Bridging the various styles that comprise the last century of American music—rhythm and blues, ragtime, jazz, rock 'n' roll—Newman echoes Irving Berlin and Fats Domino as well as the Beatles and Bob Dylan. For his first Nonesuch Records release, The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1, Newman took a fresh look at his celebrated songs with new solo recordings. In the final concert of Zankel Hall's opening festival, Newman performed many of these works, among others, alone at the piano.

Newman was a professional songwriter from the age of 17, dropping out of UCLA one semester short of his music degree to make his self-titled 1968 debut. The album was a musically complex record with bleakly humorous lyrics that broke from contemporary pop conventions. Newman's next record, 12 Songs, was an about-face—sparsely arranged, mostly with piano, percussion and the bluesy, razor-sharp slide guitar of Ry Cooder. By the time Warner Bros. released his live solo album, Live, performers such as Judy Collins, Pat Boone, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee and Wilson Pickett had made Newman's songs famous. His next record, the breakthrough Sail Away, combined the best elements of the first three records and included the acclaimed title track and "God's Song." Newman then recorded the concept album Good Old Boys, followed by Little Criminals, which included the hit "Short People."

In the 1980's and 90's, Newman divided his time between film composing and solo albums. His score for Milos Forman's Ragtime earned him his first two of 16 Oscar nominations, and his soundtrack for The Natural won a Grammy. Newman's solo records included Trouble in Paradise (which contained the hit "I Love L.A."), Land of Dreams, Faust and 1999's Bad Love. During the mid-90's, Newman began scoring children's films, including Toy Story, A Bug's Life (Grammy) and Toy Story 2 (Grammy). In 2002, Newman won his first Oscar for the song "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters Inc.; the film's soundtrack also earned him another Grammy.

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