Randy Newman bio

Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American songwriter, arranger, singer and pianist who is notable for his mordant (and often satirical) pop songs and for his many film scores. Newman is noted for his practice of writing lyrics from the perspective of a "character" far removed from Newman's own biography, often utilizing the literary device of an unreliable narrator. For example, the 1972 song "Sail Away" is written as slave trader's sales pitch to attract slaves, while the narrator of "Political Science" is a U.S. nationalist who complains of worldwide ingratitude toward America and proposes a brutally ironic final solution ("Let's drop the big one"). Since the 1980s, Newman has worked mostly as a film composer. His film scores include Ragtime, The Natural, Toy Story, Seabiscuit, and Meet the Fockers. He has also been singled out for a bevy of awards by his colleagues, including an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, four Grammy Awards, and the Governor's Award of the recording academy. Randy Newman was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 2002.

Source: Wikipedia