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Randy Newman: “I didn’t write those lyrics”

World-famous singer-songwriter Randy Newman has stunned critics and music-lovers alike by confessing he didn’t actually write the lyrics to many of his hit songs.

In an exclusive interview to WWNews, Newman said that, in a way, he was relieved to be coming clean after so many years living a lie.

“It’s like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders,” Newman sighed as WWNews’s deputy editor/receptionist took his heavy cashmere and leather coat. “As for the songs… well, I took the credit, and the cash, for very little effort on my part.”

Newman, long renowned for his trademark sarcasm, sardonicity and clever use of irony in the words of his songs, admitted that several weren’t actually intended to be taken that way.

“I was very busy at the time,” he said. “So I farmed out a few tunes to a young kid in New York. He send back some lyrics, they rhymed, so I sang them. Then when they came out, people assumed they were meant to be ironic and they sold like hot cakes. I’m not proud, but I’m rich.”

The songs in question – Short People, Rednecks, Political Science, It’s Money That I Love and I Love LA to name a few – will be properly credited in new releases as “music:R Newman/words: DJ Trump”.

3 Comments

  1. Leslie Henderson-Craig Leslie Henderson-Craig 21 March 2016

    Fabulous Doug.. Im not sure if you ever had the luck to walk into Gary Ryan’s office when he was playing Short People very loudly and without a hint of irony on the turntable…it still makes me laugh.

  2. Owen McCarthy Owen McCarthy 22 March 2016

    The workings of your mind are a wonder to behold. I’m reminded of a phrase from Monty Python’s hungarian phrase-book:

    Kérjük, dédelget én ingyenélő , mert a légpárnás tele van angolna.

    • David McInnis David McInnis 25 May 2016

      The Pythons were brilliantly twisted. Mellbimbók felrobban az örömtől.

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