Perhaps Newman's biggest selling cover song, due to its inclusion on Barbara Streisand's multi-million selling album Stoney End (Columbia 30378), was the bluesy-ragtime "Let Me Go." While Newman professes little love for the cover, the song itself (originally penned for an obscure 1971 film, The Pursuit Of Happiness) has an indelible melody and affectingly downbeat lyric: "Don't hold me up/When you think you see me falling/I've been waiting so long to fall" -- it may be Streisand's occasionally histronic interpretation (Newman plays piano on the cut) that sticks in his side. There have been far worse covers (and songs). A slow, Dixie-horn laced reading by the Box Tops also rates a listen (on Bell single 923). Newman's definitive version appears over the film's credits; neither a commercial soundtrack nor his studio recording of the song have been issued to date.
Though suffering from a bass-heavy mix, Singer Frankie Laine's 45-only cover of "Take Her" (Columbia 42884) shows Newman taking a new tack lyrically -- dropping a two-timing lover: "Take her/She's mine/She's your baby/I resign/I'll pray, for I will be/If you would take her away from me." While Randy is kind enough to add "Just treat her tenderly/'Cause you know that little girl means the whole world to me," Laine's punch-the-clock performance makes it seem irrelevant. No other known covers exist.