Life and career

Edelman was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, the son of a first-grade teacher and an accountant. He attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before heading to New York where he played piano in Broadway pit orchestras. He produced several solo albums of songs (some of which were later recorded by The Carpenters ("I Can't Make Music", "Piano Picker" and "You"), Barry Manilow ("Weekend in New England"), "If Love Is Real" from Olivia Newton-John's Making a Good Thing Better, Dionne Warwick, The Laughter and the Tears, Blood Sweat and Tears, Blue Street, and many others before moving to Los Angeles. It was there where Edelman started to work in television and film scoring while producing his solo albums which found cult following in the UK, Europe, and Japan.

Musical scores

One of his first film scores was for the 1973 movie Executive Action, which put forward a conspiracy theory concerning the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963. In the mid-1980s, Edelman wrote the theme to, and scored many episodes of MacGyver, a popular television series starring Richard Dean Anderson.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, he also collaborated with Ivan Reitman, producing scores for several of his comedies, including Ghostbusters II, Twins and Kindergarten Cop. He also contributed to Beethoven, The Last of the Mohicans, The Mask, Daylight, Anaconda, xXx, Gettysburg, My Cousin Vinny, While You Were Sleeping, Dragonheart, Shanghai Noon, Six Days Seven Nights, The Indian in the Cupboard, Billy Madison, Angels in the Outfield, and EDtv to name just a few.

Edelman was honored with the Richard Kirk Award at the 2003 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. In 2004 he received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the University of Cincinnati. He was given the degree along with three other honorees distinguished in various other fields, including Coretta Scott King.

He produced the scores for the 2008 film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. This score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London where in 2010 Randy also recorded and composed the Irish flavored music score for Amy Adams film Leap Year.He was awarded the Goldspirit Award (named in honor of Jerry Goldsmith) for best comedy score of 2011 for the Leap Year soundtrack CD on Varese Sarabande.

Scores reused elsewhere

While some of the films scored by Edelman were not commercial successes, the music was often reused elsewhere. Themes he wrote for Dragonheart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (particularly the movie's love theme Bruce and Linda), Gettysburg and other films have been widely used in television advertising, film trailers, Disney movies including Mulan, and during the Academy Awards. In particular, the rousing yet heartwarming theme of Dragon, featured in "The Premiere of THE BIG BOSS" and "The Dragon's Heartbeat" have become synonymous with tear-jerking films of bittersweet yet triumphant rises to glory, featuring prominently in trailers of films like Patch Adams, The Truman Show, In Love and War and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone film. Themes from his score for Come See the Paradise have been used in film trailers more than cues from any other film soundtrack.

NBC Sports

His music from The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. is featured during NBC's Olympic Games coverage when announcing upcoming events. In addition, it was used during NBC's coverage of the 1997 World Series. At the end of the 1996 Summer Olympics, it used the closing music of Gettysburg. In the 1990s, Edelman composed the popular theme music for NBC's NFL telecasts which was used for the 1995-97 seasons through Super Bowl XXXII.

Personal life

Edelman has been married to singer Jackie DeShannon since June 3, 1976. DeShannon is known for such 1960s hits as "When You Walk in the Room", "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" and "What the World Needs Now Is Love". Edelman is DeShannon's second husband and they have a son, Noah D. Edelman.

Musical Discography (As Artist and Songwriter)

Charted Solo Singles

• "Everybody Wants to Find a Bluebird" (March 1975) - #92 US / #18 AC (US)
• "Concrete and Clay" (March 1976) - #11 AC (US), No. 11 UK - cover version of the hit for the British pop group Unit 4 + 2
• "Uptown Uptempo Woman" (September 1976) - No. 25 UK
• "You" (January 1977) - No. 49 UK
• "Nobody Made Me" (July 1982) - No. 60 UK

Solo Albums

• Randy Edelman - MGM Records, 1972 (LP)
• The Laughter and the Tears - MGM Records, 1972 (LP)
• Outside In - MGM Records, 1972 (LP)
• Prime Cuts - 20th Century Records, 1974 (LP and CD)
• Farewell Fairbanks - 20th Century Records, 1975 (LP and CD)
• If Love is Real - Arista Records, 1977 (LP and CD)
• You're the One - Arista Records, 1979 (LP and CD)
• Up-town Up-tempo, The Best Of Randy Edelman - 20th Century Records, 1979 (LP)
• On Time - Rocket Records, 1982 (LP)
• Randy Edelman and his Piano - PRT Records, 1984 (LP and CD)
• Switch of the Seasons - PRT Records (Polar), 1985 (LP)
• Up-town Up-tempo Woman (Compilation) - Warwick Reflection Records, 1987 (CD)
• And His Piano ... The Very Best of Randy Edelman - Revola/Cherry Red Records, 2003 (CD)
• The Pacific Flow To Abbey Road - Cherry Red (UK) / Varese Sarabande (US), 2011 (CD)

Partial list of artists who have covered Edelman's songs (both music and lyrics):

