Randy Newman is considered one of the most acclaimed songwriters around, with 11 solo albums (and quite a few film soundtracks) in his catalog of which at least two or three always find their place in all-time greatest lists.
To celebrate Newman’s work, noted music author Robert Hilburn (a decades-long Los Angeles Times music critic) has written a new biography – A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman. The 544-page book, told with its subject’s full cooperation, arrives October 22, 2024, via Hachette Books, and is available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
From the publisher’s announcement:
Randy Newman is widely hailed as one of America’s all-time greatest songwriters, equally skilled in the sophisticated melodies and lyrics of the Gershwin-Porter era and the cultural commentary of his own generation, with Bob Dylan and Paul Simon among his most ardent admirers. While tens of millions around the world can hum “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” his disarming centerpiece for Toy Story, most of them would be astonished to learn that the heart of Newman’s legacy is in the dozens of brilliant songs that detail the injustices, from racism to class inequality, that have contributed to the division of our nation. Rolling Stone declared that a single Newman song, “Sail Away,” tells us more about America than “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And yet, his legacy remains largely undocumented in book form—until now.
Born in Los Angeles to an extended family of Hollywood film composers, Newman began his songwriting career at the age of 17, penning hits for acts such as the Fleetwoods, Cilla Black, Gene Pitney, and the Alan Price Set. Since the 1980s, Newman has worked mostly as a film composer. He has scored nine Disney-Pixar animated films. Newman has received twenty-two Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and has won twice in the latter category. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman will be the first documentation of the renowned songwriters life and journey, and was done in full cooperation with him.
