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THE FREE LANCE-STAR
It's a bitter irony for Randy Newman.
Even though it may seem otherwise, he always has longed to reach the largest number of people possible with his songs, to get radio airplay and to sell lots of records.
At the same time, he's considered one of the most literate songwriters ever, and has even been compared to Faulkner.
So it cuts him to the quick that the song he is best known for, his biggest hit, is the silly ditty "Short People."
The lyrics from the 1978 release are familiar:
"They got little hands and little eyes, And they walk around tellin' great big lies, Don't want no short people 'round here."
It's not one of his best efforts, he said this week in a telephone interview, and he has come to hate the song.
"It was too bad that was my one big hit--a novelty record like The Chipmunks did," Newman said. "It was a hit that did me no good, that did me harm. A bad break."
The song became so popular, he said, that he'd watch a ball game on TV "and they'd joke about it at half time. I was losing my sense of humor."
Also, some people didn't grasp the satirical nature of the song: It was far from hateful and instead poked fun at prejudice.
Newman received threats over the song, and worse, he said, it pegged him as a lightweight songwriter.
Like another of his hits, the 1983 "I Love L.A.," "Short People" was irresistibly catchy, but also frothy and frivolous.
Neither were included among the 18 tracks on Newman's new best-of solo album, "The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1," to be released Sept. 30.
The album spans 30 years of Newman's work. He will play solo at the Birchmere in Alexandria Monday and Tuesday in support of the album.
Newman said the songs in the collection were chosen to flow and work together. Certainly "Short People" wouldn't fit with "God's Song [That's Why I Love Mankind]," the opening cut on the album.
The lyrics of that song have God saying:
"I burn down your cities, how blind you must be, I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we, That's why I love mankind, You really need me, That's why I love mankind"
"I've always wondered about that myself," Newman explained. "Religious people have this rationale that 'His ways are beyond our understanding.'"
He said the song "is not an all-out attack on belief, but an opening gambit."
The song "Rednecks," also on the new CD, might seem to be mocking Southerners. But, Newman said, it actually takes Northerners to task for their hypocritical superiority about their treatment of blacks, because blacks are also treated badly in the North.
Despite critical acclaim, Newman never has been commercially successful. He has paid the bills, for the most part, with songs written for movies.
After 16 nominations, last year he won his first Oscar, "Best Original Song," for "If I Didn't Have You" from the animated film "Monsters Inc."
His other movie scores include "The Natural," "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Pleasantville" and this summer, "Seabiscuit."