Andrew Gold

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Andrew Gold (born Andrew Maurice Gold, August 2, 1951, Burbank, California) is an American singer, musician and songwriter, best known in his homeland for his 1977 Top 10 single "Lonely Boy" and the 1978 single "Thank You for Being a Friend." His best known solo single in the UK is "Never Let Her Slip Away", which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart in 1978. It also reached number 5 again, 14 years later, in a cover version by UK dance act Undercover.

He has the singular distinction of being the first human voice to be 'heard' on the surface of Mars: his rendition of the theme from the television series Mad About You, entitled "Final Frontier," was used as the wake-up call for the Mars Pathfinder space probe in 1996.^[1]

Career

A prolific session musician, Gold joined the family business: his mother is singer Marni Nixon (who provided the singing voice for numerous well-known actresses, notably Natalie Wood, Deborah Kerr, and Audrey Hepburn), his father was the late Academy Award-winning composer Ernest Gold. He has two younger sisters: Martha, born in 1953 and Melani, born in 1962.

Gold began writing songs at the age of 13, and by the early 1970s was working as a musician, songwriter and producer for many well-known stars, including Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkel, and James Taylor. He was a member of the Los Angeles band Bryndle alongside Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff. He played a major role as multi-instrumentalist and arranger for Ronstadt's breakthrough album, 1974's Heart Like a Wheel. Among other accomplishments, he played the guitar solo and the majority of other instruments on the album's first track, "You're No Good," Ronstadt's only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1975 Gold began recording as a solo artist, releasing four studio albums. His single "Lonely Boy" has appeared in several movie soundtracks, including Boogie Nights (1997). Although "Lonely Boy" was the bigger radio hit, "Thank You for Being a Friend" gained new popularity as the theme song for the popular 1985–1992 NBC situation comedy The Golden Girls (although that version was not performed by Gold but by Cindy Fee). In the UK Gold is better known for the song "Never Let Her Slip Away", which is still played on oldies radio stations. For a brief period, "Thank You for Being a Friend" was linked to the hoax Yorkshire Ripper tapes, as a 22 second snippet of the song was played at the end of one of the cassettes sent to Yorkshire Police.^{[citation needed]}

In 1977, one of his projects was working with Eric Carmen, Jeff Porcaro and the Beach Boys, playing guitar on Carmen's album, Boats Against the Current, including the hit "She Did It", which was a #23 hit that same year.^[2]

Later, Gold played on and co-produced three tracks on 10cc's 1981 album Ten Out of 10. In 1983 when 10cc disbanded Andrew formed Wax with former 10cc member Graham Gouldman. Wax enjoyed moderate success and had several top 10 hit singles including ' Right Between the Eyes', 'Bridge to Your Heart' and 'Shadows Of Love'. During the 1990's Andrew once again joined forces with old mates Karla Bonoff, Wendy Waldman and Kenny Edwards to re-form Bryndle and release their first album. He played keyboards on "Johnny Can't Read" for Don Henley's solo debut album I Can't Stand Still. He appeared twice with his family on Family Feud, on the daytime version in 1990 and the syndicated version in 1991, and on the relationship show Bedroom Buddies with his wife in 1992. He has also produced and written songs for numerous movie and television soundtracks. He also sang "The Final Frontier", the theme song for the 1990s Paul Reiser/Helen Hunt sitcom Mad About You. He also produced seven albums for Eikichi Yazawa, a famous Japanese rock/pop singer.

Discography

Albums

• 1975 Andrew Gold
• 1976 What's Wrong With This Picture?

• includes "Lonely Boy"

• 1978 All This And Heaven Too

• includes "Never Let Her Slip Away" and "Thank You for Being a Friend"

• 1979 Whirlwind
• 1996 ...Since 1951
• 1996 Andrew Gold's Halloween Howls
• 1997 Thank You for Being a Friend — The Best of Andrew Gold
• 2000 The Spence Manor Suite
• 2002 Intermission
• 2009 Copy Cat

Singles

• 1975 "Heartaches in Heartaches"
• 1976 "Do Wah Diddy"
• 1976 "One Of Them Is Me"
• 1976 "Stay"
• 1976 "That's Why I Love You" #68 U.S.
• 1977 "Lonely Boy" #7 U.S.
• 1978 "How Can This Be Love"
• 1978 "I'm On My Way"
• 1978 "Thank You for Being a Friend" #25 U.S.
• 1978 "Never Let Her Slip Away" #67 U.S.

(Note - Some of these singles were released as promo copies only)

References

External links

• Andrew Gold home page