Randy Newman

Reprise released the debut in April 1968, with Lenny Waronker and Van Dyke Parks producing. It is highly orchestral, unlike the rock-backed records that followed. It never entered the Billboard 200, and it was out of print for over 15 years until a 1995 CD remastered by Lee Herschberg. The single paired I Think It's Going to Rain Today with The Beehive State. Several of its songs had been recorded by others already: Julius LaRosa had cut Rain in 1966, Keith Shields had a single of Living Without You in 1967, The Brothers released Love Story that year, and Manfred Mann released So Long Dad.

Newman said he had thought an orchestra could move things along alone and that using drums seemed like cheating. Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums voted it number 716 in 2000, Pitchfork ranked it the 97th greatest album of the 1960s in 2017, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in the 2016 class. The Guardian ranks two of its songs, Love Story (You and Me) and Living Without You, in its list of his 20 greatest.