Songs by Randy Newman, etc.

Nowadays, Randy Newman is mainly known as the guy who makes soundtracks for Disney movies that get nominated for Academy Awards every year. And, oh yeah, didn’t he also do those funny novelty songs about short people and living in L.A.? He should be known first and foremost as a songwriter. Here are seven covers of early Randy Newman songs.

The Beau Brummels - Old Kentucky Home (from Triangle, 1967)

I caught a Beau Brummels reunion gig at the 2000 Baypop festival, and they ended their set with “Old Kentucky Home”. It was a great version of one of my favorite Randy Newman songs, and they introduced it as being from the album Triangle, which was out of print at that time. I finally picked up Triangle a few years ago when it was reissued by Collector’s Choice. It’s an underrated gem, and should be required listening for anyone who still think of Beau Brummels as American Beatles copycats who appeared on the Flintstones (check it out on youtube)

The Everly Brothers - Illinois (from Roots, 1968)

Speaking of underrated, the Everly Brothers were one of those early rock acts who were gobbled up by Beatlemania, but the series of albums they made for Warners in the mid-late 60s after their chart run was over stands up to almost anything from the era. I’m still astounded at the two-disc Everlys collection that my friend Bradley made for me when his band started covering “It Only Costs a Dime”. This is from 1968’s Roots, an collection of early country songs, that Lenny Waronker corrupted with a few contemporary songs by his friends Randy Newman and Ron Elliott (of Beau Brummels fame). Randy never recorded “Illinois” , to my knowledge, so he may have written it for the Everlys to sing. It sounds like Sufjan’s Illinoise album condensed down to two minutes.

Van Dyke Parks - Vine Street (from Song Cycle, 1968)
Harry Nilsson - The Beehive State (from Nilsson Sings Newman, 1970)

Van Dyke Parks covered Randy’s “Vine Street” on his solo debut Song Cycle. This album has been both praised as a classic and dismissed as pretentious twaddle. My opinion is somewhere in the middle – a pretentious classic. Van Dyke's singing is an acquired taste (like Randy Newman's). Harry Nilsson also covered "Vine Street" on Nilsson Sings Newman, his album of Randy Newman songs, but I'm including "The Beehive State" from Randy Newman's first LP. Nilsson Sings Newman is a good Newman primer for people who might like Randy’s songs more if someone else like Harry Nilsson were singing them. I love Randy's singing voice, but nobody sings like Nilsson. And the album is just Harry singing and Randy playing piano -- a short, simple, and extremely non-pretentious record!

Randy Newman - Mama Told Me Not To Come (from 12 Songs, 1970)

The Flamin' Groovies - Have You Seen My Baby? (from Teenage Head, 1971)

The Walkabouts - Let's Burn Down The Cornfield (from Scavenger, 1991)

These are the first three songs from my favorite Randy Newman album, 12 Songs. The Flamin’ Groovies covered “Have You Seen My Baby?” on their Teenage Head album. The Groovies turn the the song into a rollicking rocker that sounds like one of their original tunes. The Walkabouts covered “Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield” with Carla singing on their 1991 album Scavenger. “Mama Told Me Not to Come” was a huge hit for Three Dog Night that gets heavy airplay on classic rock radio. It's probably his best known song, but Randy’s original version is better than TDN's, so I’m including it, but this is as good a time as any to tell this Three Dog Night story...

A few years ago I was on a Southwest flight from Chicago to Oakland, quietly reading Ben Fong-Torres’s Gram Parsons biography Hickory Wind. The guy across the aisle sees the book, and mentions that he’s a big GP fan and his band played a few gigs with the Flying Burrito Brothers. What band was that? Three Dog Night.

It was Michael Allsup (one of TDN’s backing musicians, not one of the tres perros), and he told me lots of great stories about life on the road with the Night. I told him that his band exposed me to the three Ns (Newman, Nilsson, Nyro) at a young age, and also told him about the time that I put put two quarters in a pizza parlor jukebox when I was a kid, and punched six consecutive plays of “Joy To The World”. This did not bring joy to my fellow pizza eaters!