The song is played during the opening credits for Toy Story,Toy Story 3, and Toy Story 4, establishing the importance of Woody and Andy in the first film and the importance of all his toys in the third and fourth. 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 showing that Andy's remaining toys in the present day are boxed up and unused. When they were unused, Andy was 17 years old. In Toy Story 4, the song is heard during the opening montage, that features Andy playing with Woody, giving him to Bonnie as a teenager, and Bonnie playing with him, but soon starting to neglect him. In two sequels, the song is listened to by the characters as part of the story, as 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 perform a pasodoble to a Spanish version of the song, deliberately played by Jessie to get Buzz to dance. The most significant use of the song was in the third act of Toy Story 2, where an episode of Woody's Roundup 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 epiphany, realizing that his mission as a toy is to be there for a child. The Woody's Roundup version was performed by Tom Hanks, with acoustic guitar backing; Wheezy's version was sung by Robert Goulet ; and the Spanish version, "You've Got a Friend in Me ", was performed by the Gipsy Kings.
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Cover versions
Michael Bublé covered "You've Got a Friend in Me" on his 2013 album, To Be Loved. The track became a U.S. Adult Contemporary chart hit, spending 14 weeks on the chart and peaking at number 10.
On May 31, 2018, Rex Orange County released a cover of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, performing along with Randy Newman, the creator of the song.
In 2006, Steve Tyrell and Dr. John did a duet of the song on Tyrell's CD "The Disney Standards".
An instrumental remix of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” plays in the Toy Box world of Kingdom Hearts III, arranged by Yoko Shimomura and released in 2019.
A remix of "You've Got a Friend in Me" was released on 22 April, 2014 by Alfred Montejanhyper on the remix album "Dconstructed".
On December 13, 2019, a cover by Cavetown was published on YouTube and released all streaming platforms.
