music, he got a job as a professional songwriter at "Metric Music". After a few hits for Gene Pitney , Manfred Mann and Jerry Butler , among others , he got his own artist contract with Reprise Records in 1967 . However, the first record, called Randy Newman, sold so badly that the record company eventually gave it away. The follow-up album 12 songs also flopped. One reason for the initial failure and for the fact that mostly other interpreters had much greater success with Newman songs than the composer can be found in the nasal voice of the songwriter.

It was only with the following albums that Randy Newman was able to establish himself as an artist. The records Sail Away (1972) and Good Old Boys (1974) received unanimous praise from the critics, were particularly popular among students and sold quite well. Almost in the sense of a concept album (and as such the LP was initially planned), Newman sings songs on Good Old Boys that critically illuminate different sides of the American dream and particularly turn against the conservative-reactionary inhabitants of the southern states called " rednecks ". Together with Little Criminals , which appeared in 1977 and contained Newman's first own single hit Short People , many critics believe that Sail Away and Good Old Boys mark the peak of Newman's creative power.

“Short people got no reason / to live. / They got little hands / and little eyes / and they walk around / tellin 'great big lies […] Well, I don't want no short people / round here. "

- Randy Newman : Short people

The successful song brought Newman first complaints of libel from disability organizations and protests from short people. In the US state of Maryland , the song was even banned by law. Often people did not understand that Newman in this typical "character song" slipped into the role of a person with an obviously ridiculous and completely exaggerated prejudice and confused the artist with the fictional character he had created.

Newman deals intensively with historical topics in his texts, for example in In Germany Before the War (1977) with the case of the serial killer Peter Kürten or in The Great Nations of Europe (1999) with the European expansion in the 16th century which is witty related to current trends in US foreign policy. Finally, the satire Political Science from 1972 has an almost prophetic effect , caricaturing the narcissism of some Americans, who do not feel valued enough by the rest of the world and therefore appear all the more aggressive - at the time, based on the Vietnam War , the text has lost little of its relevance:

“No one likes us / I don't know why / We may not be perfect / But heaven knows we try / All around even our old friends put us down / Let's drop the Big One / and see what happens / We give them money / But are they grateful? / No, they're spiteful / and they're hateful / They don't respect us / So let's surprise them / We'll drop the Big One / And pulverize them ”

- Randy Newman : Political Science

Written by Newman in the mid-1970s, Louisiana 1927 describes the great flood in Mississippi , Arkansas, and Louisiana, lamenting how the population in the 1920s was first beaten by maddened nature and then by a hard-hearted government that didn't care about human suffering is: “Louisiana, Louisiana, they're tryin 'to wash us away!”. After Hurricane Katrina , Louisiana became the unofficial and emotional anthem for the state of Louisiana in 1927 . Newman appeared in a post-Katrina benefit in 2005 and recorded the song again, supported by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, for an album in aid of the Katrina victims. Several artists, including Aaron Neville , Bo Dollis & the Wild Magnolia, Willie Nelson , Martin Simpson and Howard Tate have interpreted the song in their own versions.

Newman was an early darling of intellectuals because of his sarcastic satirical lyrics. It would be too short to describe him as a cynic or a comedian, since he also wrote very moving, serious texts. Musically, Newman is influenced by blues , rock and ragtime on the one hand , and on the other hand he often provides his songs with sophisticated classical orchestral arrangements. His versatility as a songwriter and arranger is perhaps best demonstrated on the album Little Criminals .

Musically, Randy Newman is clearly influenced by Hollywood film music, as the arrangements on his records from the 1970s show in particular. In the concert, however, he appears almost exclusively solo on the piano, which means that the texts are more concise, but the audience has to think about the often opulent arrangements of the studio albums. In the studio, Newman was accompanied by prominent musicians such as Ry Cooder , members of the Eagles , Paul Simon , George Harrison , Elton John , Mark Knopfler , Jeff Lynne and Van Dyke Parks . The pleasant and often catchy music is often in contrast to the often satirical, biting or enigmatic texts. Since the 1980s, Newman took longer and longer breaks between record releases, but kept working on film soundtracks. In 1995 the musical Faust was created ; while the associated studio album showed Newman in its usual form, the stage production was received very cautiously by critics and audience. The so far last regular studio album with consistently new material was created in 1999. Harps & Angels , released in 2008, contained new songs (some of which had been around for a long time as bootlegs ) as well as older new recordings (such as Feels Like Home ).

Nine years after his last album, Newman came out with Dark Matter and nine new songs in the summer of 2017 . For the American music platform Pitchfork , the music satirist explained all the tracks.

Other artists began recording Randy Newman's songs early on and celebrating success with their versions. In 1967 Alan Price hit the UK charts with Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear . The group Three Dog Night had an early hit with their ironic anti-drug song Mama Told Me Not to Come . Numerous artists covered the song I Think It's Going to Rain Today , such as B. Melanie Safka , Tom Odell or Katie Melua . Harry Nilsson successfully recorded an entire album of Newman songs in the 1970s: Harry Nilsson Sings Randy Newman . In the 1980s, Joe Cocker made the Newman song You Can Leave Your Hat On , which had previously been recorded by Etta James in 1976, a world hit, while Nina Simone added the song Baltimore to her repertoire. Also Feels Like Home from 1995 has since been repeatedly been covered.

