Sail Away - Randy Newman

Sail Away, Randy Newman, 1972 - Background - R Randy Newman is perhaps best known these days as the guy who Disney turns to to write songs for Pixar animations like Monsters Inc and Toy Story. While those ballads are nice and chirpy and have helped the success of the Toy Story franchise, Newman s music is perhaps best heard on several albums he made back in the 1970 s. Newman has a very sardonic, but deeply American take on life, full of sarcasm and satire that is so different from any of his contemporaries. His songs usually are lyrically written from the viewpoint of someone else - either from history (such as the slave traders in the title songs from this album) or a ...

Little Criminals - Randy Newman

Little Criminals, Randy Newman, 1977 - Background - Most people probably know R Randy Newman from his bittersweet songs on recent Disney films like Toy Story and Monsters Inc. However, Newman had quite a run of decent albums during the 1970 s and wrote some classic songs that were covered by other artists, such as Mamma Told Me Not to Come and Sail Away . If you ve read my recent reviews you may well have seen I gave Newman s 1974 album Good Old Boys five dooyoo stars. I was interested to see what his follow up album was like and whether it could deliver the same quality of songs and lyrical cleverness. Opinion The album kicks off with the controversial Short ...

Good Old Boys - Randy Newman

Good Old Boys, Randy Newman, 1974 - Background - Good Old Boys is the fifth album by honky-rock artist R Randy Newman Newman is probably best known these days for writing songs for nearly every single Disney movie under the sun. Newman has a deeply satirical slant in his songs that has stood him in good stead throughout the years, making numerous swipes at the establishment by writing songs in character . By doing this he can become people with different opinions and emotions - plus get away with saying things that might be a little unpalatable. After many years of writing for others, Harry Nilsson released a Newman covers album that performed really well, paving the ...