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Randy Newman’s also a total one-off, isn’t he? His combination of romance and irony is really unusual. He’s a kind of romantic cynic, although I don’t really believe in the word cynic. He’s a realist. He sees the world as it is, and wishes it were better, but also recognises when it’s sad. Plus, his ability to spike and satirise is second to none.

‘I Love LA’ is a great song, but my favourite song, I think, is ‘My Life Is Good’, where the character, I think, is some extremely arrogant LA-based producer or a musician or someone who makes makey, whose life is protected by money from reality, and from any responsibility to care about other people. There’s a great bit when the teachers at the private school call him in because the kid’s been misbehaving, and to prove to her how wonderful he is and how his child couldn’t be involved in anything untoward, he goes into a spiel about who he was out with last night. Do you know where I was last night? You know who I met? I was hanging around with Mr Bruce Springsteen! And then he says, Bruce said to me… and the music then turns into a sort of dream sequence, where Bruce says, ‘Randy, how would you like to be the Boss for tonight?’ It’s bonkers, but it’s brilliant.

Randy Newman comes from a family of film composers, a heritage he mixes with ragtime and rock and roll, and to play all those styles and introduce a kind of ironic slant on modern life is astonishing. It’s also very difficult to be funny. I know that sounds like a silly thing to say, but to actually, genuinely be a serious musician who can also be humorous and really pull that off is tough. No one’s that funny. Apart from The Barron Knights, obviously.