Day Tripping: November 28

It’s A Jungle Out There

Randall Stuart Newman was born in 1943 in Los Angeles. As a child, Randy lived in New Orleans until the age of eleven. He began songwriting when he was seventeen. Ray Charles was his biggest influence.

A year later, Newman began performing his new single Golden Gridiron Boy but the song's failure to win audiences drove back to songwriting. His work started getting covered by popular artists of the day, Petulia Clarke, Dusty Springfield, and Pat Boone.

During the 70s, Newman gained more industry recognition with his jingle for Dr. Pepper. He also wrote huge hits for Three Dog Night with Mama Told Me Not To Come and You Can Leave Your Hat On which was also covered by Joe Cocker and later, Tom Jones.

“I once had dinner with Madonna and I wasn’t nervous but within about a minute I found myself talking about underwear.”

In 1977, Randy Newman scored his own hit with Short People which was placed on his Little Criminals album as a joke. When his next record featured the song You’ll Love It, Newman started getting more of a reputation for his sarcastic humor. Los Angeles sports teams started using the song during their games.

Randy Newman has continued writing hit songs and film scores including the entire Toy Story series, and several other Disney animations. Randy has been nominated 22 times for Academy Awards, winning twice.

Today is:

National French Toast Day — I’ll have mine with cinnamon, please. Some berries and maple syrup will be nice too.

Musical Ride

John Lennon paid off his bet with Elton John, appearing on stage at Elton’s concert at Madison Square Garden. Together, they played Whatever Gets You Through The Night, the song the bet was about. And Lennon also played Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and I Saw Her Standing There. It was the last live performance by John Lennon.

Interesting Notes

The first automobile race was held in 1895, running 54 miles between Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea won the event with a breakneck speed of 7 mph. It took ten hours to complete.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Deadpan comedy was perfected by Leslie Nielson in his Airplane! and Naked Gun films. He got plenty of practice with his stone face watching his father who was a member of the RCMP. Nielson died at 84 in 2010.

Notable Births

1949 — Paul Shaffer: “When you look into the eyes of an animal you’ve rescued, you can’t help but fall in love.”

1962 — Jon Stewart: “I’ve been to Canada, and I’ve always gotten the impression that I could take the country over in about two days.”

Well, ya better be ready to drop the gloves, buddy.

K. Barrett Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr. Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, Ph.D. Terry Trueman Dr. Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich David Acaster Nora Thewriteyard David Perlmutter Joe Luca Holly Kellums Michael Burg, MD Lucy Dan Dave Logan

All previous Day Tripping entries are available at the following links:

The Story Of Day Tripping Through History What’s Past Is Often Present

A comprehensive directory for Day Tripping