Pop culture was 'part of his DNA': Remembering entertainment reporter Randy Cordova

Randy Cordova loved pop culture.

You could feel it in the joy he brought to writing about entertainment for The Arizona Republic, where he started as an editorial assistant in 1988, eventually working his way up to entertainment editor, the job he’d been preparing for his whole life.

It was more a calling than a job, as Cordova approached it with the enthusiasm of a fan and the encyclopedic knowledge of an avid reader who loved a good celebrity biography.

“You could see the glee in his eyes when he would get to do stories on his favorite artists,” Maura Saavedra Cordova, his wife of 14 years, recalls.

Cordova died Nov. 29, exactly four years after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain cancer. He was 55.

Randy Cordova joined The Republic while in college

Cordova grew up in Phoenix. He graduated from West High School (which closed in 1983) and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Arizona State University.

He joined The Republic while in college, writing obits and answering phones. He moved to the Features Department after working on the copy desk.

Cordova loved covering Latin music at a time when those artists were generally ignored by mainstream media.

He also taught journalism as an adjunct professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University for several years.

Cordova was promoted to a features editor in May 2018, a position he held until his cancer diagnosis required him to step away.

“He always wanted to go back to work but we would always tell him, ‘Your main job is to get better so focus on that,’” Maura says. “He missed it a lot. He was such a hard worker with such a strong work ethic that his mom drove into him.”

'He absorbed pop culture. It was part of his DNA'

Cordova loved the work he did.

“It brought him so much joy,” Maura says.

“He knew he had a good gig, but he earned it. He had deep insider knowledge that brought context to the culture he was writing about. Randy literally was born to do this job. He absorbed pop culture. It was part of his DNA.”

He even named his dogs after favorite celebrities — Trini after Trini Lopez, Connie after Connie Francis, Lou after a character Ed Asner played on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Lou Grant."

Maura says Grant, a news director at a fictional TV station on one show and a newspaper editor on the other, played a big role in Cordova’s decision to go into journalism.

Being an entertainment reporter allowed him to not only interview but also meet his favorite stars, from Sheena Easton and Elaine Paige to Frankie Laine, Melissa Manchester and Latin artists such as Vikki Carr, Sergio Dalma and Franco De Vita.

“They all wanted to meet him,” Maura says. “He was such a kind and thoughtful interviewer but very studied on their careers and music. They were frequently complimentary about his questions and often invited him backstage.”

Celebrities from Barbra Streisand to Marie Osmond admired his work

Celebrities often shared his articles on social media, including Barbra Streisand, who tweeted a link to his fascinating historical look at the filming of “A Star Is Born” in Arizona, writing, “Great piece @randy_cordova – thank you! B.”

He had a great relationship with Vikki Carr, one of his absolute faves.

“He saw her every time she performed in Phoenix and frequently interviewed her,” Maura says.

“He was a member of her fan club and wrote the liner notes for her CD ‘Vikki Carr - The Ultimate Collection’ (2006 box set). She always invited him backstage at her shows and they would catch up like old friends. He wanted to invite her to our wedding but I said no. I didn't want two receiving lines!”

When Abe Kwok, a colleague at The Republic, visited Cordova a month ago, his neighbor asked if she could come along.

Cordova had written two stories about Ryan Thomas Anderson, the woman’s son, who won $1 million in a Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" contest.

“She wanted to meet him in person and thank him,” says Kwok, editorial page planner at The Republic.

“I just thought it really underscored how he approached his beat. Randy wrote as a fan, as a witness celebrant of events. And it came through in his stories. He found common ground.”

When it came to pop culture, 'he kind of knew everything'

As much as he loved what he did for a living, Cordova was humble about how good he was at bringing out the best in his interview subjects with an empathy that often made it feel more like a conversation between childhood friends or capturing the essence of a great performance.

“He was confident about his knowledge but not in an arrogant way,” Maura says.

He loved studying Billboard charts and reading celebrity bios.

“He could cite dates and details off the top of his head,” Maura says. “His writing was an education for me. He knew how to write a good read, capturing the humanity of artists you wouldn't think much about. I also loved it when he hated something and would write the funniest critiques.”

Christine Elliott, a longtime friend and former colleague, says they bonded over all things ‘70s and ‘80s, especially ABBA.

“I could definitely match him in enthusiasm, but I could not match him at all in knowledge,” she says. “He kind of knew everything. He could talk about any type of music, any genre, beyond what I consider normal, even for a critic.”

She recalls the time they went to see an ABBA tribute at the Arizona State Fair.

“We had so much fun, but of course Randy knew that the women were not singing the appropriate part,” she recalls with a laugh.

“The one who was playing Agnetha, the blonde, was singing the parts of the other one. And Randy noticed that discrepancy. He was like, ‘This isn’t her solo.’ I’m certain he’s the only person in the building that noticed.”

More recently, the conversation somehow turned to Quarterflash.

“I don’t know how we got on the topic,” Elliot says.

“But I said, ‘I can only remember one song.’ And Randy, without even skipping a beat, rattled off three other songs. We’re not talking about the Beatles. We’re talking about Quarterflash. I think they were famous for about a year. But he knew all about it.”

Cordova's tastes were shaped in part by his grandmother

Cordova’s taste could gravitate toward music one might not associate with someone in his 50s, from Frankie Laine to “all the old white British ladies that he loved,” as Maura calls them.

“His mom was a single parent and worked nights at St. Joseph's Hospital, so his grandma frequently took care of him,” Maura says.

“She introduced him to singers like Petula Clark, Frankie Laine and Bobby Darin. She died when he was about 7, but her influence was life-lasting and launched his love of music from his grandma's generation.”

Kwok says, “He was just an … I say oddball in a really affectionate way. He had an old-time soul to him. He was just really into the arts in a wide-ranging and reflective way that cannot be pigeonholed.”

