I saw Randy live at the Paramount Theater in Seattle in 1975 or 1976. If memory serves, Jethro Burns was playing mandolin! Randy, if you're reading this, I was the guy from the balcony loges who shouted out "Simon Smith" when you paused and tried to decide what to play next. You said, "OK" and played it. That made my decade.

There are only two kinds of Randy Newman songs: the good ones and the masterpieces. The only quibble I have with this collection is that "Bad News from Home" from Land of Dreams is excluded. This song is without question the most beautiful and evocative pop song of the last 40 years (rivaled only by Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey"). Don't take just my word for it, though. No less a luminary than Mark Knopfler says so, too (Knopfler played guitar on that track).

This is an excellent but deadly introduction to the wonderful music of Randy Newman. Deadly because once you've heard one of Randy's discs you will want to buy more and more. Part of the wonder of Randy's music is the "oddities", the quirky but delightfully uncommercial little songs on each album. One of my favorites is "Sigmund Freud's Impersonation of Albert Einstein in America" from Little Criminals. That's not on this disc either, but I hope now you will want to hear it.

To sum up: this disc gets 5 stars. For the newcomer, this is a good place to start, then go to "Sail Away" and "Good Old Boys". Proceed directly to "Land of Dreams" then to "12 Songs". After that, you will know what to do, I promise.


Essential thinking-person's pop   November 17, 2002
Gena Chereck (Nebraska, USA)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful

Simply put, Randy Newman is one of our best, most versatile pop songwriters. Leave it to the good people at Rhino to display (almost) his full range of talent on just one disc that stands as a perfect introduction for Newman newcomers like myself. I bought it primarily for the hilarious (and often misunderstood) hit singles "Short People" and "I Love L.A.," but I was blown away by his emotional range.

Another old favorite, "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the 1995 animated comedy Toy Story, shows his rare, sweet-and-playful side (although the movie itself fortunately transcends typical "kiddie fare"). "Mama Told Me Not to Come," which became a hit for Three Dog Night, is a wry comment on the hippie lifestyle; the laugh-out-loud funny "Rednecks" takes on, well, rednecks. "Take Me Back" and "Dixie Flyer" are semi-autobiographical charmers. "Political Science" is a disturbingly catchy ode to blowing up other countries ("Let's drop the big one, and see what happens"). "Little Criminals," "It's Money That I Love," and the seductive "You Can Leave Your Hat On" (which was made famous by Joe Cocker) are fun tracks, as well. He seems more at home with the ballads, though, which better showcase his classical-pop sensibilities. (He's also well-known for writing movie scores.) In "Sail Away," he assumes the voice of a recruiter for the slave trade, and in another track, he tells the story of a flood that occurred in Louisiana in 1927. In beautiful songs like "I Think it's Gonna Rain Today," "Marie," and "Feels Like Home," he drops the jokes and social satire to reveal a more sensitive side.

This dichotomy is best expressed in the two most recent tracks (from 1999's acclaimed Bad Love): "Shame," about a dirty old man trying to hang onto a pretty young thing while denying his obvious neediness and rage ("A man of my experience in life don't expect a beautful young woman like yourself to come on over here every day, have some old dude bangin' on ya like a gypsy on a tambourine..."), and "I Miss You," Newman's love letter to an ex-wife ("I wanna thank you for the good years, and apologize for the rough ones"). Newman is a pop songwriter for thinking people, and the songs on this best-of are catchy and clever whether they make you laugh or not. (I must also mention his track-by-track liner notes, which are brief but still insightful.)


Just a Taste...   December 8, 2004
B. Niedt (Cherry Hill, NJ United States)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Let's face it: it's next to impossible to summarize an artist's 35-year career on one CD. If you really want a comprehensive overview, get Randy Newman's box set, "Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman". But if you want a good one-disc synopsis, this fits the bill. Most long-time Newman fans will note puzzling omissions (for me, "Baltimore" and "Dear Mr. President"). But there are so many great songs written this guy, that it's hard to complain. From "Mama Told Me Not to Come", to the much-misunderstood "Short People", to more recent favorites like Toy Story's "You've Got a Friend in Me", the CD showcases his often sardonic, but always heartfelt and human, take on the world. Newman is a versatile composer, having tried his hand on Broadway with "Faust", and following his family's tradition by scoring a number of motion pictures. (He recently won an Oscar, after many years of nominations, for a song from "Monsters, Inc.".) But whatever he endeavors, his work is infused with a deep love of Americana. This disc is a fine introduction to this great singer-songwriter, but it's just a taste of an impressive body of work


Very Good Newman Sampler   February 4, 2003
Sam Bethune (Lincoln, Nebraska USA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

As a huge fan of Randy Newman's work I think this CD is representative of some of his best vocal work. The selections range from the wistful emotional "Marie" to the uptempo "I Love to See You Smile", from the soundtrack to the film Parenthood. On a personal level, I would like to have seen "In Germany Before the War" and "Rider in the Rain" from the Little Criminals album included here, and the failure to include two of Newman's most poignant songs, "Guilty", and "I'll Be There" is almost unforgiveable. Nevertheless, there's still a lot to like here.

If you like this CD I humbly suggest you also explore some of Newman's film score work, for which he received a long overdue Oscar last year. The "Guilty" box set is a good place to start, but I strongly recommend the scores to Ragtime and Avalon (both sadly out of print) as well as Pleasantville, which is still available.