“I have a great interest in animation and found computer graphics fascinating,” Randy Newman said in 1995. “I’ve always admired Carl Stalling and the other composers who specialized in music for cartoons, and I wanted to do one myself.”
That “one,” Toy Story (1995), led to scores and songs for James and the Giant Peach (1996), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Cars (2006). And amusingly and surprisingly to many longtime fans, the cutting social critic and brilliant curmudgeon Randy Newman has found himself a beloved Disney entertainer.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that at seventeen Randy was already a professional songwriter, knocking out tunes for a Los Angeles publishing house, since he was born in 1943 into a famously musical family. His uncles Alfred, Lionel, and Emil were all well-respected film composers and conductors. Even Randy’s father Irving Newmana prominent physicianwrote a song for Bing Crosby.
In 1968, Randy made his… read more
“I have a great interest in animation and found computer graphics fascinating,” Randy Newman said in 1995. “I’ve always admired Carl Stalling and the other composers who specialized in music for cartoons, and I wanted to do one myself.”
That “one,” Toy Story (1995), led to scores and songs for James and the Giant Peach (1996), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Cars (2006). And amusingly and surprisingly to many longtime fans, the cutting social critic and brilliant curmudgeon Randy Newman has found himself a beloved Disney entertainer.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that at seventeen Randy was already a professional songwriter, knocking out tunes for a Los Angeles publishing house, since he was born in 1943 into a famously musical family. His uncles Alfred, Lionel, and Emil were all well-respected film composers and conductors. Even Randy’s father Irving Newmana prominent physicianwrote a song for Bing Crosby.
In 1968, Randy made his debut with the orchestral recording, Randy Newman, and before long, his extraordinary and eclectic compositions were being recorded by an unusually wide range of artists, from Pat Boone to Ray Charles, Peggy Lee to Wilson Pickett.
Critics rightly raved about his 1970 sophomore effort 12 Songs, and increasingly the public started to take notice with albums like 1970’s Live, and even more so with the 1972 classic Sail Away and the brilliant and controversial 1974 release, Good Old Boys.
With the 1977 release of Top Ten Little Criminals, Randy experienced a huge left-field smash in the unlikely form of “Short People.”
In the Eighties, Randy was dividing his time between film composing and recording his own albums. In 1981, he released his exquisite score for Ragtime, earning him his first two of sixteen Oscar® nominations for Best Score and Best Song. Nineteen-eighty-three saw the release of Trouble In Paradise, while the next year saw the release of his Grammy-winning, Oscar®-nominated and now-iconic score for The Natural.
Following some more film work, Randy finally got around to recording another studio album, 1988’s Land of Dreams, another breakthrough work marked by some of his most personal and powerful work yet.
As for Toy Story, “I took a look at some of the storyboards and animation tests they had done, and I was just amazed by the way it looked, and I liked the idea of the story,” Randy says of his attraction to the film. “I absolutely loved the people involved with the project.”
Still, Randy also managed to play to the adult audience as well with his darkly hilarious take on Faustthe 1995 recording of which included performances by Don Henley, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.
In 1998, Randy put out an impressive compilation, Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman and a new 1999 album for DreamWorks, Bad Love. In 2002, Randy finally won his first Oscar® for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters Inc.
Whether expressing himself through music or lyrics, in concert, recordings, or film; live-action or animation; Randy Newman is a songwriter’s songwriterone of the most musically and lyrically ambitious ever to be at play in the field of popular music. This commitment is evidenced in the significant role that the company played in the public service campaigns to “Stop Sexual Harassment,” PLUS Literacy, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and dozens of others. —Disney Legends
