Even though 12 Songs wasn't a big seller, I think it was the album that "made" Randy Newman. The title says it all, one dozen songs performed with sparse musical backing to showcase Randy's songwriting talent.
It contains some of his best songs like "Have You Seen My Baby?" (later covered by Ringo and the Flamin' Groovies) and "Mama Told Me Not To Come" (which Three Dog Night covered to put Randy Newman on the map), but my favorite song on the album is "My Old Kentucky Home", a song that the Beau Brummels did a few years earlier on their fabulous album Triangle.
Randy Newman updates Stephen Foster for the late 20th century.
Since I'm doing these alphabetically, my next album is a companion to 12 Songs, with a few of the same songs with the same arrangements, just sung by a different guy, and it's probably not that difficult to guess what it is!
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