Randy Newman (album)
| Randy Newman | ||||
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Original LP cover
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| Studio album by Randy Newman | ||||
| Released | June 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 1968 | |||
| Length | 27:24 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Randy Newman chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Spring | ||||
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| Revised cover | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |
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| Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) |  |
Randy Newman is the eponymous debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Randy Newman, released in 1968 by Reprise Records. Unlike his later albums, which featured Newman and his piano backed by guitar, bass guitar and drums, Randy Newman was highly orchestral and aimed to blend the orchestra with Newman's voice and piano.
Randy Newman never dented the Billboard Top 200 and was not received as well by critics as Newman's acclaimed 1970s albums 12 Songs, Sail Away and Good Old Boys; indeed, according to Ken Tucker, the album sold so poorly that Warner offered buyers the opportunity to trade the album for another in the company's catalog.Randy Newman was out of print for over 15 years until it was re-released on CD in 1995. It was remastered by Lee Herschberg.
The album is sometimes referred to as Randy Newman Creates Something New Under The Sun, which was written on the reverse of the album sleeve.
Newman later commented on the lack of influence from rock and roll on the album. "It's like I'd never heard The Rolling Stones. I thought you could move things along just with the orchestra, that it was somehow cheating to use drums. What Van Dyke and I–and Harry Nilsson, to some degree–were doing, it was like a branch of homo sapiens that didn't become homo sapiens. Homo erectus," he said. Newman said in 2017, that he signed away the publishing rights on his first album, doesn't see any money from people doing covers of those songs and advised people getting into the business to never sign away their publishing.
Critic Ellen Willis said the songs on the album, "show an intimate familiarity with, and an affection for, all the nuances of American life - the setting and characters, the family relationships, the romantic fantasies, the euphemisms - as well as an unsparing awareness of our oppression of old people, fat people, and other nonmainstream types."
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