See the Song About Utah Made by This Popular Artist

In a list of “50 Famous Songs About Every State” put out by Newsweek, the song about Utah was one I never heard of even though it was done by a famous artist and composer. I felt I was watching a Pixar movie when I listened to it.

Randy Newman Has Won an Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy

You may not be familiar with the details of Randy Newman’s career but you do know his work. Picture Woody and Buzz and start humming “You Got a Friend in Me” or “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monster’s Inc. and now you know who he is.

As you can imagine, when I pulled up the song “The Beehive State” by Randy Newman that was listed as the famous song about Utah, I immediately recognized the voice. This song may not be on your Spotify playlist, but maybe it should be.

Is this the most famous song about Utah? Photo by Taylor Brandon on Unsplash

The setting seems to be in the United States Congress where the representatives from Kansas and Utah are addressing the assembly. Here’s the 4th and 5th verses about Utah:

[Verse 4]

I see the gentleman from Utah
Our friendly Beehive state
How can we help you, Utah?
How can we make you great?

[Verse 5]
Well, we got to irrigate our deserts
We've got to get some things to grow
And we got to tell this country about Utah
'Cause nobody seems to know

This is all sung in Randy’s folksy style that we have become familiar with in movies.

Randy Newman Album Wasn’t a Commercial Success at First

His debut album was released in 1968 named “Randy Newman” and wasn’t well received. However, other artists began to cover his songs and eventually it was remastered and is now considered one of the best 1000 albums ever made.

It is kind of amazing to go through songs by Randy Newman that we all recognize. He has written so many songs for movies that it is worth looking up his catalog. My new favorite is the one about Utah.