#268 Randy Newman, 'Sail Away' (1972)

Previously #322

Long before Randy Newman was the soundtrack to many people’s childhood (or many adults’ revisited childhoods), he was L.A.’s weirdest singer-songwriter. Newman famously wrote songs for and scored movies such as ‘Toy Story,’ ‘Monsters Inc.,’ ‘Cars’ and multiple others. In fact he has been nominated for 22 Academy Awards. Back to ‘Sail Away,’ though, this was Newman’s third album. Although all composed by him, it featured a few songs that had already been recorded by other artists, namely ‘Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear’ by Alan Price and Harry Nilsson separately; ‘Dayton, Ohio – 1903’ by Billy J. Kramer and once again by Harry Nilsson (this time a duet with Newman himself). But the big one on this record, which wasn’t the big one at the time, would be track 11, ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On,’ a song that would be made famous by Joe Cocker, and later Tom Jones’s version would famously feature in ‘The Full Monty.’

Brian Wilson said that this album had a major impact on him. It put a pause on his famous descent into depression and mental illness. A saving grace at the time. In fact, the album diretly influenced the song ‘Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale)’ from Beach Boys’ album, ‘Holland.’ Wilson had said he listened to it on repeat as he wrote the song. If that’s not high praise, then I don’t know what is.

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