His movie songs are filled with memorable melodies; his own albums with unsavory characters. One of the most astute cultural observers is the subject of a new book. By Bob Mehr Around the summer of ...

As a boy growing up in Beverly Hills, Calif., Randy Newman received an upright piano for his fifth birthday. It was also around this time that his life started to slide sideways. He suffered from ...

A biography of the singer behind “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and “Short People” considers a complicated man with a satirical edge. By Dwight Garner When you purchase an independently reviewed book ...

"Randy Newman is our great master of American song and storytelling."--Bruce Springsteen "At last, the biography that Randy Newman has long deserved. The emotional precision, the humor and sweep, the ...