Randy Newman is the debut recording by Randy Newman

Randy Newman

Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....

, released in 1968. 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. (Cover shown above right is the second cover design. The first cover showed a full photo of Newman against a cloud-like blue background).

Randy Newman never dented the Billboard Top 200 and was not received as well by critics as Newman's acclaimed 1970s albums 12 Songs

12 Songs (Randy Newman album)

12 Songs is a 1970 album by singer/songwriter Randy Newman. His second album, 12 Songs received much better reviews than his first. On 12 Songs Newman collaborates with Clarence White and Ry Cooder. The album set the stage for Newman's later career with songs sung from the point of view of...

, Sail Away

Sail Away (Randy Newman album)

-Personnel:* Randy Newman - arranger, composer, piano, vocals* Ry Cooder - guitars on "Last Night I Had a Dream" & "You Can Leave Your Hat On"* Russ Titelman - guitars* Jim Keltner - drums* Gene Parsons - drums* Earl Palmer - drums* Chris Ethridge - bass...

 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

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 in 1995. It was remaster

Remaster

Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...

ed by Lee Herschberg.

The album features the song "I Think It's Going to Rain Today

I Think It's Going to Rain Today

"I Think It's Going to Rain Today" is a song written by Randy Newman, and appears on the album Randy Newman, as well as The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1 and all of Newman's official and bootleg live albums...

", which was originally recorded by Julius LaRosa. It had also been covered by Judy Collins

Judy Collins

Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...

 in 1966; Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...

 issued a cover of the song shortly after the release of this album. Others who have recorded this song include David Gray

David Gray (musician)

David Gray is an English singer-songwriter. He released his first studio album in 1993 and received worldwide attention after the release of White Ladder six years later...

, Bette Midler

Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

 (on the Beaches

Beaches (soundtrack)

Beaches is the soundtrack to the Academy Award nominated feature film of the same name starring Bette Midler, who performs most of the tracks on the album, released on the Atlantic Records label in 1988...

soundtrack), Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...

, Claudine Longet

Claudine Longet

Claudine Georgette Longet is a French singer and recording artist who was popular during the 1960s and 1970s. She is also an actress and a dancer.Born in Paris, France, Longet was married to pop singer Andy Williams from 1961 until 1975...

, Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....

, Brian Short (of Black Cat Bones

Black Cat Bones

Black Cat Bones was a British heavy blues rock group from London.The band is perhaps best known for having had Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke in its lineup, both of whom later joined Free in 1968...

), Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

, Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

, Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker

John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...

, Norah Jones

Norah Jones

Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...

, Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald

Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun...

, UB40

UB40

UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world's best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.Their hit singles...

, Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy

Françoise Madeleine Hardy is a French singer, actress and astrologer. Hardy is an iconic figure in fashion, music and style. She is married to the singer and movie actor Jacques Dutronc.-Biography:...

, and more recently, Katie Melua

Katie Melua

Ketevan "Katie" Melua is a British-Georgian singer, songwriter and musician. She moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then to England at fourteen. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of composer Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003...

 and Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

.

Track listing

All songs written and arranged by Randy Newman.

1. "Love Story (You and Me)" – 3:20
2. "Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad" – 2:00
3. "Living Without You" – 2:25
4. "So Long Dad" – 2:02
5. "I Think He's Hiding" – 3:04
6. "Linda" – 2:27
7. "Laughing Boy" – 1:55
8. "Cowboy" – 2:36
9. "Beehive State" – 1:50
10. "I Think It's Going to Rain Today
    I Think It's Going to Rain Today
    "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" is a song written by Randy Newman, and appears on the album Randy Newman, as well as The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1 and all of Newman's official and bootleg live albums...
    
    " – 2:55
11. "Davy the Fat Boy" – 2:50

Personnel

• Randy Newman - vocals, piano
• Anthony Terran - trumpet
• Herb Ellis
  Herb Ellis
  Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
  
   - guitar
• Jim Horn
  Jim Horn
  Jim Horn is an American saxophonist and woodwind player. He was born in Los Angeles, and after replacing saxophonist Steve Douglas in 1959, he toured with member Duane Eddy for five years, playing sax and flute on the road, and in the recording studio...
  
   - saxophone
• Plas Johnson
  Plas Johnson
  Plas John Johnson Jr. is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most familiar as the lead on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme"....
  
   - saxophone
• Larry Knechtel
  Larry Knechtel
  Lawrence William "Larry" Knechtel was an American keyboard player and bassist, best known for his work as a session musician with such artists as Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Beach Boys, The Mamas & the Papas, The Partridge Family, The Doors, and Elvis Presley, and as a member of the 1970s...
  
