RANDY NEWMAN

Hollywood Film Composer
Profile byHoward Lucraft

Randy Newman is of the legendary ‘Newman Dynasty’ of Hollywood movie composers—as are his brother, Thomas (Tom) and cousin David.

Spearhead of the dynasty was the late Alfred (Al) Newman. Al is revered and consistently held as a creative model and example by the Hollywood musical fraternity and experts. Al held command on the 20th Century Fox sound stage for most of his musical lifetime.

Randy’s best known jazz effort is the background to Peggy Lee’s Is That All There Is? His most well known ditty, probably, is You’ve Got A Friend In Me, from Disney’s ‘Toy Story’. To many he is a Jekyll and Hyde with the contrast in his film and CD music. The Rhino Record’s 1988 four record release of ‘Guilty: 30 years of Randy Newman’ was a latter day milestone. Dreamworks Records CD ‘Bad Love’ was headlined by Time magazine as “pure bile and pure brilliance”.

Special Note: Randy Newman acclamations-He was granted ‘Keys to the City’ for his song I Love L.A. and he received the first Henry Mancini Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composing by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP).