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Toy Story (soundtrack)

album by Randy Newman

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ10383906 ↗
Source-derived summary

Toy Story is the soundtrack album for the 1995 Disney/Pixar animated film Toy Story, with music composed, conducted, orchestrated, arranged, and performed by Randy Newman. The soundtrack includes the film score, as well as three original songs written and performed by Newman. It was released by Walt Disney Records on November 22, 1995, the week of the film's release, and the first soundtrack album from a Pixar film.

The soundtrack for Toy Story received praise for its "sprightly, stirring score". It received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score and Best Original Song ("You've Got a Friend in Me"). Despite the film's critical success, the soundtrack peaked at number 94 on the Billboard 200. A cassette and CD single release of "You've Got a Friend in Me" was released on April 12, 1996, to promote the soundtrack's release.

After it went out of print, the album was made available for purchase digitally in retailers such as iTunes. The soundtrack, along with Newman's complete unreleased score for the film was remastered and reissued on July 17, 2015, as the tenth entry of The Legacy Collection series.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Toy Story (soundtrack)” as album by Randy Newman. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Story, soundtrack and album.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1995, 1996, 2015—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1995. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Story, soundtrack and album providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Toy Story (soundtrack)”, the useful work is to connect “album by Randy Newman” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10383906. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995, 1996 and 2015.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Toy Story (soundtrack)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Toy Story (soundtrack) primary sources, Toy Story (soundtrack) archive and Story research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Toy Story (soundtrack)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Toy Story (soundtrack)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.