You've Got a Friend in Me

"You've Got a Friend in Me" is a song written and first recorded by Randy Newman. Originally written as the for the 1995 Disney/ animated film ', it has since become the theme song for its sequels, ' (1999) and  (2010) as well as a musical  throughout the Toy Story franchise. The song was nominated for both the and the, but lost both to "" from Disney's .

Like many other Disney theme songs, "You've Got a Friend in Me" has been covered numerous times. Cover versions featured in the three ' films include a duet with Newman and Lyle Lovett in ', a version by and an instrumental by  in ', an  version by, and a  version by the  in '.

The song in the Toy Story franchise
The song is played during the opening credits for Toy Story and Toy Story 3, establishing the importance of Sheriff Woody and his owner Andy in the first film and the importance of all his toys in the third in addition to it doing the same in Toy Story 4 (albeit with some differences from the openings of these two installments of the series). Toy Story 3 also uses it for irony and dramatic effect, as the opening credits harken back to the first film and the song abruptly fades out with "As the years go by/Our friendship will never die", before showcasing that all of Andy's remaining toys in the present day are boxed up and unused.

In the two sequels, the song is listened to by the characters as part of the story. Two of these are cover versions done at the end of the film for thematic reasons: at the end of Toy Story 2, the character Wheezy starts to sing it to the other toys; during the end credits of Toy Story 3, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie (now a couple) perform a to a Spanish version of the song, deliberately played by Jessie to get Buzz to dance with her.

The most significant use of the song was in the third act of Toy Story 2, where an episode of Woody's Roundup (the In-Universe 1950s puppet show he was based on) shows the puppet Woody singing the song, directed at the young audience and featuring a small child hugging the puppet. Woody sees this and has an, realizing that his mission as a toy is to be there for a child. (In-universe, the song was presumably written for Woody's Roundup.)

The Woody's Roundup version was performed by Tom Hanks, with acoustic guitar backing; Wheezy's version was sung by (though the character was voiced by ); and the Spanish version, "You've Got a Friend in Me (Para el Buzz Español)", performed by the.

Appearances in Idea Wiki

 * The song appears in the Disney+ miniseries Planet Toys. It is played in the musical clip of the first episode "To Infinity and Beyond", and serves as the title for the second episode.
 * The song itself appears in Max and Roxanne: A Goofy Romantic Video Game as one of the many listenable songs that can be done so In-Universe throughout the entire Game itself. It also appears as a Ringtone (both in it's Vocal (Solo and Duet) and Instrumental forms) as well.