#322 - Randy Newman - Sail Away (1972)

MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:

RANDY NEWMAN BIO

Randall Stuart Newman was born in Los Angeles in 1943. His uncle was Academy Award winning composer Lionel Newman, and two other uncles were also composers (Lionel and Emil). The American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer and pianist began his songwriting career at 17 years old, writing hits for the Fleetwoods, Cilla Black, Gene Pitney and the Alan Price Set. He made his debut as a solo artist with a self-titled album in 1968, and then released "12 Songs'' in 1970. His third album in five years is the subject of today's episode. Good Old Boys would follow in 1974. 

Randy Newman's pop songs of the 1970s earned him a reputation as a songwriter's songwriter. A primary influence of Newman was Ray Charles, with Newman saying “I loved Charles’ music to excess”. He released 7 albums from 1968-1983 but it was his 1977 song "Short People," a controversial parody about bigotry, that became his biggest hit. Since the 1980s he has concentrated on writing film scores, including Ragtime (1981), The Natural (1984), and scoring 9 Disney-Pixar films (all 4 Toy Stories, A Bug’s Life, both Monster’s Inc films, and the first and third Cars films) among others. He released five more albums from 1988-2017. The list of people who have covered Newman’s work is extensive, ranging from singers like Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler, to Art Garfunkel, the Everly Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Pat Boone, and Neil Diamond. 

Newman’s list of career accolades includes 22 Academy Award nominations winning twice for Best Original Score in 2002 (for a Monsters Inc. song) and 2011 (for a Toy Story 3 song), 3 Emmys, and 7 Grammy’s (he needs a Tony to EGOT). He was recognized by the Walt Disney Company in 2007 as a “Walt Disney Legend”, and was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock N Roll HOF in 2013.

Newman about his own music "One thing with my music, you can’t sit and eat potato chips, and have it on in the background at a party. "

BACKGROUND – SAIL AWAY

Today's album was released in May 1972. Some of the tracks were originals, but several had been recorded by other artists. It peaked at #163 in the United States on the Billboard 200, and at #42 in Australia worldwide. This album found a middle ground between the heavily orchestrated pop of his debut and the more stripped-down, rock-oriented approach of 12 Songs, and managed to bring new strength to both sides of his musical personality in the process. 

The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has said that this album profoundly affected him at the time of its release, briefly keeping him from sliding further into depression and mental illness. In particular, Wilson noted that he listened to Sail Away "over and over" while physically writing down the lyrics which would become the Beach Boys' Mount Vernon and Fairway fairy tale EP. In 2021, Wilson ranked Sail Away third on his list of "5 Albums I Can't Live Without" for Spin magazine.