Land of Dreams
Studio album by
Randy Newman
ReleasedSeptember 20, 1988
GenreRock
Length40:18
LabelReprise
ProducerJames Newton Howard, Jeff Lynne, Mark Knopfler, Tommy LiPuma
Randy Newman chronology
Trouble in Paradise
(1983) 		Land of Dreams
(1988) 		Randy Newman's Faust
(1995)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Robert ChristgauB+[2]
Rolling Stone[3]

Land of Dreams the eighth studio album by Randy Newman, Released in 1988, the album features vignettes of his childhood in New Orleans.

Reception

It placed 10th in the 1988 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.[4] "Whether or not ['Dixie Flyer' and 'New Orleans'] are simple autobiography, they're presented as such," wrote Greil Marcus, "and for a man who's always sung as a character actor, it's a shock".[5] While "Dixie Flyer" was the name of the train line mentioned in the lyrics,[6] "Dixie" was also the nickname of Adele "Dixie" Fuchs/Fox, Randy Newman's mother, who, as the song describes, came from a southern Jewish family.

Chart performance

The album's single "It's Money That Matters" rose to the top of the Mainstream Rock chart for two weeks (and peaked at #60 on the Hot 100), to become Newman's only number one hit on any U.S. chart; it features Mark Knopfler on guitar.[7] Prior to the album's release, the song "Something Special" was closing title music for the 1987 MGM production Overboard starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and was also featured in the trailer of the film Awakenings, for which Newman also wrote the music, and the piano bridge from the song "Dixie Flyer" would subsequently often be utilized as break or filler music, most notably on the Car Talk radio program. The song "Falling in Love" features in the credits to the 1989 Tom Selleck film Her Alibi and was used as the opening theme of the short-lived 1990 ABC sitcom, The Marshall Chronicles.

Track listing

All songs written by Randy Newman.

  1. "Dixie Flyer" – 4:10
  2. "New Orleans Wins the War" – 3:27
  3. "Four Eyes" – 3:34
  4. "Falling in Love" – 3:00
  5. "Something Special" – 3:07
  6. "Bad News from Home" – 2:45
  7. "Roll with the Punches" – 3:29
  8. "Masterman and Baby J" – 3:27
  9. "Red Bandana" – 2:35
  10. "Follow the Flag" – 2:15
  11. "It's Money That Matters" – 4:04
  12. "I Want You to Hurt Like I Do" – 4:07

Personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Land of Dreams
Chart (1988) Peak
position
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[8] 12
US Billboard 200[9] 88

References

  1. ^ AllMusic
  2. ^ Robertchristgau.com
  3. ^ "Land Of Dreams". Rolling Stone. 1988-10-20. Archived from the original on 2022-12-12.
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert (February 28, 1989). "The 1988 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  5. ^ Marcus, Greil (September 1988). "Real Life Rock Top 10". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  6. ^ Prince, Richard E. (1968). Louisville & Nashville Steam Locomotives. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. pp. 141, 158. ISBN 025333764X. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  7. ^ Randy Newman - "It's Money That Matters" (official video) on YouTube
  8. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Randy Newman – Land of Dreams". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  9. ^ "Randy Newman Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
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