Yahoo Lifestyle Composer Randy Edelman Reflects on His Career and Whether He’d Do One Last Score: ‘If it Were a Great Picture’
Randy Edelman’s fame largely rests on his impressive roster of film scores—everything from his Golden Globe-nominated “Last of the Mohicans” to such big-grossing comedies as “Beethoven” and “The Mask,” and action flicks like “XXX”—but his career has encompassed so much more.
He’s written hit songs (notably “Weekend in New England” for Barry Manilow), won an Emmy for contributing soaring anthems to televised sporting events, and back in his singer-songwriter days, even opened for such diverse acts as The Carpenters and Frank Zappa.
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So when he sits down at the piano on Dec. 8 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, audiences will be treated to a unique evening: Just the artist and a Steinway, playing some of his old hits, medleys of his movie themes and more recent songs (from his new album “Waltzing on a High Wire”), interspersed with off-the-cuff commentary on a wide-ranging life in music.
“I do my thing, but it’s never exactly the same,” Edelman says, referring to similar gigs recently in London and Nashville. “I talk about things that are interesting to me, that tie in with the music. It’s not ‘and then I wrote.’ Plus it’s all about my playing, and the songs.”
Getting back to his roots? No, he says, pointing out that he started life as a classical musician and that his colossal success as a songwriter (“I never, ever in my life wrote a song for someone else”) and film composer (“there was a picture that ran out of money, I didn’t know, it was just a thing that came up”) were accidents of right place, right time.
None of Edelman’s nine earlier LPs, released between 1971 and 1985, were hits in America. But he was popular in England, with four singles hitting the charts between 1976 and 1982, and he made multiple appearances on the BBC’s widely seen “Top of the Pops” music series. Plus major stars, including Dionne Warwick and Olivia Newton-John, kept covering his tunes.
“What I love about Randy’s music is that it’s extremely melodic,” says producer Roger Birnbaum, a longtime friend who has hired Edelman for such films as “Six Days, Seven Nights” and “Shanghai Noon.” “To write a theme that connects with the audience, it has to be emotional in some way. Randy is a very emotional writer.”
Edelman has done more than 100 films, including “Come See the Paradise” and “My Cousin Vinny,” but he has no burning desire to do another one. “Could I be coerced if it was a great picture? I guess so,” he says, with little enthusiasm.
The lyrics of one of those new songs, “21 Again,” hint at his reflective nature, now that he’s in his 70s: “I can look around and feel the change / how time has flown / all the passing years and memories… you can’t change now to then / you can’t be 21 again.”
“Waltzing on a High Wire” contains some of his most personal writing. “A Houseguest” tells the touching story of a bird who visits his studio every day. “The Glow of Life” is about children at Christmastime. “Nashville Salvo” confirms that “the music will be your salvation.” And the album concludes with a gorgeous instrumental titled “Lullaby for a Special Friend,” which the composer says is an elegy for a recently departed colleague in the music business.
For now, Edelman is back at the piano in his comfortable Beverly Hills studio working on a new album. In addition to his Carnegie Hall gig, he’s playing New York’s Lincoln Center next June 6. “I’m writing (songs), that’s the ball game for me, and I’m into it,” he says. “I’m having fun.”
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