{"id":465156,"date":"2026-02-13T00:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/465156\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:12:09","slug":"this-1977-one-hit-wonder-regretted-his-novelty-song-that-resulted-in-multiple-death-threats-the-worst-kind-of-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/465156\/","title":{"rendered":"This 1977 One-Hit Wonder Regretted His \u201cNovelty\u201d Song That Resulted in Multiple Death Threats: \u201cThe Worst Kind of Hit\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few double-edged swords as paradoxical and regret-inducing as an artist who achieved great commercial success with a song they despised. This isn\u2019t exactly a rare occurrence in the musical world, making Randy Newman one entry on a long, long list of artists who hated their biggest songs. But the song Newman later regretted ever putting out wasn\u2019t his cheery Toy Story anthem, \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend in Me\u201d<\/a>. His biggest \u201cGod, I wish I hadn\u2019t done that\u201d moment came two decades earlier.<\/p>\n

Newman released \u201cShort People\u201d on his 1977 album, Criminals, as a way to poke fun at prejudice. By pinpointing a trait that hasn\u2019t historically been judged as harshly as, say, skin color or gender, Newman hoped to satirize the concept of judging other people based on how they look. But the problem with satire is that if someone doesn\u2019t pick up on the tongue-in-cheek humor, lyrics like \u201cshort people got no reason to live\u201d and \u201cThey wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet\u201d just seem shockingly mean.<\/p>\n

Despite (or perhaps because) of the controversial lyrics and its catchy groove, \u201cShort People\u201d became a commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was Newman\u2019s only Top 10 hit, garnering him the distinction of \u201cone-hit wonder\u201d as a solo artist, much to the songwriter\u2019s deep chagrin.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=9004111231710351&action=edit\n<\/p>\n

Randy Newman Called \u201cShort People\u201d the \u201cBad Break\u201d of His Career<\/p>\n

Despite his extensive work as a successful film composer, \u201cShort People\u201d was Newman\u2019s only song to hit the Top 10, garnering him the distinction of \u201cone-hit wonder,\u201d if you want to get technical. And while some one-hit wonders would consider their commercial success a big break, Newman would more likely call his a \u201cbad\u201d break. After he released his satire on prejudice in 1977, it became shockingly clear to Newman that not only did people completely misinterpret his message. But they were also incredibly angry at what they perceived to be total discrimination against people under five-foot-six-inches, even going so far as to send Newman death threats.<\/p>\n

The death threats became so concerning to Newman that his manager had to lie to make him feel better. \u201cMy manager at the time had been tour-managing The Carpenters, and he said they got death threats all the time. I said, \u2018All the time? Really?\u2019 He said that if they refused to come on every time they had a death threat, there would never be a show. So, I just went on and did it. Later, I learned the truth. The Carpenters had never had a death threat. But there it was. I survived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Newman came to regret putting the song out at all. \u201cIt was too bad that was my one big hit,\u201d he later told The Free Lance-Star<\/a>. \u201cA novelty record like The Chipmunks did. It was a hit that did me no good. That did me harm. A bad break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to Pete Paphides<\/a>, Newman said, \u201cIt was one of those hit records that actually makes you less popular.\u201d But we\u2019d argue his work on animated films of the 1990s helped earn back some public favor, even if it was with young millennials.<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are few double-edged swords as paradoxical and regret-inducing as an artist who achieved great commercial success with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,17172,151435],"class_list":{"0":"post-465156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-pop-music","11":"tag-randy-newman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}