Taylor Swift Shares How Randy Newman Inspired Her Own ‘Toy Story’ Song

Taylor Swift didn’t take the opportunity to write a song for the Toy Story 5 soundtrack lightly. In June, the superstar made her big country music return with the evocative single.

“It really hit me the weight of this, how lucky we were to get to take up what Randy Newman has created and and continue that legacy,” Swift said on American Country Countdown with Ryan Fox, referring to the country single “I Knew It, I Knew You,”which she and Jack Antonoff wrote for the film. “I just thought we’re gonna take these beautiful tapestries of musical art he’s created brushstroke by brushstroke, and we’re gonna try to create something that would go in that collection.”

Swift continued: “I’m a huge Randy Newman fan, so is Jack. Randy tends to go to really different kind of chord progressions and has very different musical sensibilities than I do. So we try to channel that, you know, what would Randy do.”

The singer-songwriter joined Newman onstage at the Toy Story 5 premiere in June and performed the acclaimed composer’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” Newman took over the keys as the pair swapped vocals, his voice as tender and warm as ever.

Y’all Access with Kelly Sutton also aired an audio message from Swift, where she further discussed the wistful single. The superstar’s rare appearance across country radio comes after she returned to the genre with “I Knew It, I Knew You,” and has been cozying up to country radio once more. Before the release of the single, Swift reportedly met with a bunch of country radio programmers to preview the song. It may have just been industry-level hobnobbing, but it’s hard to imagine it was required in this situation. As RJ Curtis, executive director of Country Radio Broadcasters Inc., told Rolling Stone earlier this year, “I have said for a while now that given the right song, country radio will support her again and welcome her back with open arms, and it looks like she delivered in a huge way.”

Notably, “I Knew It, I Knew You” was an immediate hit on country radio. It topped the Hot Country Songs chart and reached Number Eight on the Country Airplay chart. (And hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100.) It even made history when it became the first song by a woman to close out the panel on impact, meaning, every country radio station reporting to Mediabase signed on to play the song in the first week. In a note shared in the industry trade Country Aircheck, Swift wrote, “Man, it’s been a while! Thank you for making history with me. To infinity and beyond.”