   - guitar, bass
• Carol Kaye
  Carol Kaye
  Carol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions in a 55 year career....
  
   - bass
• Al Casey
  Al Casey (rock & roll guitarist)
  Alvin W. Casey was an American guitarist. He was mainly noted for his work as a session musician, but also released records and scored three Billboard Hot 100 hits in the United States...
  
   - guitar
• Milt Bernhart
  Milt Bernhart
  Milt Bernhart was a West Coast jazz trombonist who worked with Stan Kenton, Frank Sinatra, and others...
  
   - trombone
• Mike Deasy, Sr. - guitar
• Ron Elliott
  Ron Elliott (musician)
  Ron Elliott on October 21, 1943) is an American musician, composer and producer, best known as songwriter and lead guitarist of rock band The Beau Brummels. Elliott wrote or co-wrote the band's 1965 U.S...
  
   - guitar
• Lyle Ritz - bass
• Jim Gordon
  Jim Gordon (musician)
  James Beck "Jim" Gordon is an American recording artist, musician and songwriter. The Grammy Award winner was one of the most requested session drummers in the late 1960s and 1970s, recording albums with many well-known musicians of the time, and was the drummer in the blues-rock supergroup Derek...
  
   - drums
• Tommy Morgan - harmonica
• Ray Kelley - cello
• Ted Nash - saxophone
• Don Bagley - bass
• James Burton
  James Burton
  James Burton is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 , Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame...
  
   - guitar
• Israel Baker - violin
• Arnold Belnick - violin
• Harold Bemko - cello
• Harry Bluestone - violin
• Samuel Boghossian - viola
• Gene Cipriano - saxophone
• Gary Coleman - percussion (including mallets)
• Nick DeCaro - piano, accordion
• Frank DeCaro - guitar
• James A. Decker - French horn
• David Duke - French horn
• Carl Fortina - accordion
• Frederick Seykora - cello
• James Getzoff - flute
• Joe Gibbons - guitar
• William Green - saxophone
• Richard Hyde - trombone
• Armand Karpoff - cello
• Louis Kievman - viola
• William Kurash - violin
• Michael Lang - piano
• Don Lanier - guitar
• Gary LeVant - harmonica
• Tommy LiPuma
  Tommy LiPuma
  Tommy LiPuma is an American music producer. In his long career, he has worked with many musicians, including Barbra Streisand, Miles Davis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Natalie Cole, Claudine Longet, Dave Mason, the Yellowjackets, Michael Franks, Diana Krall, and The Story...
  
   - engineer
• Leonard Malarsky - violin
• Lew McCreary - trombone
• Jay Migliori - saxophone
• Sid Miller - saxophone
• Ollie Mitchell - trumpet
• Louis Morell - guitar
• Richard Perissi - French horn
• William R. Perkins - saxophone
• Jerome Reisler - violin
• Victor Sazer - cello
• Ralph Schaeffer - violin
• Wilbur Schwartz - saxophone
• Leonard Selic - viola
• Sid Sharp - violin
• Tommy Tedesco
  Tommy Tedesco
  Thomas J. Tedesco was an American master session musician and renowned jazz and bebop guitarist.Tedesco's credits include the iconic brand-burning accompaniment theme from television's Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, Vic Mizzy's iconic theme from Green Acres, M*A*S*H, Batman, and Elvis Presley's '68...
  
   - guitar
• Sal Valentino
  Sal Valentino
  Sal Valentino is an American rock musician, singer and songwriter, best known as lead singer of The Beau Brummels, subsequently becoming a songwriter as well. The band released a pair of top 20 U.S...
  
  - guitar, vocals
• Tibor Zelig - violin
• Hubert Anderson - percussion (including mallets)
• Joseph DiFiore - viola
• William Hinshaw - French horn
• Thomas Scott - saxophone
• Harold Ayties - viola? Será?
• Jesse Emrlich - cello
• Elizabeth Ershoff - harp
• David Filerman - cello
• Gene Garf - piano, organ
• Jan Hlinka - viola
• Norman Jeffreis - drums
• Gordon Pope - saxophone
• James Rowles - piano
• Joseph Tullio - cello
• William Weiss - violin
• Robert Knight - trombone

Singles

"I Think It's Going to Rain Today" b/w "The Beehive State" was issued as a single on Reprise 0284. Reprise also issued this single on a promotional 10" vinyl 78rpm record listing it as their "speed series"!