Album: Various Artists, On Vine Street: The Early Songs Of Randy Newman

Before getting round to releasing records of his own, Randy Newman served an apprenticeship as in-house songwriter at Liberty Records, which was run by his chum Lenny Waronker's father Simon.

This compilation features his early work for such as vanilla harmony group The Fleetwoods (“They Tell Me It’s Summer”) and Gene Pitney, who brought the tyro songsmith his first chart hit with “Nobody Needs Your Love”.

The Waronker connection again proved fruitful when Lenny, by then A&R at Warners, used several of Randy’s songs on Harpers Bizarre’s debut album, of which the jaunty teen-date anthem “The Biggest Night Of Her Life” best demonstrates Newman’s old-school craft and intelligence.

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