In 1974, Randy Newman opened his album “Good Old Boys” with “Rednecks,” a song about American racism so honest and shocking — not least because Newman brandishes the N-word in the voice ...

Randy Newman, Music’s Most Biting Storyteller, Gets His Own Story Told: Ex-L.A. Times Critic Robert Hilburn on Penning the Singer-Composer’s Biography By Chris Willman ...

Mr. Newman’s best work is often sunny on the surface, but it’s never just that. “I’ve always gone against the two things that sell 90 percent of the records in America,” he says in an ...