Why Randy Newman Played on 1 of Mick Jagger’s Songs

TL;DR:

• Randy Newman played on one of Mick Jagger’s songs.
• The song was not a Rolling Stones track but it appeared on one of their albums.
• The track appeared in a classic movie from the 1970s.

While he’s most known for his work with The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger also released songs of his own. Notably, pop singer Randy Newman played on one of Jagger’s solo songs. While Jagger released the song without his band, the track eventually appeared on one of The Rolling Stones’ albums.

Mick Jagger wasn’t the 1st artist to record 1 of his solo songs

Russ Titelman is a songwriter and producer known for working on songs like The Monkees’ “I’ll Be True to You” and Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love.” During a 1996 interview with Billboard, he discussed the origin of Jagger’s song “Memo From Turner” from Performance, one of the first movies to feature Jagger in a major role.

Titelman worked with two notable musicians on “Memo from Turner.” “Actually, the core of the studio band on that record was Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, and myself, and it was recorded in Los Angeles at Western Studios,” he recalled.

“But Jagger wasn’t there during our sessions,” he added. “The band Traffic had done a recording of ‘Memo from Turner,’ but they [Jagger and producer Jack Nitzsche], didn’t like it. So we replaced their track, playing along to Jagger’s existing vocal and a clip track. I played the Keith Richards-sounding ‘jing-a-jing’ on rhythm guitar, and Ry Cooder did the slide guitar parts,” he said.

Chuck Berry inspired another song from the film

Titelman helped create another song for Performance. “And then Jack and I wrote ‘Gone Dead Train,’ and Randy Newman sang it, and we cut it live,” he said.

“They needed a song for the credits and Jack said he wanted to lyrically use all this voodoo and blues terminology for this story of this faded rock star, a burnt-out character who can’t get it up anymore,” he continued. “I saw the track part as Chuck Berry-like in feel but more raucous.”

How Mick Jagger’s ‘Memo from Turner’ performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Memo from Turner” was a single, but it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The song appeared on The Rolling Stones compilation album Metamorphosis. The album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart for 13 weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Memo from Turner” reached No. 32 in the United Kingdom, staying on the chart for five weeks. The Official Charts Company says Metamorphosis charted at No. 45 in the U.K. for a single week.

“Memo From Turner” is an interesting song from Jagger and it wouldn’t be the same without Newman.