• Barry Manilow - Weekend in New England (#10, US)
• The Carpenters - I Can't Make Music, You, Piano Picker
• Labelle - Isn't it a Shame
• Olivia Newton John - If Love is Real
• Nelly - My Place
• Dionne Warwick - You are the Sunlight, I am the Moon, The Laughter and Tears, Give a Little Laughter
• Blood Sweat and Tears - Blue Street
• Jackie DeShannon - Sunny Days, Let the Sailors Dance
• Agnetha Faltskog (of ABBA) - Turn The World Around
• The Fifth Dimension - Everybody Wants to Call You Sweetheart
• Kool and the Gang - Amore Amore
• Bing Crosby - The Woman On Your Arm
• Shirley Bassey - Isn't It a Shame
• Nancy Wilson - The Laughter and the Tears
• Rosemary Clooney - You
• Petula Clark - Make a time for Lovin'

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1972	Outside In	Allen Baron G.D. Spradin
1973	Snatched	Sutton Roley	Television film
	Executive Action	David Miller
	Blood Sport	Jerrold Freedman	Television movie
1983	When Your Lover Leaves	Jeff Bleckner	Television film
1984	A Doctor's Story	Peter Levin	Television film
1985	Scandal Sheet	David Lowell Rich	Television film
	Happily Ever After	Bill Melendez	Television movie
1987	The Chipmunk Adventure	Janice Karman
	Dennis the Menace	Doug Rogers	Television film
1988	Feds	Daniel Goldberg
	Twins	Ivan Reitman
1989	Troop Beverly Hills	Jeff Kanew
	Ghostbusters II	Ivan Reitman
1990	Quick Change	Howard Franklin Bill Murray
	Come See the Paradise	Alan Parker
	Kindergarten Cop	Ivan Reitman
1991	Drop Dead Fred	Ate de Jong
	V.I. Warshawski	Jeff Kanew
	Eyes of an Angel	Robert Harmon
	Shout	Jeffrey Hornaday
1992	My Cousin Vinny	Jonathan Lynn
	Taking Back My Life: The Nancy Ziegenmeyer Story	Harry Winer	Television film
	Beethoven	Brian Levant
	The Last of the Mohicans	Michael Mann
	The Distinguished Gentleman	Jonathan Lynn
1993	Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story	Rob Cohen
	Gettysburg	Ronald F. Maxwell
	Beethoven's 2nd	Rod Daniel
1994	Greedy	Jonathan Lynn
	Angels in the Outfield	William Dear
	The Mask	Chuck Russell
	Pontiac Moon	Peter Medak
1995	Billy Madison	Tamra Davis
	Citizen X	Chris Gerolmo	Television film
	Tall Tale	Jeremiah S. Chechik
	While You Were Sleeping	Jon Turteltaub
	The Indian in the Cupboard	Frank Oz
	The Big Green	Holly Goldberg Sloan
1996	Down Periscope	David S. Ward
	Diabolique	Jeremiah S. Chechik
	The Quest	Jean-Claude Van Damme
	Dragonheart	Rob Cohen
	Daylight	Rob Cohen
1997	Anaconda	Luis Llosa
	Gone Fishin'	Christopher Cain
	Leave It to Beaver	Andy Cadiff
	For Richer or Poorer	Bryan Spicer
1998	Six Days Seven Nights	Ivan Reitman
1999	EDtv	Ron Howard
	The Hunley	John Gray	Television film
2000	Passion of Mind	Alan Berliner
	The Whole Nine Yards	Jonathan Lynn
	The Skulls	Rob Cohen
	Shanghai Noon	Tom Dey
2001	Head over Heels	Mark Waters
	China: The Panda Adventure	Robert M. Young
	Osmosis Jones	Farrelly brothers
	Who Is Cletis Tout?	Chris Ver Wiel
	Corky Romano	Rob Pritts
	Black Knight	Gil Junger
2002	A Season on the Brink	Robert Mandel
	Frank McKlusky, C.I.	Arlene Sanford
	xXx	Rob Cohen
2003	National Security	Dennis Dugan
	Shanghai Knights	David Dobkin
	Gods and Generals	Ronald F. Maxwell
2004	Connie and Carla	Michael Lembeck
	Surviving Christmas	Mike Mitchell
2005	Son of the Mask	Lawrence Guterman
2006	The Last Time	Michael Caleo
2007	Underdog	Frederik Du Chau
	Balls of Fury	Robert Ben Garant
2008	27 Dresses	Anne Fletcher
	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	Rob Cohen
2010	Leap Year	Anand Tucker
2011	The Greening of Whitney Brown	Peter Skillman Odiorne
2015	The Boy Next Door	Rob Cohen
	Leaves of the Tree	Ante Novakovic

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1983	Ryan's Four	6 episodes
1984	CBS Schoolbreak Special	episode: All the Kids Do It
1985-87	MacGyver	seasons 1-2
1986	Mr. Sunshine	episode: Pilot
1988	ABC Afterschool Special	episode: A Family Again
1993	The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	episode: Pilot
2006	The Ten Commandments	miniseries

[ Source: Wikipedia ]