LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Continuing Rev-Ola's series spotlighting great songwriters and performers in new contexts, we give you Randy Edelman...a well-known name as a hit songwriter and soundtrack composer. Starting in the business as an arranger at legendary R&B label King Records, Randy Edelman went on to be a staff writer for April/Blackwood music, and to hone his skills in musical theatre in Broadway pit orchestras of many a great production of the early 1970's...subsequently, Randy started recording his own albums, touring them, working with artists as diverse as Mark Wirtz, The Carpenters, and Frank Zappa. Meanwhile, as a writer his songs were being recorded by The 5th Dimension, Olivia Newton-John, Patti LaBelle, The Carpenters, Jackie DeShannon, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Bing Crosby! Not to mention Barry Manilow, whose cover of “Weekend In New England" brought Randy to mainstream pop attention in the UK and Europe! A period as a bona-fide pop star followed, with Randy a regular on Top Of The Pops. An interest in the longer form of film music was pursued next, starting with the music for detective drama "McGyver" (a show that like "Matlock" will live forever, via references in The Simpsons!). His first major film work, the Arnold Schwarzenegger / Danny DeVito comedy "Twins", followed in 1988. After a flurry of comedic projects including “My Cousin Vinny”, Edelman earned his first Academy Award nomination in 1992 for "The Last of the Mohicans". He continues to do score films and this year picked up a lifetime achievement award from the BMI. A bit of a career then! But what we have here is the man and his piano…what it says on the tin, a selection of his own favourites, hits and non-hits, performed in intimate, stripped down style...one would be tempted to use the 1980's cliche "Unplugged"...but how does one unplug a piano? Randy Edelman then, a classic songwriter re-presented, a classic songwriter, who as it says in his own biog: "continues to reside in his pyjamas in his Beverly Hills studio". You / Today (June Song) / My Heart Got In The Way / Laughter And Tears / Just Passing Through / Woman On Your Arm / Uptowm Uptempo Woman / Blue Street / Sentimental Fool / Weekend In New England / My Special Friend / I Can’t Make Music