Robrt Pela, a fellow critic who wrote for Phoenix New Times for many years, came to rely on Cordova as a kindred spirit who shared his taste in music.

“Rita Coolidge put out a new record. I got on the phone with Randy because who the hell else was I gonna talk to about it?” he says.

“I could call him and say, ‘Did you get this press release about Steve and Eydie’s Christmas album being reissued?’ And he would be like ‘What do you think? Of course I did. And I’m as excited as you are.’ We were probably the only people in Maricopa County under 90 who cared that the Jack Jones Christmas record was getting reissued.”

He also came to trust Cordova’s willingness to say exactly how he felt about a record.

“I remember we waited almost two decades for Jennifer Warnes to record another album,” Pela says.

“I listened a few times and as the world’s biggest Jennifer Warnes fan, thought, ‘I don’t get it.’ I called Randy. He said, ‘Let me put it to you this way. I played it once, I took it out to the garage, I filed it under W and I’ll never have to listen to it again.’”

If they did disagree on a record, Cordova was always nice about it.

“He was very open to the notion that some of us just have these weird musical tastes and obsessions and that’s OK,” Pela says.

The Cordovas danced to Frankie Laine at wedding

The Cordovas were married on March 7, 2009, at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe.

“When he married her, it was like the nicest two people in the world getting together,” Elliott recalls. “Everybody was so happy. And Randy made sure there was plenty of ABBA on the playlist.”

Their first dance was to Frankie Laine’s “That’s My Desire.”

They even took lessons and learned how to foxtrot to do the song justice, Maura says.

“We chickened out at the last moment — we were too shy to foxtrot,” she says.

The Cordovas met in 1988 at The Republic.

“He was an editorial assistant, and I was a reporter,” Maura says.

“My friend told me to say hi to this new guy in the newsroom who was really nice and funny. We became fast friends. He made me laugh and was often educating me on his musical interests. Around the year 2000, I was teaching him how to golf and one thing led to another.”

Cordova’s sense of humor was a major selling point.

“He had a quirky and dry sense of humor,” Maura says.

“He was able to find humor in almost any situation, which usually was based on what he was observing at the time. He was unassuming and shy, but his humor drew people to him and made him the center of attention.”

They also bonded over their shared love of Amy Grant. The last concert they saw together was Grant at Chandler Center for the Arts.

Traveling for concerts was a big part of the couple's life

The Cordovas often planned vacations around concerts.

“Our honeymoon location was chosen based on Elaine Paige's concert schedule in the U.K,” Maura says.

“When I took him to visit my family in Mexico for the first time, I scheduled it during concert dates for Kylie Minogue and Manuel Mijares. Every vacation involved a show.”

They saw Petula Clark in San Diego and Los Angeles, and flew to Madrid to see Sergio Dalma in concert.

“I was able to get him backstage to meet him,” Maura says. “And then Sergio called out to him from the stage saying thank you to his fans from Arizona. That was a big deal for Randy.”

Their last trip together, after he was diagnosed, was to see his favorite film, “The Poseidon Adventure,” at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve 2019.

“That was really special because he hadn’t seen it on the big screen since he was a kid,” Maura says.

Cordova inspired fellow cancer patients: 'I want to be a Randy'

In July 2020, Cordova wrote about his cancer journey for the Ivy Brain Tumor Center blog, a deeply personal, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting account that opens with a reference to the TV series ‘This Is Us,” being careful to note that the character battling early signs of dementia was played by Mandy Moore.

“My husband and I were saying this morning, ‘Only Randy could work Robby Benson into a story about his cancer journey,’” Elliott says. “But he’s in there.”

Visiting the Cordovas, Elliott says she was struck by the positive energy they managed to maintain.

“You never walked away feeling discouraged,” she says.

“Everybody knew it was a terrible diagnosis but they were still Randy and Maura.”

Maura says they did allow themselves the occasional break from all that positivity.

“Sometimes we would feel sorry for ourselves, but I would always be like, ‘Only for 20 minutes,’” Maura says.

“We would just try to stay positive and move forward. I would try and insulate him with positive people. I really worked hard to make sure he was able to still enjoy life as much as possible. Randy’s essence was always still there.”

Lanette Veres is a brain cancer survivor who got to know Cordova through her work with Barrow Neurological Institute’s brain tumor support group.

“His inspiration was amazing because his diagnosis does not come with longevity,” she says. “And every hurdle he hit, he just continued to live and thrive and bring a smile to the calls. People who were newly diagnosed would say, ‘I want to be a Randy.’”

Cordova was concerned, she says, about what other people in the group would think as his condition changed.

“And I’m like, ‘Randy, you’re living. Trust me, these people are inspired by you.’ So he would show up even when he wasn’t feeling good. All of the sudden, this guy who was given this horrible prognosis was our inspiration. I’d have people signing in from other countries. And the first thing they’d say if they didn’t see him was, ‘Where’s Randy?’”

'Friends today are honoring him by playing Petula Clark's Downtown'

Veres was equally impressed with how the Cordovas faced this challenge as a couple.

“I can’t say enough about Maura,” she says. “I meet so many people. Wives leave husbands and husbands leave wives. This lady was amazing. She never left his side.”

As sad as Maura is to lose her best friend and travel companion, she’s thankful for the time they had together.

“I was so blessed and proud to be married to him,” she says. “I'd always tell him I can't believe I'm Mrs. Randy Cordova. Friends today are honoring him by playing Petula Clark's ‘Downtown.’ Randy lived each day to the fullest and pursued his interests with a passion. If he wanted to see something, he saw it. We had a great life, and he checked a lot off of his bucket list.”

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Republic entertainment writer-editor Randy Cordova dies at 55