… you think maybe NEXT year you might write a NEW song?
I suppose I should admire your persistence. Oscar snubbed you sixteen years ago, but you didn’t let THAT stop you. You re-wrote that same song and got another nomination the next year. When you lost again, you just re-wrote that same song, and got re-nominated yet again. And the year after, and the year after…
Anyway, sixteen years later, that same song FINALLY won an Oscar, under a different title. I guess the Academy hoped, “If we give him the Oscar this time, maybe he’ll retire.”
Well, Randy, you won. You got the Oscar. But do us a favor- if you MUST do another movie soundtrack this year, how about writing a DIFFERENT song? One that isn’t note for note the same as the one from “Monsters Inc.”, which sounded EXACTLY like the one from “Toy Story,” which sounded EXACTLY like “Short People,” which…
I couldn’t believe Sting and McCartney got NOMINATED. They couldn’t find better movie songs than that crap? Newman had them beat hands down. If you put some schmoe’s name on the tripe McCartney was coughing up last night you couldn’t get a gig in a high school.
Newman SHOULD have won for “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story II. and he should have won for Best Original Score for “The Natural.” He has nothing to be ashamed of in the Oscar ripoff pool.
I love good music. And I give credit where credit is due. But every friggin’ year when Randy Newman sits down at the piano on the Oscar stage, I know exactly how the songs going to go before he even starts; and I cringe.
As an added chunk of proof – I consider Sting to be one of the more pretentious and over-rated musicians ever to recorded, but I thought his song last night was far superior to all the others.
Final note – Enya? God Christ, she sounded like a cat with its tail caught in a rotary fan.
Before you accuse Randy Newman of being a one trick pony, you’d better take a closer look at his entire songwriting catalog . There are few artists that can even come close to the breadth and depth of his songwriting.
The fact that he’s commissioned by the animation houses to write the same song again is more of a reflection of their formulaic approach to marketing a film than Randy Newman’s talents.
If you look at his other oscar nominations, not just his last couple animated features, you’ll clearly see the scope of his songwriting skills.
This wouldn’t be an issue if Randy Newman had been given the Oscar he deserved in 1982 for his score for Ragtime. Or in 1985 for his score for The Natural. Or in 1991 for his score for Avalon. Or in 1996 for his score for Toy Story. Or in 1997 for his score for James and the Giant Peach. Or in 1999 for his scores for A Bug’s Life and Pleasantville.
You did realize that some of his 16 nominations came for his scores, which usually sound nothing like the songs he’s typically nominated for, didn’t you? You did realize that his first nominations (for score and song in Ragtime) were twenty years ago, not sixteen? You did check your facts, didn’t you, before you posted, right?
Randy Newman himself, after getting the award, said he never really cared about winning best song. He wanted more to win for best score.
He considers himself more of a film score composer–which he is VERY good at. He did many great film scores (The Natural, etc.).
I agree all his songs sound the same, and not very good at that. But he is a very talented film score composer. I think many of his nominations were for score, not song.
I am glad that Randy Newman finally got the Oscar he deserved, if you think that his songs sound the same then you need to listen closer…and if Sting had won his ego would have blown up to take over the whole world…
Randy Newman was one of the best and most interesting American songwriters of the 1970s, and certainly deserves an Oscar if the award was to recognize talent alone. He was criminally overlooked, but his songwriting was not only first class, but extremely influential. Songs like “Davy the Fat Boy,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (covered by Three Dog Night), “Just One Smile” (covered by Blood Sweat and Tears), “Maybe I’m Doing It Wrong,” “You Can Leave Your Hat On” (used very effectively in “The Full Monty”), and his two biggest hits “Short People” and “I Love LA”) were clever both musically and lyrically.
I agree, except that you seem to have misplaced your past tense.
While I have no opinion at all on his movie songs, anybody accusing Randy Newman of being a one-trick pony has obviously never listened to Good Old Boys.
Hell, Newman should have won an Oscar back in 1974 for his brilliant Deep South concept album Good Old Boys, which included such knockouts as “Rednecks,” “Birmingham,” “Guilty,” “Louisiana 1927,” and “Kingfish” !
…Okay, so they don’t give Oscars to record albums. I still contend they should have given one to THIS one.
Biggirl’s and PunditLisa’s comments on the contending singers’ physical appearances makes me wonder of George C. Scott wasn’t right about the Oscars after all. “Two hour meat parade”, he said. As for Randy Newman, perhaps he can only be accused of casting pearls before swine . . .
Anyone who thinks Randy Newman’s songs all sound alike must be deaf. The range of his music on even one of the Pixar movies is enough to disprove that claim.
I’m disappointed that he would even accept an Oscar. There was a time when he would write a song gleefully recounting how he turned it down and skewering all the pretentious bores who attend/watch/pay attention to the whole tedious charade.