After 16 Oscar nominations, he finally got the coveted trophy in 2002 for his song If I Didn't Have You from the film Die Monster AG . He was nominated for the 17th time at the 2007 Academy Awards (this time for Our Town from Cars ). In 2009 he received two more Oscar nominations for the songs Almost There and Down in New Orleans from the animated film Kiss the Frog . In June 2010, Newman was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . In 2011 he received his second Oscar for the song We Belong Together from the animated film Toy Story 3 . In 2013 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . The Rolling Stone listed Newman 25th of the 100 best songwriters of all time in 2015 . Most recently, in 2020 he was nominated for I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away from Toy Story 4 for the Oscar for the best film song and also for the best film music in Marriage Story .

Newman is the father of five children from two marriages.

Discography

Albums

year Title
music label
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1971 Randy Newman / Live
Reprise
- - - - US191 (3 weeks)
US
First published: September 1971
Recording: The Bitter End East, NYC , May 17-19. September 1970
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman
1972 Sail Away
Reprise
- - - - US163 (18 weeks)
US
First published: June 1972
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman
1974 Good Old Boys
reprise
- - - - US36 (23 weeks)
US
First published: September 1974
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman
1977 Little Criminals
Warner Bros.
- - - - US9
gold
gold

(29 weeks)US
First published: October 1977
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman
1979 Born Again
Warner Bros.
- AT23 (4 weeks)
AT
- - US41 (11 weeks)
US
First published: August 1979
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman
1983 Trouble in Paradise
Warner Bros.
DE33 (9 weeks)
DE
AT8 (4 weeks)
AT
- - US64 (13 weeks)
US
First published: February 1983
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman
1988 Land of Dreams
recapitulation
- - CH12 (8 weeks)
CH
- US80 (19 weeks)
US
First published: October 1988
Producers: Tommy LiPuma , Mark Knopfler ,
James Newton Howard , Jeff Lynne
1999 Bad Love
DreamWorks
DE52 (5 weeks)
DE
- - - US194 (1 week)
US
First published: August 1999
Producers: Mitchell Froom, Tchad Blake
2008 Harps and Angels
Nonesuch
DE25 (4 weeks)
DE
AT29 (5 weeks)
AT
CH25 (3 weeks)
CH
UK46 (1 week)
UK
US30 (5 weeks)
US
First published: August 2008
Producers: Lenny Waronker, Mitchell Froom
2017 Dark Matter
Nonesuch
DE48 (2 weeks)
DE
AT35 (1 week)
AT
CH20 (3 weeks)
CH
UK61 (1 week)
UK
US106 (1 week)
US
First released: August 4th, 2017
Producers: David Boucher, Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

  • 1968: Randy Newman
  • 1970: 12 songs
  • 1981: Ragtime
  • 1984: The Natural
  • 1995: Randy Newman's Faust
  • 2003: The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1
  • 2011: The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2
  • 2011: Live in London
  • 2016: The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 3

Compilations

  • 1983: Retrospect
  • 1983: The Best of Randy Newman
  • 1987: Lonely at the Top: The Best of Randy Newman (UK:silversilver)
  • 1998: Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman (box with 4 CDs)
  • 2001: The Best of Randy Newman
  • 2011: Original Album Series (box with 5 CDs)
  • 2016: The Randy Newman Songbook (box with 4 LPs)

Singles

year Title
album
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
US US
1977 Short People
Little Criminals
US2
gold
gold

(20 weeks)US
First published: October 13, 1977
Author: Randy Newman
1983 The Blues
Trouble in Paradise
US51 (8 weeks)
US
First published: January 1983
with Paul Simon ; Author: Randy Newman
1988 It's Money That Matters
Land of Dreams
US60 (12 weeks)
US
First published: October 14, 1988
Author: Randy Newman

More singles

  • 1962: Golden Gridiron Boy (release: October)
  • 1968: The Beehive State (release: May)
  • 1968: Love Story (release: July 5th)
  • 1968: Last Night I Had a Dream (release: September 3rd)
  • 1970: Hold On (Have You Seen My Baby) (released April 29)
  • 1970: Gone Dead Train (released October 30)
  • 1972: My Old Kentucky Home (released March 3rd)
  • 1972: Sail Away (released June 21)
  • 1972: You Can Leave Your Hat On (release: October)
  • 1975: Naked Man (released January 29)
  • 1977: Louisiana 1927 (released May 16)
  • 1978: Baltimore (released May 8)
  • 1978: Rider in the Rain (release: July 12th)
  • 1979: It's Money That I Love (release: September 29th)
  • 1979: The Story of a Rock and Roll Band (release December)
  • 1980: Political Science (Let's Drop the Big One) (release: March)
  • 1981: Clef Club / Train Ride
  • 1981: Clef Club N ° 2 (BOF Ragtime)
  • 1983: I Love LA (release March)
  • 1984: The Natural (released June)
  • 1988: Falling in Love (released December)
  • 1989: I Love to See You Smile (Release: August)
  • 1991: Lines in the Sand
  • 1996: You've Got a Friend in Me (with Lyle Lovett ; release: April 12; UK:goldgold, US: platinumplatinum)
  • 1999: I Miss You
  • 2010: We Belong Together
  • 2017: A Few Words in Defense of Our Country (released January 20th)

Film music

literature

Web links

Commons : Randy Newman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. How are composers Randy and Thomas Newman related? , Classical Music from January 27, 2020.
  2. Short people lyricsfreak.com
  3. ^ A Newman song that won't wash away . Intern. Herald Tribune , May 2, 2008
  4. ^ Newman Explains Every Song on His New Album, Dark Matter , accessed August 8, 2017
  5. The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .
  6. a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  7. a b Gold / Platinum databases: UK US