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Song of the Day #4,476: ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ – Randy Newman

Continuing my countdown of every Pixar movie…

#12. Finding Dory (2016)
(up two spots from previous ranking)

Pixar’s best non-Toy Story sequel, Finding Dory worked even better the second time around.

Dory was played for comic relief, with a hint of melancholy, in the first film, but this one digs into the trauma her condition would understandably cause. The movie plays similar heartstrings as its predecessor, with Dory’s parents’ commitment to finding her mirroring Marlin’s determination to find Nemo.

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Song of the Day #4,475: ‘Why Don’t You Write Me’ – Simon & Garfunkel

One of the more disposable tracks from Simon & Garfunkel’s classic 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water, ‘Why Don’t You Write Me’ falls on Side Two after the excellent trio of ‘The Boxer,’ ‘Baby Driver’ and ‘The Only Living Boy in New York.’

An early Paul Simon experiment with reggae that hinted at his future exploration of world music, this track has mistakenly been lumped in with ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’ as a reference to Art Garfunkel leaving for Mexico to film Catch-22 during the beginning stages of the album.

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Song of the Day #4,474: ‘Leavin” – Shelby Lynne

Shelby Lynne won the Best New Artist Grammy in 2001, the year she released her best album, I Am Shelby Lynne.

Lynne had released five albums prior to this one, and had been recording for more than a decade. The criteria for the Best New Artist awards is this: “For a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist.”

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Song of the Day #4,473: ‘Carried Me With You’ – Brandi Carlile

Continuing my countdown of every Pixar movie…

#14. Onward (2020)
(up one spot from previous ranking)

Pixar’s most recent release was a pleasant surprise, given a marketing campaign that promised a lightweight kiddie flick (not that there’s anything wrong with a lightweight kiddie flick — and Onward is one, to an extent). In its final act, the movie finds surprising emotional depth in the story of two brothers on a quest to magically reunite with their dead father.

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Song of the Day #4,472: ‘Ride’ – ZZ Ward feat. Gary Clark Jr.

Continuing my countdown of every Pixar movie…

#16. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
(down four spots from previous ranking)

I don’t have anything bad to say about Monsters, Inc. yet it slipped to a rather low position relative to the rest of Pixar’s lineup.

I love the imagination that went into Monstropolis, and the whole idea of an economy that runs on the bureaucratic collection of children’s screams. And as I wrote in yesterday’s post, Billy Crystal and John Goodman turn in winning performances.

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