Taylor Swift Sings With Randy Newman, Performs New Single At Toy Story 5 Premiere

Earlier this spring, The New York Times published a huge package on the 30 greatest living American songwriters. Taylor Swift was in there, obviously. She sat for an interview, which basically turned her into the headliner for the entire thing. One person who was not on the list was Randy Newman, and that was certainly one of the more puzzling omissions. On Tuesday night, under the aegis of the Disney corporation, Taylor Swift and Randy Newman sang together.

On Friday, Taylor Swift released "I Knew It, I Knew You," the new song that she wrote for the forthcoming motion picture Toy Story 5. It's not her best work, and it's not exactly the return to country music that the early press materials promised, but it's still a Taylor Swift song from a Toy Story movie. It's a big deal simply by virtue of the fact that it exists. The song is currently projected to debut at #1 on next week's Billboard Hot 100, which will surprise absolutely nobody.

Last night, Taylor Swift appeared at the Toy Story 5 premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. She walked the red carpet and posed for photos with various cast members and Disney executives. After the screening, Swift gave a short surprise performance — her first time singing in front of people since her final Eras Tour date in Decembrer 2024. She did a solo-piano version of "I Knew It, I Knew You," and then she talked warmly about all the people who worked on the Toy Story movies, including Randy Newman.

Randy Newman has scored all five Toy Story films, and he's written original songs that play during those pictures' montage bits. It's one of the fascinating things about Newman — that he's this acidic critical-favorite singer-songwriter who also has this vast cultural footprint for the work-for-hire stuff he did on kids' movies. Sometimes, Newman sings his own Toy Story songs, and sometimes a ringer like Sarah McLachlan or Chris Stapleton steps in on lead vocals. Unless I'm forgetting something, "I Knew It, I Knew You" is the first original Toy Story song that was not written by Newman.

At last night's premiere, Swift spoke warmly about Randy Newman, and he joined her onstage. The two of them performed "You've Got A Friend In Me," his song from 1995's original Toy Story. Newman, now 82, has had health issues lately, and he doesn't perform very often these days; this was his first time playing in front of people since he was on John Mulaney's Everybody's Live last year. Swift sort of did a Newman impression while singing the song, but it's hard to sing that song without doing that. There was some cute repartee in there, too. Watch a fan video below.

In other news, Tom Hanks, the voice of Woody, says that his first exposure to "I Knew It, I Knew You" was "like hearing Judy Garland sing 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' for the first time." OK, relax, Tom Hanks.