Mama Told Me Not to Come

Newman wrote it first for Eric Burdon, and Eric Burdon and the Animals put it on their 1967 album Eric Is Here. Newman's own version is on 12 Songs (1970), where it runs 2:12 and features Ry Cooder's slide guitar, with Lenny Waronker producing. He has said it was inspired by his own lighthearted reflection on the Los Angeles music scene of the late 1960s. In 2017 he described it as a guy going to a party who is a little scared, and said the piano lick kicked it off.

Three Dog Night's version topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. Tom Jones and the Stereophonics took it to number four in Britain in 2000. Newman put out a live version on Randy Newman Live in 1971, and the Guardian ranked the song 14th among his greatest. Christgau noted that Newman opened The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 3 with Short People and this song.