I’ve only covered his pop/rock albums, not his movie soundtracks. While nothing matches the flawless pair of albums he made in the early 1970s, there are fantastic songs like ‘The Great Nations of Europe’ and ‘Putin’ sprinkled among later records.
Newman’s solo output is unusual in that the quality has remained high over a long career. His croaky voice is an acquired taste, but generally works well with his clever and satirical lyrics. Musically, arrangements are often based around his piano, and influenced by the time he spend in Louisiana as a child. He often writes from the point of view of an unsavoury character, like the ship captain trying to recruit slaves on ‘Sail Away’. Newman’s most notable for his lyrics, which are extremely clever and laced with dark humour. Newman rebooted his solo career with 1968’s self-titled album, but remained more famous as a writer for others – songs like ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ and ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ are best-known in their cover versions. Early successes included ‘Just One Smile’ for Gene Pitney and ‘Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear’. It wasn’t successful, and he focused on writing material for others. Influenced by Ray Charles, Newman released his first single ‘Golden Gridiron Boy’ in 1962, at the age of 18. But Newman’s also enjoyed critical acclaim for his pop/rock records, in a career spanning six decades. ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’ from Toy Story is arguably his most well-known song, while he won an Oscar for ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ from Monsters, Inc. Newman’s also best-known for his film scores, such as Toy Story and Ragtime. The following is a list of Randy Newman compositions that were chart hits for other artists.L.A.’s Randy Newman was born into the music business – his grandparents, uncles, and cousins all worked as film score composers. " You've Got a Friend in Me" / " We Belong Together" "It's Money That Matters" / "Falling in Love" "The Blues" (with Paul Simon) / "Same Girl"
"Rider in the Rain" / "Kathleen (Catholicism Made Easier)" "Sigmund Freud's Impersonation of Albert Einstein in America" / "Baltimore" "Last Night I Had A Dream" / "I Think He's Hiding" "The Beehive State" / "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" Newman also covered the Fats Domino song "I'm In Love Again" for the soundtrack of Shag (1989). Newman's 1972 song "Burn On" was used as the opening song in Major League (1989) while his song "Political Science" was featured in Blast from the Past (1999). Newman's song "I Love L.A." was used in The Naked Gun and Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, and over the end credits of Volcano. In the following year, Newman's song "Let Me Go" was used in the film The Pursuit of Happiness. Newman also performed a song he did not write ("Gone Dead Train"), and conducted Jack Nitzsche's original music, for the soundtrack of the 1970 film Performance. Spider-Man: The Movie Video Game soundtrack "Danny's Arrival Song", "Little Boat On The Sea", "Animal Jam Session", "Big and Loud", "Tell Me Lies", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" "The Ballad of the Three Amigos", "My Little Buttercup", "Blue Shadows"
Newman composed original songs that were used in the following films, but did not compose the scores for these films: On Vine Street: The Early Songs of Randy Newman Lonely at the Top: The Best of Randy Newman New solo studio recordings of previously issued compositions.