Randy Newman is back…just when America needs him the most!  While we’re all waiting for the mordant troubadour’s new studio album, due in 2017, Nonesuch Records has announced the September 23 release of the limited edition vinyl box set The Randy Newman Songbook.  This collection will premiere the third volume of his Songbook series (also available in a standalone edition) which began back in 2003.

For more than fifty years, Newman has been a foremost chronicler of the American experience, marrying timeless songcraft to a singularly scathing, satirical wit on an unparalleled series of albums reflecting on the nation and the human condition – and everything in between.  In 2003, Nonesuch released the first Songbook volume featuring his stark, unadorned piano-and-vocal takes on high watermarks of his career, alternately humorous and heartbreaking, personal and political.  Songbook took in the Americana of “Louisiana 1927,” the romanticism of “Living Without You,” “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” and “When She Loved Me,” the historical tapestry of “Sail Away” and “The Great Nations of Europe,” the character study of “Marie,” and the brutal, all-too-keenly observed satire of “It’s Money That I Love,” “Rednecks” and “Political Science.”  On 2011’s second volume, the master storyteller revisited more classics and gems like “My Life is Good,” “Baltimore,” “Dixie Flyer,” “Last Night I Had a Dream” and “Birmingham,” among others.

The new Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 3 is another mini-tour through the Newman oeuvre and the songwriter’s many sides, with 16 never-before-released tracks including “I Love to See You Smile,” “Short People,” “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” “Love Story,” “Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear,” “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” and “Real Emotional Girl.” Vol. 3 will be released on September 23 on compact disc and digital download, and also as part of a 4-LP vinyl box set.

The Randy Newman Songbook box will mark the first-ever vinyl release of all three Songbook albums recorded in 2003 and 2010 with producers Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker.  All songs have been resequenced as one cohesive, thematically-linked listening experience spread over 4 LPs.  Additionally, the box boasts five exclusive, previously unreleased bonus tracks: the now-standard “Feels Like Home,” “A Wedding in Cherokee County,” “I’m Dreaming,” “Family Album: Homage to Alfred, Emil and Lionel Newman,” and “Wandering Boy” – the latter the debut recording of one of Newman’s oldest compositions.  Pre-orders for the box are currently available in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the Vol. 3 album track “Guilty” and an exclusive, limited-edition print autographed by Newman.

Not a fan of vinyl?  Don’t worry; Nonesuch has CD and DD iterations of the box set due later in 2016, with the exact date yet to be announced.  Amazon links are not available as of this writing for either Vol. 3 or the box set, so watch this space!  In the meantime, you can peruse the track listing of the box set below!

Randy Newman, The Randy Newman Songbook (Nonesuch, 2016)

LP 1

1. I Think It’s Going to Rain Today
2. It’s Lonely at the Top
3. God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)
4. Rednecks
5. Let Me Go
6. Living Without You
7. You Can Leave Your Hat On
8. Ragtime
9. It’s Money That I Love
10. Political Science
11. The World Isn’t Fair
12. In Germany Before the War
13. The Great Nations of Europe
14. Marie

LP 2

1. Louisiana 1927
2. Dixie Flyer
3. Yellow Man
4. Suzanne
5. The Girls in My Life
6. Kingfish
7. Short People (*)
8. When She Loved Me
9. Losing You
10. My Life is Good
11. Birmingham
12. Last Night I Had a Dream
13. Laugh and Be Happy
14. Cowboy

LP 3

1. Sail Away
2. Mama Told Me Not to Come (*)
3. Love Story (*)
4. Burn On (*)
5. Rollin’ (*)
6. Guilty (*)
7. You’ve Got a Friend in Me (*)
8. Avalon
9. Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (*)
10. Davy the Fat Boy (*)
11. Lucinda
12. Baltimore
13. Real Emotional Girl (*)
14. Sandman’s Coming

LP 4

1. Feels Like Home (**)
2. I Love to See You Smile (*)
3. A Wedding in Cherokee County (**)
4. Red Bandana (*)
5. Bad News from Home (*)
6. Same Girl
7. I Love L.A. (*)
8. Family Album: Homage to Alfred, Emil and Lionel Newman (**)
9. Old Man (*)
10. Dayton, Ohio – 1903
11. A Few Words in Defense of Our Country (*)
12. I’m Dreaming (**)
13. I’ll Be Home (*)
14. Wandering Boy (**)

(*) denotes new track
(**) denotes box set-exclusive bonus track